Fang-tastic Cognitive Benefits to Halloween

By Michelle Yang

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Spooky season is now upon us! Whether you’re planning on cozying up on the couch for a Halloween movie marathon or rolling up your sleeves for a pumpkin carving competition, there are so many ways to get in on the fun.

Did you know that there are also some fang-tastic cognitive benefits to Halloween? Keep reading to learn more about how engaging in Halloween festivities can actually improve your brain health!

1. Creativity

Activities such as assembling a Halloween costume, putting up decorations around the house, or carving pumpkins allow us to tap into our creative sides. Being creative enhances neuroplasticity, which is our brain’s ability to adapt and create new connections based on our environment.

2. Problem Solving

Navigating through a corn maze or figuring out how to put together the perfect costume with your current wardrobe encourages you to face problems head-on and find a solution.

Developing these problem-solving skills can improve your executive function, which is your ability to plan, control and organize thoughts and make decisions. This includes working memory, which is the ability to hold and manipulate information in your brain.

3. Social connection

Halloween is also an opportunity to connect with the people around you. This could involve chatting with your neighbours when you go trick or treating, or meeting up with some friends to go to a Halloween event in town. Social isolation is a risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline. In contrast, research suggests that those with larger social networks have better cognitive health. This may be because these larger social networks open up the opportunity for new experiences that can be cognitively stimulating.

4. Healthy fear and stress reduction

Fear often gets a bad reputation for increasing stress, hindering memory, and impairing decision-making. However, when we engage in healthy fear-response cycles, this can actually be beneficial to us. Healthy fear-response cycles involve encountering a scary situation, responding to it, and processing it as something in the past. An example of this could be making your way through a haunted house and feeling a sense of relief when you make it out on the other side. When we are able to effectively move from a fearful state to a relaxed state, this decreases our stress. In fact, there is a study that shows that horror fans can exhibit greater resilience and coping strategies to face situations.

5. Exercise

Halloween activities can be a great way to get your steps in! Take a walk around your neighbourhood to admire the Halloween decorations, meander through a corn maze, or organize a trick-or-treating outing. Exercise is a protective measure against cognitive decline. It can also improve your mood and decrease your risk of anxiety and depression.

6. Dark chocolate

Believe it or not, some of those sweet treats during Halloween can actually be good for your brain! Dark chocolate contains something called polyphenols, which can improve the blood flow in your brain. Some studies have suggested that this can improve memory in the short term and concentration during tasks.

So? What are you waiting for? The options are endless. Let this be your sign to embrace the spirit of Halloween, while reaping some brain benefits!

References:

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