Mental Health

Busy People Have Better Memories, Sharper Brains, Says New Study

By Megha Kedia | Update Date: May 18, 2016 06:33 AM EDT

People who are workaholics and keep themselves busy have better memories, a new study claims. According to the research study, busy people score better on memory, information processing and reasoning tests as compared to less busy ones.

"There hasn't been much scientific research on busyness itself, although it's something that we talk about so often," said Sara Festini, a researcher with the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas and lead author of the study, according to Smithsonian Mag.

"So we wanted to look at the relationship of a generally very busy lifestyle to cognition."

For the purpose of the study, Festini along with her team of researchers examined 330 healthy women and men between ages 50 and 89 from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study.

 The participants were asked questions such as "How often do you have too many things to do each day to actually get them all done?" and  "How often do you have so many things to do that you go to bed later than your regular bedtime?" to rate their "busyness" levels.

The research team also asked the participants to perform some tests that gauged their memory, information processing speed, reasoning and vocabulary.

Overall, the study found that people with higher levels of busyness had superior brain processing speed, working memory, reasoning, and vocabulary compared to their less busy peers, according to Medical Daily.

"We show that people who report greater levels of daily busyness tend to have better cognition, especially with regard to memory for recently learned information," said Festini, reported Daily Mail.

However, Festini and her colleagues have warned that the results don't prove that "busyness" is good for brain. It's possible that sharper people may seek out more mental stimulation. These people may also have more resources, such as higher incomes, that allow them to lead active lives.

Debra Fleishman, a professor of neurological and behaviorial sciences at Rush University Medical Center, said that some other important factors such as income, occupation, ethnicity and race can influence accessibility to resources that support an active lifestyle.

The study titled "The Busier the Better: Greater Busyness Is Associated with Better Cognition" was published in the May 17 online issue of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

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