Even if you don’t play Wordle, chances are that you’ve heard of it. The trending word game has become a fan favourite, helping people start their mornings with a little brain teaser.

The game is hosted by The New York Times; open their website every day and take a stab at the game. How it works is that you guess a five-letter word, and the game gives you feedback about whether your letters are right or wrong. Green means the right letter in the right place and yellow means the right letter in the wrong place. 

Studies suggest that games like Wordle are a great stimulation activity that promote brain function and help prevent dementia and cognitive decline.

“These types of activities are protective of cognitive function, and the more different kinds of activities you do, and the more difficult they are, the better off you are,” says Dr Amy Sanders, neurologist and medical director of the Hartford Healthcare Memory Care Center, in the USA.

Research shows that playing Wordle increase grey matter and improve connections between neurons in brain regions. However, just maintaining your physical fitness, for your brain to grow and stay healthy, you need to continue to challenge it. Playing Wordle is addictive in a good way and has a positive impact on brain health.

In addition to the rush of joy from success, people find Wordle addictive because of the challenge of six limited attempts. This feeling is amplified when we cannot solve the daily Wordle in the given number of guesses. Our brains can't stand losing, and we resolve that feeling of anger by trying again tomorrow.

Dr. Jessica Caldwell, a neuropsychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio says that there is no minimum time that you need to spend solving word puzzles each day. It matters more that you are playing them on a regular basis. The games also need to provide a challenge, so if a particular game becomes too easy, experts say you need to switch it up.

“In order to keep your memory and your thinking sharp, the key is really challenge and learning,” Dr Caldwell said. “Those are the only ways that you’re actually exercising your brain, you’re growing new neural pathways, you’re supporting the old neural pathways, so the key is you can’t just be ‘busy.’”

That all makes perfect sense: just like exercising your body, you need to exercise your brain. Interestingly, this journalist has experienced a different benefit from playing Wordle – increased social connection that comes from sharing World results with friends and family. 

There is not enough credit given to all the games that can foster a level of connection. Playing Wordle has helped me to connect daily with my siblings. We enjoy a little bit of friendly competition, always congratulating each other on our successes.

My brother lives in Sydney and my sister way down the coast, so we don’t see each other as often as we’d like, but the ease of sharing our daily Wordle stats has really helped us to connect.

Ultimately, all games are social. This is true even when the game is single player, like Wordle, or even perhaps a newspaper crossword! Through simple design, it’s easy to share your Wordle wins and losses. The user interface also lets you share how you came to determine the day’s word. Wordle’s design creates a “shared experience” you can use to engage others in conversation and build connections.