How fast you respond to external stimuli can make the difference between victory and defeat in competitions. Reacting quickly is key to success in sports, competitive gaming, and even most day-to-day activities (like driving or working).
How are reaction times measured? What is considered a good result? And what does science say you can do to improve the speed of your reactions? We’ll cover all of this and more in this article.
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7 Science-Backed Tips to Improve Reaction Time
Use Targeted Cognitive Training
Speed Up Your Reaction Speed With Personalized Cognitive Training by Mastermind
What is Reaction Time?
Reaction time (also referred to as response time) is the length of time that passes between the stimulus and the response of an organism to that stimulus. Often abbreviated as RT, reaction time is controlled by the central nervous system, which receives and processes signals from the sensory system. These signals are transmitted to the brain, where the information is interpreted, and a response is produced.
The typical response time of humans is between 150 and 300 milliseconds, depending on the type of stimulus (mental or physical), the complexity of the response (simple reaction or choice reaction), and numerous other factors. Unlike reflexes, which are involuntary movements or responses, reactions are voluntary. As such, they can be trained to be faster by addressing the sensory and cognitive mechanisms that determine our reaction time.
7 Science-Backed Tips to Improve Reaction Time
Engage in Physical Activities
The connection between physical exercise and reaction speed has been studied extensively with one clear conclusion: working out your body speeds up reaction times both in the short and long term. However, only recently have scientists begun to uncover some of the underlying neurological and physical mechanisms that create the synergy between physical strain and reaction time.
In one experiment, researchers checked if EMS-induced (involuntary) muscle movement was as beneficial to performance in cognitive tasks as voluntary moderate-intensity exercise. They discovered that participants who completed moderate-intensity cycling exercises solved the cognitive tasks faster than the group that received EMS instead. This means that the brain’s role in activating the muscles is crucial for faster reaction time and cannot be achieved through artificial activation (such as by using an electrical current).
Another study found that combining cognitive and physical exercises improves reaction time in older adults, with significant improvement in choice reaction time, the type of reaction used in most daily activities.
Play Video Games
If you are a gamer, you know that regularly practicing your gaming skills and enhancing your response time is key to winning. This is true for everyone, as video games (and, most recently, VR games) have been shown to improve reaction time.
(Source: Neurocognitive analyses reveal that video game players exhibit enhanced implicit temporal processing)
One study found that when compared to non-gamers, action video game players had significantly faster response times. Moreover, by employing multiple techniques, including EEG, the researchers discovered that the oculomotor reflex (a reflex that helps stabilize the visual field during head movements) of action video game players occurs faster than among non-gamers.
Another study showed that immersive VR music games have the potential to improve reaction time and hand-eye coordination in students.
Eat and Sleep Well
Eating a healthy diet and maintaining a regular schedule of uninterrupted sleep is vital to physical and mental health. When it comes to reaction times, sleep deprivation and poor nutrition can have devastating effects on response times and overall performance.
- Sleep debt directly impacts reaction times, and it increases the more sleep you lose over time
- According to research findings, certain vitamins and minerals can help improve response time. These include choline, zinc, and vitamin B12 from natural food sources.
Practice Meditation
Mindfulness meditation and even simple breathing techniques have been scientifically proven to be beneficial to human wellbeing, as well as overall cognitive and mental health. According to studies, it can have a tremendous effect on visual and auditory reaction times.
- Even a single mindfulness meditation session may acutely enhance cognitive performance regardless of experience in meditation practice.
- “Dialogue with the Body” meditation, when practiced regularly for 12 weeks, showed significant improvements in auditory and visual reaction time after 45 and 90 days of meditation practice.
- Physical education students improved about 40.11% in reaction time scores after 14 weeks of participating in a meditation program.
Drink Some Coffee
Caffeine is the most commonly used legal performance-enhancement drug, and its ability to enhance both physical and cognitive skills has been studied extensively. When it comes to reaction times, consuming caffeine before engaging in cognitively tasking activities has been shown to enhance the shooting performance and reaction time of professional gamers.
Listen to Music You Like
Music can invoke emotion, get us moving to the rhythm, and is an inseparable part of the human experience. Rhythm training and exposure to music at early ages have been previously proven beneficial for cognitive development and performance. But how does it impact reaction times?
In one study, researchers had professional taekwondo athletes listen to different types of music during warmup, and checked their performance in a roundhouse kick in response to visual stimuli. The experiment showed that listening to self-selected music and research-selected music elicited significantly faster choice visual reaction times compared to those of athletes who did not listen to any music during warmup.
Try Targeted Cognitive Training
Whether you’re an athlete looking to improve reaction times on the field or an adult aiming to drive safely - targeted and specialized cognitive training exercises and games can help you reach your response time targets.
- One study found that young fencers who received specific reaction time training over a period of 9 weeks (350 minutes in total) saw a significant improvement in simple and choice reaction times.
- Targeted cognitive training apps have been shown to lower the risk of car accidents among older adults by half by improving their reaction times.
Speed Up Your Reaction Speed With Personalized Cognitive Training by Mastermind
Your brain’s reaction time is often the bottleneck between your senses and your muscles, slowing down your responses. Fortunately, there’s plenty you can do to train your brain to react faster to external stimuli and to execute your choices quicker.
A healthy lifestyle is vital to cognitive health. But in addition to high-quality sleep and regular physical activity, you can employ “cheats” like listening to a beloved playlist and drinking an espresso before engaging in an activity that demands your swift reaction. Today, you can benefit from the latest in research-based targeted cognitive training with custom-tailored reaction time training programs designed to enable you to reach your goals.
Mastermind offers a cutting-edge VR-based cognitive training program that has been proven to help improve reaction times among a diverse audience of users, including athletes, students, professionals, and older adults.
Start your free trial and find out just how quick your reaction time can be with targeted cognitive training!