Top Tips for Faster Reaction Times

Dr Sigman's Tips for Faster Reaction Times don't necessarily come as tips for gamers to improve their gaming experience, but it certainly does apply very well to this particular activity. Knowing when to pick your moments, using your imagination and of course avoiding to watch trash telly are just a few things that will only improve your performance as a hardcore gamer.

DR SIGMAN'S TOP TIPS FOR FASTER REACTION TIMES

Take a (strong) Tea Break
A moderate dose of caffeine decreases the time it takes to prepare a response for a complex reaction time task. The amount of caffeine in one cup of strong tea or coffee increases reaction time and your ability to resist distraction, plus it works within minutes.


Teetotal
Alcohol slows reaction times - that's one of the reasons we have drink-drive laws. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which means that it does the opposite of stimulating you and a lot to slow you down. Denounce the firewater until your celebration drinks after you win the competition.

Lie Down
A lot! Fatigue isn't fast or clever but sleeping a lot is. Your reaction time gets slower when you are tired mentally or physically. The more complicated the task, the slower you will be when you suffer fatigue. Mental fatigue, especially sleepiness, has the greatest effect.

Pick Your Moments
Your body clock works in circadian rhythms of roughly 24-hour cycles. Yet even with such a biological 'clock', there is variation in people's daily rhythms. But disruption of the clock - by staying up too late or changing our sleep-wake schedules negatively affects our alertness and reaction time. Identify the time of day you experience your peak performance. Ask yourself; are you an early bird or night owl, based on what you think are your best times for high alertness. (Early birds are most alert before noon and night owls are most alert during the evening.)

Avoid Trash Telly
Watching lots of soap operas and talk shows isn't just unstimulating intellectually but has been recently linked with slower reaction times. Scientists believe this type of programming simply doesn't exercise the brain enough and allows it to become flaccid and slow, like the people who appear on some of the programmes.

Use Your Imagination
Even practicing your reaction time mentally will increase it when it counts. Visualise the actual hand movements, and in your mind go through the motions as if it's the real thing. And when you play the real thing you should be faster.

Tense Up
By contracting your arm and hand muscles for a few seconds (isometric contraction) and then relaxing them a number of times before you play the game seems to allow your brain to work faster. So squeeze, hold and relax� and again.

Practice
Activity-specific training movements that are practiced in game-like situations are the ones most likely to be used in competition. So practice the actual reaction time movements in as realistic a situation as possible. Reaction times should increase within three weeks of practice and the effects will last for at least three weeks.

Get Off Your Bum!
Physically fit people have faster reaction times. Furthermore, exercise actually increases mental performance and problem-solving abilities within 20 minutes. So if you are generally fit and you then do some aerobic-type exercise for 20 minutes before you compete, you'll have a distinct advantage.

Get Aroused
One of the most investigated factors affecting reaction time is arousal, or our state of attention, including muscular tension. Reaction time is fastest with a medium level of arousal, and deteriorates when we are either too relaxed or too tense. And exercise improves your reaction time by increasing arousal.

Punishment and Stress
For those of you with a masochistic streak, research consistently shows that receiving an electric shock every time you react too slowly will actually improve your reaction time no end. Alternatively, having someone make you feel anxious about your performance has the same effect, at least on simple reaction time tasks.

Stay Well
Illness and minor upper respiratory tract infections slow reaction times, make our mood more negative, and cause disturbance of sleep, which in turn slows reaction time even further. Watch who you kiss or shake hands with.

Destroy Distractions
Distractions increase slow reaction time. Background noise slows reaction time by inhibiting parts of the cerebral cortex. TVs on in the background, mobile phones and email pinging noises slow you down.

Sweet And Slow
Sugar and high glycemic foods can cause drowsiness. Despite claims that glucose will improve performance the opposite is likely to be true. Stick to unrefined carbohydrates and avoid sugary foods and drinks before you compete. Be a monkey and eat a banana instead.


Dr Aric Sigman is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Member of the Institute of Biology and has received the Chartered Scientist award from the Science Council. His recent review paper on the biological effects associated with watching television, published in the science journal Biologist, and his talk at the Houses of Parliament, caused widespread public debate.

Dr Sigman is the author of a newly revised book entitled Remotely Controlled - how television is damaging our lives.