Anyone who has ever played an Escape Room will know all too well about the adrenaline-pumping, fun and immersive experience that awaits you behind the Games Master’s door. Whether you beat the room or not, the tales of camaraderie with your team and the thrill of solving puzzles are enough to make you want to come back to do it all again!
But beneath the surface, Escape Rooms are more than just a game. They are a place for you to test your mettle, train your brain and improve your circulation to boot.
Here we’ve put together 7 health benefits of Escape Rooms you might not have thought about:
60 minutes of moderate exercise
You can’t stay still in an Escape Room. There are clues to be found, puzzles to be cracked and evidence to be pieced together. And none of them will be within reaching distance!
Remember, Escape Rooms are fully immersive. So let your hair down and get swept up in the story, and have an adventure whilst you’re at it—zip around the room, looking from top to bottom. You might need to crawl around, climb and possibly navigate a tunnel in some cases.
Moving around for the best part of an hour will keep your heartbeat elevated and your endorphins pumping.
Supports and develops fine motor skills
Unlike your standard sudoku, chess game or even the classic Monopoly, Escape Rooms bring puzzles into the 4D world. They bring the physicality of puzzles to you in a real and sensory way that allows your spatial awareness and coordination to go to the next level.
Interacting with these larger than life puzzles develops your ability to judge distances in a more profound way than other social activities can achieve. So next time you take on an Escape Room, remember, you’re developing and building on your fine motor skills beyond their current capabilities!
Helps to improve your memory
Cracking the case wide open or pulling off the greatest train heist or bank robbery of all time requires good observations skills. Escape Rooms utilise codes, riddles and more to unlock hidden passages and rooms, as well as open pivotal clues to take you to the next stage.
Amongst your searching, you’ll need to recall patterns, numbers and objects dotted around the room. They might be paintings on the wall, a series of numbers etched onto the spines of the books on the shelf or perhaps even morse code that you need to translate.
Being forced to focus on the smaller details stimulates your brain. And working at the speed required in a game will begin to increase your memory capacity. The more information you dissect, the stronger your processing ability will become.
Stress reliever
Leave your worries at the door; your work-related stress and strained relationships can wait! There’s a case to solve, and focusing on the real world won’t help you win!
While trying to figure out solutions, complete a host of challenges and make your escape within a limited time may sound stressful, Escape Rooms are actually the perfect antidote to stress. You see, when you have something more pressing to focus on, your real-life stresses are released.
And the beauty of Escape Rooms is that they are designed to absorb you into the story. Your stress becomes less important when you have a set of challenges to face!
Boosts communication skills
Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, we all require social interaction. It’s how we connect with the world around us. Place yourself in a high-pressure situation. You naturally talk to those around you to overcome the challenges.
Communication is essential to your success in an Escape Room. You need to say what you see and any thoughts you might have out loud. This way you can collaborate and pull all the pieces together as a team.
Discussing solutions and overcoming challenges will not only boost your confidence but your ability to communicate once you rejoin the outside world.
Great for cognition
Cognition all comes down to how we acquire new knowledge. When you step into an Escape Room, you are temporarily thrust into an alternative version of the world you know, but with a few key details that make you aware that things aren’t quite what they seem. It might be a prison cell, a science lab, or a spaceship deck.
Wherever you end up, you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to acquire new knowledge and quickly before applying it in exciting and often unique ways.
Confronted with new knowledge, your brain has to think more critically and apply this information laterally so that you can achieve your goals. As soon as you complete a challenge, your cognitive ability is boosted!
Creates unforgettable memories
One of the biggest joys of an Escape Room experience is the aftermath. That moment when you can reflect on your gameplay, how well your team came together and the bags of fun you had in the process.
If you’re a first-timer or an old hat, the sense of satisfaction and achievement is immense. You’ve managed to think outside the box, overcome phenomenal challenges that you didn’t believe you could and discovered new things about yourself and your teammates in the process.
You’ve just experienced a profoundly unique set of circumstances, and the memories will last a lifetime. Together with your partner, your new flame, your work colleagues or your best buds, you’ve just done the seemingly impossible and beaten the game. Even if you don’t escape before the final second, you’ve had a whale of a time!
That sense of achievement is what you will take away with you. And the most thrilling minutes of your life banded together in an unforgettable experience with some of the best people in your life.
We love watching new and old players alike taking on challenges and coming out the other side. That sense of satisfaction, camaraderie and exquisite fun are all that makes this game so incredible. Do you have what it takes?