Evaluating Brain Fog state

In the past, when I had active ME/CFS. I could describe it as a flare sufficient to put me on disability. I would sit on the computer playing a variety of simple puzzle games. AAs the flare eased and my cognition improved, I began to find those games boring and moved on to more mentally challenging puzzles.

Today, I am fully in remission, particularly from the cognitive issues often described as brain fog. Still, I make it a daily habit to complete two free logic problems on LinkedIn.

Zip

This is the simplest (almost boring). You need to find a path connecting all of the numbers in order and use every square.

To get to it: https://www.linkedin.com/games/zip/

Queens

This is more challenging. You need put a crown on every column and row — but only one crown per color area.

To get to it: https://www.linkedin.com/games/queens/

Other Games

LinkedIn provide additional games at https://www.linkedin.com/games/. You may need to create a FREE linkedin account to access them.

Bottom Line

I’ve found this routine valuable for several reasons:

It lets me compare my performance with other professionals. At 73 years old, I’m often competing against people half my age—and my times are usually better than their averages.
It serves as an excellent “wake-up activity” first thing in the morning.
It acts as a personal monitoring tool: if my performance starts to slip, it may be an early warning sign of relapse, reminding me that it’s time to rotate or adjust my probiotics.

Robert Kemp 11:14 am on September 27, 2025

I subscribe to the online NYT and do most of their games every morning (and recently paid for access to more of their games). They challenge logic, vocabulary, pattern recognition (and deconstruction), and conceptual connections. They are fun and I usually do quite well, although it’s not clear how I compare to others playing those games.

I also subscribe to the WP and do a couple of their puzzles, usually in the evening, though not every day. I do very well on Keyword, which requires the consideration of half a dozen words, each missing a letter, at one time in order to solve for the hidden word which crosses through them. The other game is Wridges, which requires me to find words in a constantly moving grid. It is the only game I play that is timed – it allows one minute – and the only game in which I get crushed.

My brain clearly works VERY slowly, which is also evident from daily life tasks and regular chores.

In Wridges, the average population score varies a bit from day-to-day, but is usually about 70. My first attempt is often below 10! I try over and over (it’s the same grid each time), and usually peak over 100 (and sometimes around 130) because I’ve memorized some of the words from earlier trials.

But some days I score well below the average score, no matter how many times I try.

Anyway – you feel like these games wake up your brain. I, on the other hand, believe they use up my brain power, leaving me in a deficit for the rest of the day. Even before I started doing these games, I believed that there is a limit to how much cognition I’m capable of in any given day – as if it uses up a necessary resource or creates the buildup of some waste product, which is only restored to normal after a night of sleep.

Did you ever sense that when you were in CFS?
- lassesen 1:30 pm on September 27, 2025
  
  There’s a balance… like with walking with ME/CFS…. You want to do what has no side effects and then slowly increase the walking distance once a week… i.e. If just to the corner is this week’s comfort part, next week walk to corner and just 1-2 houses after turning the corner.
  
  There is a delicate balance to safe conditioning and excessive pushing (often due to impatience)

CFS Remission

Striving for true remission of CFS, chronic Lyme, FM, IBS etc

Evaluating Brain Fog state

Zip

Queens

Other Games

Bottom Line

Zip

Queens

Other Games

Bottom Line

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