Good news! According to recent scientific research, mentally challenging activities actually help us to think better. Now you have an excuse for playing puzzle games: they're healthy and make you smarter!

Here are 3 puzzle games you can download from FindApp that will help you keep your mind sharp. They're also a lot of fun.

Sudoku For Windows

Sudoku's popularity has exploded in the 21'st Century, from almost unknown outside Japan to being the most popular type of number puzzle. The rules are very simple: every row, every column, and every 3x3 box must contain all the numbers from 1 to 9. The game is so fascinating you may have to struggle to tear yourself away. Sudoku for Windows puts the game on your PC, giving you an unlimited number of games, 5 difficulty levels, and automatic checking for common mistakes like duplicate entries. The program has an elegant, simple, attractive interface, and you can be playing within a few seconds of installing.

FineCrosser

Crossword puzzles are the most popular type of puzzle game in the USA. FineCrosser helps you design your own crosswords. It's a great tool for any teacher. There is no better way to reinforce someone's memory of a fact than including it in a game.

Creating a crossword with FineCrosser is easy. Just select which words you want to appear, click the “Make Crossword” button, and the program creates the grid, places the words, and creates the clue sheet and key. The program comes with 24 categories of words and clues, and you can add new words easily to create puzzles about any subject.

BoXIKoN

A third type of puzzle is based on shapes. BoXIKoN is a game of planning and mental imagery. Like Tetris, you try to fit geometric shapes together to fill rows on the game board:

You can rotate and position the blocks wherever you want, so the game is decided by how well you've thought out your strategy, not by how fast you can handle the controller.

It's a fun mix of an arcade game and a puzzle. Be careful! It's surprisingly addictive.

There are hundreds of games on FindApp in the Puzzles category. Remember, it's for your health, so take some time, have fun, and build up your brain power.