Enjoy a Comfortable Hospital Stay! Fun Pastime Activities Recommended for Seniors
A hospital stay is a time to let your body rest, but it can get boring when there’s nothing to do every day.
Having too much time on your hands can sometimes be taxing both mentally and physically, so it’s important to find light recreational activities that help pass the time.
In this article, we’ll introduce enjoyable ways for older adults to spend their time comfortably during hospitalization.
These activities not only support the mental and physical well-being of seniors, but can also help prevent dementia—we’ve gathered many ideas.
Please use this article as a reference to make hospital life more pleasant for the older adults in your care.
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- [For Seniors] Recommended Even for People with Dementia! Simple Recreational Activities
Have a comfortable hospital stay! Recommended pastimes for seniors (11–20)
Music appreciation
Music that brings peace to the heart.
Listening to music in your free time can help relieve stress and refresh you during a hospital stay.
Even if you don’t have any particular favorites, hearing nostalgic songs may bring back old memories and help stimulate your brain.
With the extra time you have while hospitalized, it’s also a great chance to explore music genres you haven’t been interested in before.
By drawing inspiration from the unique worlds and cultures hidden within music, a boring hospital stay can transform into a more fulfilling experience.
Nansupi
Introducing “NANSPI / NUMBER SPEED,” a game that trains the brain for both kids and adults simply by pressing buttons and having fun.
There are three ways to play: a time-attack mode where you press buttons in order from the smallest number to the largest and compete for speed; a memory mode where you remember and reproduce the order and position of flashing lights; and another memory mode where you recreate the positions of shapes represented by toppled buttons.
You’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment when you press all the buttons without any mistakes.
Give it a try!
Chopstick Ball-Carrying Game
Here’s an introduction to a fingertip game where you use chopsticks to pick up and carry small items.
Games that involve fine finger movements can help stimulate the brain.
They’re also useful for training movements needed in daily life.
What you’ll need is an ice tray for making ice—one that makes small cubes is recommended.
Prepare some craft pom-poms (also called “pompoms”) and a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks.
You can get everything you need at a 100-yen shop, so preparation is easy.
Starting from one end of the ice tray, use the chopsticks to pick up the pom-poms and place them into the compartments.
This action helps train eating-related movements.
Since it’s a seated game, it’s likely to be easy for older adults to try.
Sticky
Have you heard of a game called “Sticky”? You place three colors of sticks with different thicknesses inside a ring, roll a special die, and pull out a stick of the color that comes up.
The person who eventually knocks it over loses, and the others are ranked based on the points from the colors of the sticks they have pulled up to that point.
As turns progress, the number of sticks decreases, gradually upsetting the balance and making the latter half thrilling.
Beyond being a fun game, choosing which stick to pull and carefully extracting it can also serve as brain training.
Give it a try!
Puzzle coloring
It looks like nothing more than a complex pattern at first, but as you fill in the specified colors, an image emerges.
Each piece has a number, and by coloring according to that number, the picture gradually appears.
You can’t tell which pieces connect in the same color until you look at the numbers, so take your time coloring and enjoy the process of the mysterious pattern transforming into a picture.
Because it requires meticulous work to find the same numbers, you’re likely to feel a sense of accomplishment when it’s complete.
plastic model kit
Plastic model kits have been a popular craft both in the past and present, with a wide range of types available—from character kits like Gundam to models of real-world things such as airplanes, cars, and castles.
Some kits can be difficult to build, so be sure to choose one that matches your skill level.
While some people are particular about gluing and painting, the technology behind plastic models has advanced, so simply following the instructions can still produce a high-quality result.
If you want to further improve the quality, think about what you can do yourself; as you do, you’ll gradually acquire more techniques.
Have a Comfortable Hospital Stay! Recommended Pastime Activities for Seniors (21–30)
Matchstick Puzzle
This is a puzzle where you take an incorrect equation made with matchsticks and rearrange a specified number of sticks to turn it into a correct equation.
Think carefully about how the current equation is wrong and exactly what needs to be changed.
When moving just one stick, it doesn’t necessarily stay within the same digit, so be aware that two digits might change at the same time.
It’s also important to judge which digits to keep.
In the end, there’s more to think about than you might expect with this puzzle.