Reflexes May Keep You Alive and Kicking
Your reaction time isn’t just about quick reflexes – it’s a vital clue to your brain health, heart condition, and risk of age-related illnesses. From ruler drop tests to startle reflexes, find out what science says about staying sharp as you age
By now, most of us have come to terms with the fact that we’re not going to win the 100m sprint at the Olympics. Not this year, not the next. But if you’re still able to catch a falling biscuit tin before it clocks you on the nose, congratulations—your reaction time and your reflexes may be doing rather better than your knees.
Scientists are increasingly finding that a decent reaction time isn’t just about being able to win at Whac-A-Mole. It could actually reveal a great deal about how well your brain and body are ticking over. In fact, your ability to snatch a falling object from thin air might tell you more about your risk of keeling over too soon than you’d think.
As Professor Simon Cox from the University of Edinburgh puts it—perhaps with less biscuit tin imagery—”a decline in reaction times probably indicates an accumulation of age-related degradation.” Simply put, if your brain starts behaving like a dial-up modem, it may be time to keep a closer eye on the rest of your insides too.
Ready, Steady, Catch
So how can you check your own reaction time without enlisting an army of neuroscientists or plugging yourself into a machine that looks like it belongs on the Starship Enterprise?
Enter the humble ruler drop test. It’s simple, requires only a mate and a ruler, and gives you a vaguely scientific excuse to drop things around the house.
Here’s how:
-
Rest your arm on a table, wrist hanging over the edge, thumb and fingers poised like you’re about to pluck a scone from a buffet table.
-
Have your glamorous assistant hold a ruler vertically above your hand, with the ‘zero’ mark level with your thumb.
-
Without warning, they drop it.
-
You catch it—ideally before it hits the carpet and the cat runs off in terror.
The shorter the distance it drops before you catch it, the quicker your reaction time. Less than 7.5cm? You’re a regular ninja. Over 28cm? Perhaps time to consider dual task training… or at least avoid juggling sharp objects.
A Snapshot of Your Inner Workings
But catching a ruler isn’t just a parlour trick. Research has shown that slower reaction times are linked with all sorts of grim statistics—higher risk of heart disease, stroke, respiratory conditions, and even good old-fashioned popping one’s clogs early. As it turns out, slow reactions might be a sign your body’s various systems aren’t exactly singing in harmony.
Worse still, changes in your response time might foreshadow conditions like dementia, years before any obvious symptoms rock up and start rearranging the furniture.
Still, before you go measuring your reflexes every morning like it’s your blood pressure, a word of caution: Cox notes that one-off results aren’t particularly meaningful. It’s more about the trend over time. If you’re consistently catching the ruler in May but fumbling it by Christmas, that might be a red flag.
Why We Slow Down
According to researchers, the first thing to pack it in isn’t your brain—it’s your muscles. Even if your mind spots that ruler mid-plunge, it’s not much use if your hand reacts like it’s still waiting for a cup of tea. Professor Alaa Ahmed from the University of Colorado Boulder explains that older adults simply find fast movements more physically taxing. Between sluggish mitochondria and ageing muscle fibres, we’re not exactly built for speed in our golden years.
That said, all is not lost. According to Loughborough’s Professor Matthew Pain (yes, that’s his real name), healthy older adults can still respond to sudden noises quickly enough to get disqualified from an Olympic sprint for a false start—though actually running the race might be another story altogether.
Sharpening the Senses
So what can you do to hold on to those lightning-fast reflexes a bit longer?
Pain recommends “dual task training”, which sounds fancy but really means doing two things at once. Like walking while turning your head (try not to bump into lampposts), balancing on one leg while reciting the alphabet (bonus points if you do it backwards), or tossing a ball while shouting out random words (preferably not in a quiet library).
Even dancing around the living room with a fitness class on YouTube counts. The idea is to keep your brain and body talking to each other, rather than exchanging polite, awkward silences.
And don’t overlook the social and intellectual stuff. Board games, musical instruments, sport—anything that gets your brain out of its pyjamas and into action might help slow cognitive ageing. Professor Cox suggests that the more intellectually and socially engaged you stay, the more your reaction times might benefit. In other words, Sudoku could save your life.
Don’t Just Sit There – Drop Something
Ultimately, keeping an eye on your reaction speed could be as important as checking your cholesterol. It’s not about turning into a human cheetah, but about noticing if your brain and body are playing nicely together, or if one’s stopped replying to the other’s emails.
So dust off the ruler, rope in a willing assistant (or bribe one with biscuits), and give it a go. If nothing else, you’ll have an entertaining excuse to drop things in the name of science—and perhaps, just perhaps, a better shot at staying sprightly into your dotage.
And if your results are less “ninja” and more “nod-off”, don’t panic. Just pop the kettle on, do a bit of alphabet-balancing, and remember: it’s never too late to start catching up.
What's Your Reaction?
