Take this short test and find out how old you really are!

What is mental age?

The mental age describes your age, related to your life circumstances. In contrary to your official age, which is documented in your passport, your mental age depends on your attitude towards life.

Do you listen to your inner child and sometimes lose control? Do you ever jump up and down or sing out loud because you are happy and want everybody to know it?

The mental age is an indicator, that shows how much your inner child influences your life. Your mental age can be affected by social environment, your way of thinking and your lifestyle.

A 12 year old child that needs to take responsibility for itself and its siblings is likely to have a higher mental age than a 12 year old child who has their life organized by their parents. The amount of responsibility that a child assumes can affect their mental age.

The mental age describes your age with reference to your current life circumstances. It differs from your official age, which is documented in your passport, in that mental age depends on your attitude to life. With a Mental Age Test you can test your brain. What is its actual mental age? Does it fit to your real age?

Another example is one of an older lady, who stays in contact with many young people. She is open-minded for changes and interested in her own personal development. The lady's mental age could be less than the mental age of a person who is technically younger in years. She stays mentally young through her interest in new things and the courage explore the unknown.

Both scenarios described above are examples of how the mental age of a person can be influenced. Remember it's a general stereotype to illustrate the point so don't take it to heart!

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain

What other kind of ‘ages’ exist aside from mental age?

In addition to the mental age, everybody has a biological age. In addition to that every person has an chronological age, that is based on the date of birth documented in the passport.

What is my biological age?

The biological age of humans depends on their genes, lifestyle, social background as well as their social enviroment.

You can´t change your genes that provide your genetic information, it’s been passed on by your parents. People with a specific variation of the gene FOXO3 have a higher chance of living for 100 years compared to people with a different variation of the same gene. Your genetic information is the foundation of your biological age.

With your own chosen lifestyle you can affect your biological age in a positive or negativ way. Lots of alcohol, smoking and frequent use of sun beds affect your biological age negatively. On the contrary a healthy diet and regular exercise affects your age in a positive way. Lots of stress at work or in your private life will increase your biological age. The formula for success referring to a low biological age are good genes and an ideal work-life-balance.

What is my chronological age?

You can determine your chronological age based on your date of birth, which is documented in your birth certificate and your passport.

Why is there a difference between my mental age, biological and chronological age?

All of the definitions rely on different kinds of ages. Your chronological age is unchangeable and consistent based on your date of birth. Your biological and mental age are dynamic, because you can influence it. With the Lightwerk mental age test you can find out your current mental age. Your biological age can be determined with different tests.

It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

Does my mental age refer to my IQ?

There are different opinions about that question. Some people say it depends on the IQ, some say it doesn't. We think everything possible; people with different IQs can have the same mental age. It is also possible, that a person with a higher IQ has an older mental age than an person with a lower IQ and vice versa!

Can I improve my mental age?

Yes, there are several things you can do to reduce your mental age and maintain it. Brain training games like Sudoku keep the mind active and mentally young. There are also several books you can read on the topic. For example, 'The Owner's Manual for the Brain: The Ultimate Guide to Peak Mental Performance at All Ages' by Pierce J. Howard. This book provides information and advice of how to improve your mental age.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King Jr.

An open mindset and curiosity towards changes and new inventions are also beneficial. A positive outlook on life and a good attitude towards things that don't work out how you expected is also helpful. If you actively want to improve your mental age, there are even opportunities to take part in special workshops. A low mental age has a positive effect on your biological age.

Funny, young people appreciate to look grown-up, but older people want to look younger!

Young people are mostly happy if someone guesses that they older than they are really are. Teenagers often want to appear grown up in order to gain respect from adults. Once they are grown up, the whole situation changes. Between the ages of 20 and 30 the human body starts stops growing and starts aging. During this time a youthful appearance often becomes ever more important. A youthful appearance is associated with energy, activity, vitality and fitness. An aged appearance can sometimes be associated with frailness, spiritlessness and disease. The age that we are talking about in this context is the biological age. On the Contrary, the mental age is not visible by looking at a person.

Interesting articles and news about mental age

Retirement causes a major decline in physical and mental health, new research finds Mental age is a topic of high interest among people of different ages. Many institutes and scientists are dealing with this topic. You are excited about the correlation between retirement and the decline of mental health? Have a look at this articel that was published by the institute of economic affairs.

The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction Another interesting articel about mental health was published by the national institute of mental health. It describes the brain function, developement and behaviour relying on teens and how it changes while growing up.

Brief mental training sessions have long-lasting benefits for seniors' everyday function Adults who are training their brain continuous are mentally fitter compared to untrained persons. Doing brain training improves several abilities. Older adults who practiced brain training have less challenge with their everyday life.

Why should I take the mental age test?

For fun! Plus it will give you some information about your mental age. If you enjoyed the experience then you can share it with your friends.

You are asking yourself

'What is my mental age?' Continue please!

What kinds of mental age tests are online? Searching for mental age tests shows you several results. Some of the tests are pretty fun to take and interesting some are less. Most of these mental age tests are based on 10 to 20 questions.

This mental age test is a quick test with 12 questions. Some of the questions require funny movement, some just need a click. There are no right or wrong answers, so be honest and don't think about the questions for too long. The result is not based on any scientific study so don't take it too seriously – it's just for fun! How young at heart are you? Excited? Take the test!