How to improve reaction time

How much can change

Expect small gains. Most of what you can win back is time lost to tiredness, distraction and a slow setup.

Sleep

Tiredness can slow you down a lot. In a study of 39 transport and army workers, after 17 to 19 hours awake some response speeds were up to 50% slower than after drinking to a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. Stay up longer and performance matched the 0.1% level.¹ A review of reaction time research adds that, of all kinds of fatigue, mental fatigue and especially sleepiness has the greatest effect.⁴

• Compare scores taken at a similar time of day, when you’re rested.
• A slow round late at night is expected. It isn’t a sign that something is wrong.
• Never use a reaction test to decide whether you’re fit to drive after drinking or a short night.

Focus

Distractions slow reactions, and background noise is one of them.⁴ Attention also fades within a session: in a lab test of 120 tries, the average rose from 228.1 ms over the first 20 tries to 237.2 ms over the last 20.²

• Phone face down, notifications off, one tab open.
• Keep sessions short: three or four rounds, then stop.
• Watch the test area, not the score from your last try.

Practice

Practice helps, gradually. The same review cites a study in which reactions to a visual signal got faster over three weeks of practice, with the effect lasting at least three weeks.⁴ Newcomers are also less consistent, so judge progress by your median rather than your single best try.⁴

Fast games may carry over to other tasks. People who played 50 hours of action games over 8 to 9 weeks became 13% faster across four lab tasks, double the 6% of a group that played a slower game, with no drop in accuracy.³

• Short sessions on most days, rather than one long one.
• Mix the simple test with choice reaction and FPS peek.

Device settings

Part of every score is hardware. In a carefully tuned lab, the screen took 11.0 ms to show a change and a gaming mouse polling at 1,000 Hz took 6.8 ms to report a click. The authors note that standard mouse drivers may add 20 ms or more.² Screens also update only once per frame, so a higher refresh rate shortens the wait for the next one.

Worked out as 1000 ÷ rate.

These tips follow from how screens and mice work, not from a study.

• Set your monitor to its highest refresh rate in the display settings.
• Turn on Game mode on your monitor or TV to skip extra picture processing.
• Use a wired mouse, or a gaming mouse on its own USB receiver, rather than Bluetooth.
• Close busy tabs and apps while you test.

Anticipation

Knowing when a signal is coming makes you faster: reactions are quicker after a warning and when signals are predictable.⁴ Rhythm matters as well. In one lab test, responses were about 15% slower when a signal came soonest after the one before.²

Our tests use random waits, so guessing only earns false starts.

A 4-week plan

Use the same device at the same time of day, about 10 minutes a day, and write down your median each week.

What we don’t recommend

We don’t recommend supplements, “nootropics”, caffeine pills or medication to improve a score, and nothing on this page is medical advice.

Ordinary coffee does have a short-term effect: a review found that low to moderate doses of caffeine, about 40 to 300 mg, improve alertness, vigilance, attention and reaction time.⁵ That’s a boost for the day, not a skill you keep.