11 ways to improve memory: nutrition, stress management, sleep, study

If you have prob­lems remem­ber­ing new infor­ma­tion, do not com­plain about age. Like many oth­er skills, mem­o­ry can be trained and improved through nor­mal sleep and nutri­tion, reg­u­lar exer­cise, pos­ture con­trol and mas­ter­ing new skills and knowl­edge. In addi­tion, stress man­age­ment and some sim­ple tech­niques are impor­tant. Let’s dis­cuss 11 ways to improve mem­o­ry.

1. Social networks to help

To improve mem­o­ry, it is use­ful to post per­son­al events on social net­works. The authors of a study pub­lished in August in the jour­nal Mem­o­ry argue that the best way to remem­ber per­son­al expe­ri­ences is to post them online. In this way, dynam­ic mem­o­ries are formed, bright moments of per­son­al life expe­ri­ence are record­ed. Mem­o­ry research has found that when peo­ple write about their per­son­al expe­ri­ences, they remem­ber all the events described much bet­ter.

2. Proper nutrition

Chang­ing your diet to a diet low in sat­u­rat­ed fat and cho­les­terol is good for your over­all health. Such a diet reduces the risk of heart dis­ease and stroke, which neg­a­tive­ly affect cog­ni­tive func­tions, includ­ing mem­o­ry. In addi­tion, stud­ies show that, along with oth­er ben­e­fits, foods rich in omega‑3 polyun­sat­u­rat­ed fat­ty acids, such as fish and nuts, as well as those con­tain­ing antiox­i­dants (rasp­ber­ries, blue­ber­ries, fruits, veg­eta­bles), may help pro­tect the brain. slow down age-relat­ed mem­o­ry decline. In oth­er words, nutri­tion that is good for the body and a full-fledged metab­o­lism has no less pos­i­tive effect on the cere­bral cor­tex.

3. Healthy sleep

Get­ting enough sleep allows brain cells to per­form at their best, accord­ing to neu­ropsy­chol­o­gists. In child­hood and ado­les­cence, a per­son can go with­out sleep for a long time, while main­tain­ing a rel­a­tive­ly full work­ing capac­i­ty. As peo­ple get old­er, time-lim­it­ed sleep can impair mem­o­ry. When a per­son is deprived of nor­mal sleep for a long time, mem­o­ry laps­es are more like­ly to occur. Sim­i­lar­ly, the brain is affect­ed by sleep that is unsat­is­fac­to­ry in qual­i­ty — super­fi­cial, with fre­quent awak­en­ings and pro­longed falling asleep. For most adults, the goal should be at least 7–8 hours of sleep.

4. Regular exercise

Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty helps the body and brain stay in shape, reg­u­lar exer­cise also trains mem­o­ry. Active exer­cise not only helps to strength­en the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem, but also pro­motes cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing. Reg­u­lar phys­i­cal activ­i­ty can improve mood, which has a pos­i­tive effect on cog­ni­tion. Active exer­cise can help pre­pare the body for sub­se­quent rest and qual­i­ty sleep, which in turn allows the brain to relax, “reboot” and bet­ter remem­ber new infor­ma­tion.

5. Stop multitasking to improve your memory

Mul­ti-task­ing can neg­a­tive­ly impact short-term mem­o­ry, espe­cial­ly as a per­son gets old­er. Peo­ple in their 60s and 80s have been shown to have much more trou­ble remem­ber­ing basic infor­ma­tion after a short break than peo­ple in their 30s and 40s. Switch­ing active atten­tion from a lap­top to a mobile phone or tex­ting while watch­ing TV reduces gray mat­ter activ­i­ty in the brain, which helps with sen­so­ry pro­cess­ing, includ­ing deci­sion mak­ing and mem­o­ry.

6. Learning new skills

Con­stant­ly learn­ing some­thing new stim­u­lates the brain, which helps main­tain men­tal sharp­ness, dex­ter­i­ty and mem­o­ry. In 2013, a study was pub­lished in the jour­nal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Sci­ence that involved peo­ple aged 60 to 90. They were learn­ing a com­plex new skill, such as dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy or embroi­dery. Their per­for­mance was com­pared to peo­ple who were engaged in sim­pler activ­i­ties such as cook­ing and reg­u­lar excur­sions. After three months, the “com­plex skills” group showed a clin­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in mem­o­ry com­pared to the oth­er group.

7. Protection from stress

Chron­ic or acute stress can have a neg­a­tive impact on mem­o­ry. Mem­o­ry laps­es are more com­mon dur­ing peri­ods of emo­tion­al or phys­i­cal stress, whether the events are pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive. It is impor­tant to real­ize that stress has a dev­as­tat­ing effect on the brain, and active­ly deal with it. Breath­ing exer­cis­es, out­door walks, yoga, ani­mal care, exer­cise are all good ways to reduce stress.

8. Notes by hand.

Many peo­ple pre­fer to write down work orders or plans on a lap­top or elec­tron­ic tablet. This is good for speed, but not so good for mem­o­ry. Most peo­ple retain more infor­ma­tion in their heads if they write it down the old-fash­ioned pen-and-paper way. While the infor­ma­tion is record­ed by hand, the brain process­es and stores it in more detail.

9. Chewing gum

Accord­ing to a study pub­lished in Bio­Med Research Inter­na­tion­al in 2015, chew­ing gum helps peo­ple focus on a task, relieves stress, and may improve mem­o­ry. The arti­cle indi­cates that chew­ing gum improves relax­ation and increas­es alert­ness. The act of chew­ing expends ener­gy resources on the work of the mus­cles of the face and increas­es the heart rate of the chew­er, help­ing to increase cere­bral blood flow and activ­i­ty, which improves cog­ni­tive func­tions.

10. Drinking green tea

For cen­turies, green tea has been used in Chi­nese med­i­cine to relieve var­i­ous ail­ments. In 2014, researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Basel in Switzer­land con­duct­ed a study that sug­gest­ed that drink­ing the drink might improve mem­o­ry. Sci­en­tists gave green tea extract to 12 vol­un­teers and scanned their brains. After a study in which par­tic­i­pants drank the drink for four weeks, the researchers noticed an increase in activ­i­ty in parts of the brain that are respon­si­ble for mem­o­ry. While research is still under­way, but they out­lined the prospects.

11. Squeezing the ball in the hand

A 2013 study sug­gests that clench­ing your fin­gers may help form stronger mem­o­ries and improve mem­o­ry recall. The par­tic­i­pants were giv­en 36 words to remem­ber and a small rub­ber ball to squeeze. They squeezed the ball for 90 sec­onds in dif­fer­ent sequences. Those who first clenched their right hand and then their left per­formed bet­ter on the mem­o­ry test than the oth­er par­tic­i­pants, remem­ber­ing 10 words cor­rect­ly on aver­age com­pared to five and sev­en on the rest of the test. Squeez­ing the right hand acti­vates the left side of the brain, which helps form mem­o­ry. The right side of the brain is asso­ci­at­ed with “eras­ing” mem­o­ry.