ARE YOU GETTING FORGETFUL?

Everyone has a tendency to be a little forgetful. We sometimes forget to pick up our car keys, an important file for work, or even someone’s name. But how much forgetfulness is too much? How can you tell whether your memory lapses are normal forgetfulness and within the scope of normal aging? A very benign question, but can we ignore it?

There are 7 types of memory related problems that we tend to suffer and they are often quite common.

1. Transience

This is the tendency to forget facts or events over time. You are most likely to forget information soon after you learn it. Our memory has a use-it-or-lose-it quality: memories that are called up and used frequently are least likely to be forgotten. Far from being bad transience may be beneficial because it clears the brain of unused memories, making way for newer, more useful ones. It is like cleaning your D drive of useless files!

2. Absent-mindedness

This type of forgetting occurs when you don't pay close enough attention. You forget where you just put your spectacles because you didn't focus on where you put it in the first place. You were thinking of something else then!  Absentmindedness also involves forgetting to do something at a prescribed time, like taking your medicine or keeping an appointment.

3. Blocking

Someone asks you a question and the answer is right on the tip of your tongue — you know that you know it, but you just can't think of it. Nominal aphasia, failure to remember names is another very embarrassing type of blocking. In many cases, the barrier is a memory similar to the one you're looking for, and you retrieve the wrong one. This competing memory is so intrusive that you can't think of the memory you want.

4. Mis-attribution

Mis-attribution occurs when you remember something accurately in part, but mis-attribute some detail, like the time, place, or person involved. Another kind of mis-attribution occurs when you believe a thought you had was totally original when, in fact, it came from something you had previously read or heard but had forgotten about. Mis-attribution becomes more common with age. As you age, you absorb fewer details when acquiring information because you have somewhat more trouble concentrating and processing information rapidly. Your hard drive is so chock-a-block full that it has slowed down considerably!

5. Suggestibility

Suggestibility is the vulnerability of your memory to the power of suggestion — information that you learn about an occurrence after the fact becomes incorporated into your memory of the incident, even though you did not experience these details. The suggestion fools your mind into thinking it's a real memory.

6. Bias

Even the sharpest memory isn't a flawless snapshot of reality. In your memory, your perceptions are filtered by your personal biases — experiences, beliefs, prior knowledge, and even your mood at the moment. Your biases affect your perceptions and experiences when they're being encoded in your brain. And when you retrieve a memory, your mood and other biases at that moment can influence what information you actually recall. So if you have perceived a politician as an idiot, you tend to carry this bias to the ballot come what may!

7. Persistence

Most people worry about forgetting things. But in some cases people are tormented by memories they wish they could forget, but can't. The persistence of memories of traumatic events, negative feelings, and ongoing fears is another form of memory problem. Some of these memories accurately reflect flashbacks of horrifying events, while others may be negative distortions of reality. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from many different forms of traumatic exposure — for example, sexual abuse or wartime experiences.

Healthy people can experience memory loss or memory distortion at any age. Some of these memory flaws become more pronounced with age, but — unless they are extreme and persistent — they are not considered indicators of Alzheimer's or other memory-impairing illnesses.

Exercise for the Brain

As we grow older, we tend to lose some of the gray matter in our brains which is responsible for memory, among other things. Just as to keep fit you exercise your body, to remain alert and to avoid becoming forgetful you need to exercise your brain. If you want to preserve this gray matter for longer these 7 exercises that will help keep your mind sharp at any age.

1. Use Your Non-Dominant Hand

If you’re a right-handed person, try using your left hand once in a while when eating, writing, and picking things up. It might sound difficult at first, but after some practice, you can do at least a couple of daily tasks this way.

The idea is to use your non-active side of the brain. This helps to expand parts of the cortex that are responsible for processing tactile information.

2. Do Some of Your Daily Chores with Your Eyes Closed

Do you remember how many steps do you take to get downstairs? How many light switches are there in your bedroom? There is a reason why we don’t recall these answers right away – we do our regular, daily tasks inattentively. But if we carry out some safe chores with our eyes closed like showering and moving from one room to another your brain will be extra attentive. You’ll touch an object and this will send signals to your brain about the object that you’re feeling.

3. Shuffle Your Morning Routine

We all have a set schedule which starts right from the moment we wake up. However, novelty is the key to a sharper brain. It’s important that you give your brain the newness of a fresh routine to keep it active and alert. For example, get dressed after having breakfast, jog a different route, or even watch a cartoon instead of the morning news.

4. Read Aloud

Reading aloud isn’t always possible, but when it is, you must do it. It might take a couple of minutes longer than usual to finish what you’re reading, it’s totally worth it. In one of the demonstrations of brain imaging, 3 areas of the brain lit up whenever words were spoken aloud from a book.

5. Experiment with Different Foods

If you’re among those who always order the same cuisine or the same dish every time you go to a restaurant, try out a new dish. You will then ask your brain to smell the new food and send signals to the nose to activate its receptors. This new odor will also give your brain new sensations and feelings. You should also try experimenting with your daily dishes at home, use a different condiment or a new ingredient and challenge your brain out of routines.

6. Recollect your day hour by hour

Lying in bed and before going to sleep recollect your day hour by hour right from the time you left your bed in the morning. So what did you do at 5 AM, then 6 AM, then 7 AM and so on till you are back in bed. This is a wonderful memory exercise, easy to perform and will leave you with a sense of fulfillment!

7. Feed Your Brain

By “feed your brain”, we mean eating foods that are known to increase brain functionality. It’s important to include a decent amount of vitamins and fats in your diet to nourish your brain. Foods that are known to increase brain power are walnuts, turmeric, eggs, coconut oil, blueberries, avocado, and broccoli.