Did you know that if you’re living a stressful life without much sleep and a constantly poor diet, you could be destroying your memory? Don’t fear, it’s easy to be kind to your body and help your memory improve with just some simple tips and life changes, so here’s ten ways to improve your memory.
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Stress Less and Protect Your Memory
Conditions such as depression, anxiety or constantly high stress levels can eat away at areas of your brain that control your memory. Stress is scientifically proven to inhibit your brain’s ability to process, store and retrieve information, and over the long term, permanently damage this process. If you’re suffering anxiety or depression, it’s important to seek treatment for these disorders to avoid this kind of long term damage, and if you’re in a constant fluster of stress, find a way to reduce or remove the triggers.
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Get Active for a Better Memory
Exercise is a key treatment for preventing memory loss and improving memory function. Studies have shown that exercise can improve your memory and learning ability and of course, it also comes with other benefits as well. Exercise is also a documented treatment for reducing stress levels and helping with anxiety and depression, which, as we’ve already mentioned can be harmful to your brain and memory health. So, get active and reap the many health rewards of an active lifestyle.
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Sleep Improves Memory
We live in a world of never-ending bombardment; where technology, work stress, study, friends and family are constantly demanding attention. If you want to improve your memory, it’s vital you find a way to ensure your brain gets a chance to re-charge with plenty of sleep and downtime. Sleep is an essential part of the body and the brain’s ongoing health, and if possible it’s great to have a regular sleep routine, just sleeping in all day on a Sunday isn’t going to be much help.
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Meditate to Improve Your Memory
While meditation seems to pop up regularly on the list of cool things to do, there is science behind the current trend of taking time out. Meditation has been proven time and time again to reduce stress and anxiety, help with major issues such as chronic pain, but for those concerned about improving memory, it’s great for that too. Even small amounts can help, and you don’t need to be a meditation expert to experience the benefits.
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Write Things Down
While it seems simple, the act of writing something down can help us remember it. Not only does writing something down give you something to read later to help you recall, but it also utilises multiple senses, and gets your physical body involved and connected with the activity of your brain remembering. By utilising our physical body and our mental thought process it strengthens our ability to recall information later.
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Games and Technology Can Help Your Memory
Technology helps us with so much in our lives, it’s no surprise that it also has a way to help improve our memory. Activities that promote thinking are useful in brain health. This can be as simple as completing crossword puzzles, watching game shows and trying to answer the questions, or using apps such as lumosity, which is a science based brain health app for phones and computers.
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Magic Memory Diets
It doesn’t take a big change of routine to make sure that you’ve got brain foods in your regular diet. Fatty fish contains DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid that helps promote brain health. Add some fish to your weekly routine; things like salmon and sardines three times a week, or alternatively there’s a wide range of supplements on the market that will help ensure you’re getting plenty of omega-3. Eggs, walnuts, turkey, turmeric spice, rich leafy greens and delicious berries all provide compounds that help to promote brain health so even the fussiest or most time-poor can ensure a brain boost.
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Limit Alcohol For Better Memory Health
Sure, it’s a cultural thing to have a few drinks with friends, or enjoy a glass after a hard day of work, but each time you enjoy a drink you’re damaging your brain and in turn your memory. Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom and life is meant to be lived, but it pays to be mindful of the damage that alcohol can cause to brain health during heavy or long term use.
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Avoid Damaging Medications
While we can’t always avoid having to take medications, whether they are prescription or over the counter, it’s important to remember that our brains are affected by what we put into our bodies. Recent studies have shown that the use of Benzodiazepine, commonly used for anxiety and sleep problems, can greatly increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Always limit your use of medications unless they are medically necessary, your brain will thank you for it.
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Challenge Yourself and Your Brain
To have a real chance at keeping your brain and memory healthy, it’s important to challenge yourself with a wide range of memory enhancing activities. Just doing crossword puzzles is not going to ensure long-term memory health because your brain becomes used to exercising only specific areas. Ideally you need to challenge your brain with games, reading, writing, learning new skills and staying inquisitive and engaged. Using our brains exercises them, just like the rest of our body and with continued use and challenges, along with and a bit of care and pampering your brain will be healthy for years to come.
