How You Can Improve Your Memory With These Simple Steps

Memory is a skill that you can improve with practice

I used to tell myself that I had a bad memory, but then I realised that I wasn’t helping myself. Convincing myself that my memory was poor was counterproductive.

We often focus on the problem instead of the solution. None of us have perfect memories but the good news is that there are steps that we can all take to improve our memories with practice and mindful healthy habits.

Often we get stuck in one way of thinking and this does nothing to improve our current situation. Below are proven techniques that you can start to use today to see a vast change in how you can retain information:

1. Use The Story Method

The story method is used to remember a set of sequences. Commons things that it can be used for are exams or presentations.

If you are trying to memorise a sequence of things you can develop a story that includes the things that you are trying to remember. For example, if you wanted to remember the Alphabet you could write a story something like this:

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By remembering this story you can find a way of remembering the alphabet.

When creating a story it is important to try and make the story easy to remember so that it can easily be recalled. Also if you can include silly events in the story it can also make it easier to remember.

2. Puzzles

Dr Anne Corbett, of The University of Exeter, has said:

“The more regularly people engage with puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the sharper their performance is across a range of tasks assessing memory, attention and reasoning.”

Jigsaw puzzles can improve your short-term memory. If you have problems remembering events of the past week, then jigsaws can improve this. Puzzles act as a stimulus for the brain and have been found to improve brain cell connections.

If you are interested in getting some puzzles to exercise your brain then some of the best puzzles according to research are scrabble, rubik’s cube, sudoku and crosswords.

3. Get Enough Sleep

It is crucial that you get enough sleep if you want to improve your memory.

Without enough sleep, your brain is unable to process new things. Sleeping will help your brain to store things that have happened so that they become memories. The minimum amount of sleep you should be getting each night is seven hours. Anything less is thought to impair memory.

The National Sleep Foundation has recommended establishing a relaxing bedtime routine for example reading or listening to relaxing music to help with sleep. They have also mentioned reducing caffeine before bed to improve sleep quality.

4. Vitamin D

Surprisingly vitamin D has been shown to improve memory. Vitamin D declines in the body with age. This means that you should ideally be looking at ways to replace the lost vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiencies are becoming more common nowadays. Research done at Tuft University found that people who had lower vitamin D levels did not perform as well when tested.

You can improve your levels of vitamin D by increasing the amount of sun that you get. If you live in a hot climate this can easily be done. If you live in a colder climate you can get vitamin D through supplements and vitamin D rich foods such as eggs, salmon and mushrooms because of their exposure to UV light.

5. Reduce Alcohol Intake

Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol will affect your short and long-term memory. Binge drinking slows down nerves in the brain, in the area that helps to store memories.

Heavy drinking can also affect a part of your brain called the glutamate. Even small amounts of alcohol can affect the glutamate. This area of the brain is what can cause you to blackout.

Think about if you have ever drank heavily and then struggled to remember the end of your evening. This is because you have suffered short-term memory loss, due to the alcohol. If you do this regularly then over time it can cause long-term damage.

6. Use More of Your 5 Senses

One of the techniques that some people with good memories use is to use a number of their senses to remember things.

Smell is said to be one of the best senses to use for increasing memory. Smells that trigger memory is known as the Proust effect. Have you ever smelt freshly cut grass and thought of the summer or smelt chlorine and thought of a swimming pool, well this is the reason why.

Sight has also been linked to memory. We often process things by looking at them. We remember colours and images for example.

If you want to improve your memory of an event try to also remember what smells you encountered and what you saw.

Final Thoughts

You may look at other people and think they have a better memory than you, but it’s important to remember that your memory can be improved.

Improving your memory takes self-care, discipline and mindfulness. Many of the things that you can do to improve your memory are simple and effective. It is easy to introduce a few extra hours of sleep each night or reduce your alcohol intake.

We have busy lives and it may not be possible to do all of the techniques mentioned. Adding just one of the techniques mentioned may help you to see an improvement in your short and long-term memory.

Remember that you do not have to remember every single thing that you have ever learned and seen. Write things down so that you can refer back to it. This will also give you a chance to learn by referring back to what you have written down over a period of time.

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