Humans are cognitive beings that possess a voracious thinking power. The memory power that human beings possess is one of our greatest assets. It is this memory power that allows us to learn and understand things progressively over the years. Memory is not just important for learning and understanding, but it is the foundation of all our thoughts. Having a sharper memory allows you to lead a healthier lifestyle. It allows you to go about your day seamlessly and perform important tasks. A good memory is important for successful jobs, careers in healthcare and relationships. This leaves a lot of people with the burning question of how to increase memory power.
A gradual decrease in memory power is observed in humans as we age. This decline in memory power, is more profound in some people. While small memory lapses may be normal, some people lose a lot of memory power. This impairs their daily life and their abilities to carry out their daily roles. Such people often look for ways on how to increase memory power. There are a lot of causes due to which someone’s memory power may deteriorate. However, everyone needs to have a sharp memory. There are a lot of tips and tricks that people can use to improve their own memory power.
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Best tips on how to increase memory power
Memory power may go down due to a host of reasons. A medical condition like Alzheimer’s causes severe deterioration of memory power. Memory power may go down due to old age. Genetics also play a role in determining memory power and its deterioration over time. One way could be to look for a medical reason behind loss of memory power and then try to solve it. However, this is not always financially viable. A lot of people with no underlying conditions also suffer from lapses in memory power. Hence, you can follow some general techniques to boost your memory power.
These techniques can be followed by anyone regardless of the cause behind the deterioration of their memory power. Mind you, that these techniques aim at naturally boosting memory power and not at curing underlying medical conditions. People with medical conditions may see the only limited output from such natural activities aimed at boosting memory power. However, the average human being who wants to improve their memory can benefit a lot from these memory-boosting activities. Read on to find out about how to increase memory power by doing simple lifestyle changes.
Avoid processed sugar
High intake of processed sugar causes the memory power in people to go down. Processed sugar leads to rapid spikes in blood sugar levels. This is detrimental not just for memory power but also for your overall health. High sugar intake can spoil the memory power, especially short-term memory. Higher sugar intake also corresponds to a lower brain volume. The short-term memory part of the brain is particularly hit in people who go for high sugar diets. The only way to counteract this is that you should lower the intake of processed sugar. Processed sugar is largely found in sodas and other processed food items.
Another problem of high sugar intake is the effect it has on insulin regulation. Insulin is the hormone that allows entry of glucose into the cells from the bloodstream. High sugar intake leads to irregular spikes in blood sugar levels. This, in turn, causes untimely insulin spikes. These insulin spikes adversely affect the mental state of mind of people. Due to these irregular insulin spikes, people find it difficult to concentrate. This worsens the memory power of people. Furthermore, these insulin spikes also mess with the sleep cycle of people. Without proper sleep, the memory power of people is sure to go down.
Hence, processed sugar impacts the memory power of people indirectly as well. This leads to a host of memory problems and impacts the overall well-being of people as well. Food and drinks with high levels of processed sugar should be avoided at all costs. This is one of the major ways of how to increase memory power.
Choose to consume fish oils
Another technique of how to increase memory power is to bring dietary changes in your life. This ensures that you lead an overall healthy lifestyle which improves your memory power. Fish oils are an important supplement which you can incorporate into your diet for better memory power. Fish oils are rich in EPA and DHA which are important Omega-3 Fatty Acids. EPA stands for Eicosapentaenoic acid while DHA stands for Docosahexaenoic acid. The unsaturated fatty acids are important for overall good health and brain development. These unsaturated fatty acids play an important role in reducing the pace of mental decline and memory power in people.
Fish oils rich in these Omega-3 Fatty acids are able to lower the speed of cognitive decline. They are able to bring about a significant improvement in the short-term memory of people. Omega-3 fatty acids also have a lot of cardiovascular benefits. Fish oils should be consumed as a supplement regularly in order to improve memory power. In fact, starting the consumption of fish oil at an early stage shows long-term improvements in memory power. The working memory of people is also positively affected by consuming fish oils.
Meditation
This is one of the most underrated ways of how to increase memory power. Meditation helps you improve your focus and your memory power. Meditation has a positive impact on the grey matter of the brain. Thus, it directly correlates with higher brain and memory capacities. Meditation has a host of benefits for your overall health as well. It allows you to repel the chaos in your head and focus on just one chain of thought. Greater focus on the task at hands improves your retention power. Meditation increases your retention power as you go about your daily life. Your short-term memory will see a great improvement within a few days of adopting meditation. For lasting effects, you need to practice meditation regularly.
To see an impact of meditation on long-term memory, you need to incorporate meditation in your daily life. Set up a daily schedule where you devote time to meditation each day. Meditation done in the morning soon after waking up, positively impacts long-term memory. Meditation is a great way of how to increase memory power since it involves no external intervention. It requires no consumption of any additional substance or any significant lifestyle change. All you need to do is set aside a little time in your daily schedule for meditation. This small change will yield both short-term and long-term outputs.
Proper Weight
Having a proper weight is the best way of how to increase memory power in students. In students and children, the brain capacity is growing. Having a proper weight will ensure proper fat and insulin levels which will lead to proper brain development. This, in turn, ensures the sound development of memory power and brain capacities. Maintaining a proper weight is also important for adults. Having a proper weight ensures adequate availability of nutrients to the brain. Being overweight can cause a lot of problems in terms of memory power. It can lead to clogging of arteries which hinders blood and oxygen supply to the brain. Moreover, it can cause untimely insulin and glucose spikes which adversely affects the memory power of people.
Obesity has been directly found to speed up cognitive decline. It hinders the normal functioning of the body overall. Moreover, obesity can cause physical discomfort while performing certain tasks. This worsens the focusing power and retention power of a person. Obesity can also bring about permanent genetic changes. Sometimes, these changes can impact memory power associated genes in people. Maintaining proper weight is hence an important way of improving memory power. This can be done regulating the diet and performing proper as well as regular exercise. If you are already overweight, then you may have to go in a weight-loss regimen for a while. Once your weight is normal, you can opt for a normal and healthy lifestyle with proper diet and regular exercise.
Good Sleep
Another important parameter in how to improve memory retention is getting good and sound sleep. Sleep is an important factor in boosting memory power. Without proper sleep, your mind will never be fully alert and this will cause retention problems. Moreover, good sleep is also important in allowing you to focus better on the tasks at hand. Improper or interrupted sleep leads to shorter attention spans and forgetfulness. REM sleep is an important phase of sleep that helps build memory power. Any interruptions during REM or ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ sleep is detrimental to the growth of cognitive abilities and memory power.
7 to 9 hours of sleep is vital for normal functioning of the brain and boosting memory power. Without proper sleep memory consolidation will be an issue. You will find it hard to commit things to long-term memory. This is especially problematic in youngsters. Their cognitive abilities and memory power are still developing. Without proper sleep, the entire growth of cognitive abilities takes a severe hit. People who get sound sleep find it easier to commit things to long-term memory. They are also able to understand things better and perform better at tasks. Hence to develop a better memory power, sleeping well at night regularly is vital.
 Reduce Alcohol intake
A lot of people in the modern era consume copious amounts of alcohol. This a huge problem from the point of view of memory power. Alcohol is rapidly absorbed by the stomach and affects the Hippocampus part of the brain. Alcohol has a direct neural impact on the brain. People with alcohol in their bloodstream find it harder to focus on and retain things. Moreover, consuming alcohol affects the dopamine receptors of the brain. Consuming alcohol has long-term repercussions in terms of memory power. Alcohol as a substance depresses brain activity and causes lapses in memory.
Over time, people who consume alcohol find it difficult to remember things. Some people may not even remember the things that they do under the influence of alcohol. Moreover, it causes long-term depression of brain activity. This makes it harder for people who consume alcohol to retain things and focus on things. Hence, to develop a better memory power, you must give up drinking alcohol altogether.
Brain Training
Brain training is a good way to boost your memory power. You can play a lot of intellectually stimulating games to do this. Brain training involves improving the logical thinking side of the brain. It involves training the brain to see patterns and apply logic in real-time scenarios. This leads to the development of the brain’s memory power. The brain is now able to retain logical skills and apply them when needed. Brain training improves the cognitive thinking of the brain overall.
Brain training helps in the development of better neural pathways that enhance long-term retention of information. You can try playing logical games or puzzles in order to train your brain better. Brain training also helps the brain to focus better. Better focus leads to higher retention of data about the tasks at hand. People who indulge in brain training for a few hours each day end up performing much better at tasks involving memory retention. Another major advantage of Brain training is that it speeds up recollection power. The faster you recollect things from your memory, the faster you can apply them in real life. Our memory is of no use to us if we can’t tap into it when we need information. You can do some brain training for a few hours every day in order to significantly boost your memory power.
Final Thoughts
Memory power is something that can be a great asset to people. There are a lot of things you can do in order to boost your memory power. A few lifestyle changes and good habits can go a long way in boosting memory power. It is now time that you implement some of the tactics mentioned above and boost your memory power.
