What causes forgetfullness?
We all experience occasional forgetfulness. Our memories are an integral part of who we are, and memory is one of the main cognitive skills that allows us to be independent in our daily life as well as efficient in our work tasks. Memory is a skill that can be vulnerable to certain environmental stressors and is very much dependent on our psychological health. We can experience a decline in memory when feeling acutely anxious or having a lower mood. We can also experience a decline in memorization during periods of acute fatigue or poor sleep. In women, memory can also be affected by menstrual cycles and hormonal changes, particularly during pregnancy. One in five (1/5) women experience acute inattention and forgetfulness a week before their menstrual cycle. Memory and attention can also be impacted by various health conditions such as: Dementia or mild cognitive impairment (a state in between normal aging and dementia), ADHD, COVID-19, cardiovascular problems etc.
When should you consult a Dr about your forgetfullness?
Whenever your symptoms significantly interfere with your abilities to complete work or routine tasks independently and efficiently, it is important to consult a professional for a memory assessment.
How can you improve your occasional forgetfullness and long-term cognitive health?
Repeat and Retrieve
It is important to practice repetition and retrieving information you need to remember. We should test ourselves daily and try remembering, for example, what we ate the day before or information about a documentary we watched. This will help train our abilities to "retrieve" information from long-term memory and contributes to improving forgetfulness.
Control Anxiety and Depression
Untreated anxiety and depression can be toxic on our cognitive skills. It is therefore important to regularly practice breathing and mindfulness techniques and learn appropriate coping mechanism to control our anxiety symptoms.
Chunk Information
It is important to chunk information we would like to memorize. The more organized the information, the easier it is for us to recall them. For example, before a trip to the supermarket, it would be beneficial for one’s memory health to memorize the list of items rather than writing them down. Memorizing that information can be done by categorizing each item from the list and visualizing the supermarket aisles.
Visualizing your trip before leaving the house
Forgetfulness may lead you to forget your phone, your keys or where you parked your car. To overcome these difficulties, it is important to go in the habit of visualizing the trips before initiating them. In other words, if I were to go to a doctor’s appointment, I would visualize myself going into my car, driving all the way to the clinic, seeing the doctor, paying etc. I would then remember to take all items I should have with me to the doctor’s office, including my car keys, phone, money etc. the visualization technique is also important for stimulation of our memory skills as it allows us to stimulate parts of our brain that support memorization.
Practice Daily Cognitive Exercises
It is known that cognitive exercises help with long-term cognitive health. It is indeed important to practice various tasks such as Sudoku or other brain games. Nonetheless, repeating same tasks daily, is not the best way to improve and preserve our cognitive abilities. The best outcome can be achieved by regularly changing the types of games or tasks that are being done. The more routine the exercise, the less its benefits. The more novel the task, requiring reasoning and effort, the better. Learning a new language is also a very good cognitive exercise and has been linked to a reduced risk of dementia later in life.
Physical Exercises
Physical exercise, particularly exercises that allows you to reach 120 bpm throughout the lengths of the workout, serves as a neuroprotective measure and may reduce the risk of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.