Whether forgetting where did you put your keys or trying to remember some information into your head, sometimes we just need our brain to be less forgetful. So here are the 12 scientifically proven tips to help you improve memory.
1. Exercise More
The first thing you want to do is to hit the gym. However, don’t skip cardio this time!
MRI research show that regular aerobic exercise such as running improves performance on memory tasks. This is because your blood flow will increase as well as the hippocampus volume.
Hippocampus is a part of the brain that is critical for improving memory and learning. However, it could shrink averagely 1 to 2 percent per year in late adulthood. Therefore aerobic exercise can be a good way to fight age related declines of our memory.
2. Brain Food Diet
The more nutrition you eat, the sharper your brain works. To be naturally brainy, eat the following foods!
Blueberries
These berries are antioxidant powerhouses, protecting the brain from oxidative damage and stress that lead to premature ageing, Alzheimer’s, and dementia.
The flavonoids in blueberry also improve the communication between neutron, which leads to improve memory.
Fish Oil
A study found that people has omega fatty acid which can be found in fish oil has a larger brain volume in all age. This acid is responsible for making sure that your cell membranes are healthy and your neural pathways are strong.
Another study conducted by Brazilian researchers at the Federal University shows that the fish oil can even be used as a way to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. Fish oil also famously prescribed to children with attention disorders to help them focus and think clearly.
This omega fatty acids are vital to the brain health and it also assist on reducing the body inflammation.
Nuts
Especially for walnuts and almonds, they are some of the brain boosting foods on the planet. Nuts are a great source of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, vitamin B6, and vitamin E. This nutrition’s has been show to improve memory and brain power.
Beets
One of the simplest way to improve brain power is to include more beets in your diet. They’re high in nitrates, which help increase blood flow in parts of the brain related to executive functioning.
Beets also contains lots of vitamin B9 which can aid cognitive functioning and delay dementia. In addition, beets are rich in carotenoids which can help boost brain functioning and stave off depression
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil contains medium chains triglycerides that body uses for energy, leaving glucose for the brain that leads to improve memory.
Legumes
Legumes are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. These complex carbohydrates are also mixed with fiber that slow down absorption, providing a steady supply of glucose to the brain without the risk of sugar spikes associated with many other sugar sources.
Legumes are also rich in folate, a vitamin B that is critical to your brain function!
Broccoli
Broccoli is not only a superfood for the whole body, it’s also one of the best foods to boost brain power and improve your memory. It’s rich in calcium, vitamin C and B, Iron, Fiber, beta carotene.
These nutrition protect the brain against free radicals. They maintain proper blood circulation and remove heavy metals that can damage the brain.
Mint
Mint is a good source of vitamin A and C. Vitamin A can boost learning skills and increase your brain plasticity while Vitamin C is said to protect against cognitive decline.
According to the studies, even the scent of mint affects the brain functioning by boosting alertness and memory. It also helps improve basic clerical skills such as typing and memorization.
3. Chewing Gum
A fun fact that chewing gum while you’re studying can help you to improve memory.
This fact is supported by a study research found that participants who chewed gum during the study were getting more accurate result during the memory recall task.
A scientific explanation for this is because when chewing gum, it also promotes the hippocampus activity, which is one of the important part of brain memory.
4. Drink Coffee
Drink coffee is proven to improve the memory consolidation. A study found that consuming a caffeine after learning something improved the memory recall up to 24 hours later.
Another study in the journal Nature Neuroscience conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins found that caffeine enhance the consolidation of memory only if it is consumed after the learning.
5. Get Enough Sleep
Lack of sleep worsen your memory and has been associated with bad memories for a long time.
Scientist from the University of California found that not enough sleep can lead to memory weaken and caused Alzheimer’s. During a full night sleep, your brain cells remove toxic compounds that is dangerous for our brain.
If a person seldom gets enough sleep, it has a devastating effect on the brain cells.
Read Also: Sleep Hacks – 10 Tricks to Fall Asleep Easier When You Can’t Sleep
6. Drink More Water
Do you know that brain is sensitive to dehydration? Our brain is almost 80 percent consists of water. Therefore, even a moderate loss of fluid reduces vigilance and concentration that leads to the deterioration of short term memory.
7. Get an Art Hobby
An art hobby such as drawing and painting is scientifically proven to improve memory. This is because the contemplation of art work improves the interaction between brain areas while slowing its ageing.
A study by scientists that observe the influence of art on people aged 60 to 70 years old. 50 percent of them took a course in history while the other half took a course in painting. The result shows that those in painting course gave a better result in memory as compare to those who took history course.
Here are the lists of art hobby that you might try:
- Painting
- Han lettering
- Scrapbooking
- Origami
- Art Crafting
- Nail Art
8. Play Some Brain Games
Training your brain through some cognitive brain exercise is an effective way to improve memory. You might not realize, but some of the games are the example of the brain exercise!
Here are the brain games that will help to sharpen and boost your memory:
- Sudoku
- Crosswords
- Chess
- Tetris
- Word-recall games
Professional chess players train their brains to remember strategies and patterns that can be used in high-level games. Most players invest in advanced hardware and software solutions for a chess analysis to be successful. Yet, those opting to use Chessify.me’s cloud platform for chess training, enjoy advanced chess engines, and access the biggest online chess database with over 9 million games.
9. Consume Chocolate Regularly
This statement is such a rejoice for chocolate lover!
Chocolate contains natural neuroprotective compounds from the cocoa. The coca is rich of antioxidant abundant that are known as cocoa flavanols.
Besides, chocolate also contains a small portion of caffeine. Not for boosting your adrenaline and pump you through the night, but it helps to improve your concentration and memory.
10. Recall The Whole Activities Before Sleeping
Nowadays people are obsessed to get their body exercise. But the question is: do they exercise their brain too?
Now I’m gonna tell you one of the proven brain exercise that can help you to improve memory if you do it in daily basis.
Here is what you need to do: For everyday before going to bed, recall your complete day routine. Start from what did you do since you woke up this morning to the end of the day. However, you need to try to recall it in details. For instance, try to recall who are the people that you meet when you just entered office.
The more detail you can recall back, the better your memories will be. You’ll notice the difference just by a week if you consistently doing this everyday.
11. Cut Off Alcohol
Alcohol often linked to memory loss, according to Healthline. Alcohol impacted both short term and long term memory.
Short Term Memory
Short term memory loss is usually experienced by a regular drinker, or what we usually called by “blackout”. Blackout is the condition when you drink too much alcohol and you can’t remember what happened in the next morning.
This is happened because alcohol slowing down a part of the brain called “hippocampus”. This hippocampus is very crucial in maintaining memories. If the hippocampus slow down, the short term memory loss is possible to happen.
Long term memory
In fact, if you’re a heavy alcoholic, it will not only slow down your hippocampus, but also damaging it! It will crush the nerve cells that affecting long term memory.
According to Massachusetts General Hospital, the long term memory loss will occur if you drink 21 or more drinks in a week for more than 4 years.
12. Stress Management
Everyone lifestyle is different, some people are busy from their work while some of them are living their life to the fullest. Study found that stressing to much can have impact to the memory loss. Hence, handling stress is highly recommended in order to prevent it.
Yoga and meditation are known to one of the most stress relief activities. Meditation practice has been associated with the change of physical of brain structure.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of Buddhist insight meditation practitioners whom practice mindfulness meditation found that meditation is help to improve the hippocampus that we talked earlier and increase in cognitive limited capacity of the brain. The research indicates that meditation increase the cordial plasticity and neural plasticity.
Bottom Line
Memory is crucial to maintain in every aspect of life. Either for relationship, daily activity, work, and remembering some important event.
Although we can’t prevent ageing aspect to the memory loss, there are still ways to improve and fix it. If you don’t want your beloved parents to start forgetting you, share this post to them and start to practice it!
