There are many things we’d like to forget. Our middle school fashion choices, our decision to invest in dot-com stocks, or that relationship we sunk a few miserable years into are some examples that come to mind. But with these few exceptions, memory is a precious resource on which we rely to navigate our careers, relationships, and day-to-day minutiae. If preserving your gray matter is something you care about, there are a few habits you can develop to help. Here are 5 scientifically validated ways to boost memory. Meditate Is there anything that doesn’t benefit from a mindfulness practice? You can add memory to the list. Though spending some time focusing on the present moment daily will help boost memory, meditation does so in an interesting, indirect way. Psychologists and psychiatrists among you will likely be familiar with the term proactive interference. You can think of this as a glitch between short term and long term memory. Let’s say you’re trying to learn a new approach to something you already know how to do, like suturing a wound. Proactive interference might inhibit learning the new skill, because there’s a memory conflict between the new information (the new suturing method) and the information that was once relevant (your old approach to suturing). A 2019 study published in Brain Imaging and Behavior showed that a 4-week mindfulness training program guarded against proactive interference. The thinking here is that mindfulness training may keep the mind focused on the present moment (in this case, learning the new task), filtering out competing theories and/or memories. Additionally, researchers said, the training resulted in an increase in size of the hippocampus, one of the brain’s key memory systems. Focus on key information Think back to the last serious conversation you had with your boss — one that contained things you had to remember or act on. You probably can’t replay the entire conversation from memory, like a video, right? Most of us remember the finer points, or the most important facts that we’ll need in the future. This is a function of episodic memory. Episodic memories are unique to you. Likely, your boss won’t have the same memory of the event and that’s because they had different priorities during the conversation. There are specific ways to enhance episodic memory, according to this Harvard Men’s Health Watch post. Once again, a mindfulness practice will help you here, enabling you to focus all of your attention on key details, like a name, while tuning out distractions. Another useful technique is relying on mental cues. Using the name as an example, if you’re having trouble recalling it, try recalling other facts about the person — where they live, their hobbies, if they have children. This will often shake loose the information you’re searching for. Play brain games Spend some time perusing the app store on your phone, and you’ll find a few of these. But do they actually work? Research suggests that while brain games won’t reduce the risk of dementia alone, they may boost specific memory-related skills. You also don’t need to shell out for any specific brain-boosting games or services. Any game that’s mentally stimulating, such as chess, seems to help. For example, a 2017 University of Exeter study showed that participants who did daily crossword puzzles performed better on reasoning, attention, and memory tests. The researchers clarified that while they can’t say that word puzzles will give you a sharper brain, they may stave off mental decline. Their findings were echoed in a 2014 Journal of Aging Health literature review. Researchers concluded that in people ages 65 and over, word puzzles, memory games, and visual recognition tasks boosted memory. “This finding supports the theory that keeping the mind active, in addition to regular physical exercise, may help slow the onset of dementia,” researchers wrote. Exercise Speaking of exercise, there are 2 categories of exercise that provide some benefit for memory, according to a 2013 Neuroscience & Behavioral Reviews study. But if you want to reap the benefit, you’re going to have to do some cardio (sorry!). Category 1 is acute exercise. In the immediate aftermath of intense cardio, you’ll likely see a short-term memory boost. Researchers say this is because the vigorous activity juices the molecular processes of memory. Category 2 is long-term exercise. Think of this as repeating your chosen form of cardio over an extended period of time — preferably your lifetime. “Long-term exercise optimizes the molecular machinery responsible for memory processing,” researchers wrote. Essentially, the chemical functions of memory become more efficient over time. So, for the maximum memory benefit, according to the research, do cardio, and do it regularly. Diet The effects of diet on memory, though well-researched, aren’t exactly slam dunks. That’s because the most prevalent studies are rat-based. While most of us aren’t rats, perhaps our rodent friends can give us some insights as to how diet affects our gray matter. A 2008 study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease looked at how saturated fat and a high cholesterol diet affect hippocampal morphology in middle-aged rats. Researchers concluded that diets high in saturated fat hurt memory and hippocampal morphology. The rats that they pumped full of saturated fat made more errors navigating mazes, compared to the control group. The sat-fat-fed rats also showed decreased dendritic integrity in their brains, correlating to memory errors. Source
