6 tips from a neurologist to keep your memory sharp – 03/16/2023 – Equilibrium

As the years go by, remembering things seems more and more difficult. Where did I leave the car keys? What is the name of the daughter of that distant cousin? What was the name of the actor in that movie I loved so much?

But this process of memory erosion is not inevitable. Who guarantees it is Richard Restak, neurologist and professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the George Washington University Hospital, in the United States. He is the author of about 20 books on the human mind.

The renowned scientist is 81 years old, with gray hair and an impeccable memory. And he claims that if we exercise our memory daily, in the same way we do with the body, it is possible to keep it active and in top shape.

In conversation with BBC News Mundo (the BBC’s Spanish-language service), Restak offered fundamental advice to train and strengthen our memory.

1. Read fiction books

Non-fiction books are a great source of knowledge and information, but novels are much more useful for activating the memory.

“Nonfiction books, like the last one I wrote, aren’t very demanding in terms of memory. You can read the table of contents and focus on what matters, for example,” says Restak.

“But fiction is much more demanding from the point of view of memory, especially when it comes to a complex novel”, explains the professor. “There, characters appear and disappear. You can meet someone in the second chapter who will then only appear in chapter 10.”

Retaining the thread of the story, the bonds between the characters and the details of the plot requires a greater memory effort compared to non-fiction books.

2. Turn words into pictures

This is a basic principle. Restak suggests, for example, that if you are introduced to someone with the surname Greenstone – Pedraverde, in Portuguese – you should visualize an intense green stone in your head.

This simple strategy will help your mind remember that last name without any problems.

“If you don’t do that and stick with the words, it could happen that you later don’t remember if it’s Pedrazul or Pedrapreta, for example”, he explains.

Another trick used by the expert is to create a mental map of places you are very familiar with, like your neighborhood, to relate them to things you want to remember.

If the goal, at some point, is to remember to buy milk and bread, Restak matches the words to two places on his map to compose dramatic images that are hard to forget.

“I imagine my house turned on its side, with milk coming out of the chimney (as if it were a milk carton) and spilling over the street”, he describes. “And when I walk past the library and look out the window, I imagine the shelves are filled with slices of bread instead of books.”

3. Play mind games with your friends (and when you’re alone)

One of Restak’s favorite games for parties or family gatherings, which is an excellent memory exercise, is the so-called “20 questions” game.

The game consists of a player (or team) thinking of a person, thing or place, while the other player (or team) must guess what or who it is, asking up to 20 questions that can only be answered with “yes”. or not”.

The game’s difficulty lies in the fact that both sides need to remember both the questions and the answers, so as not to give false clues, not to repeat questions and arrive, by elimination, at the correct answer.

If you’re alone and you’re a sports lover, for example, try to remember all the players on your favorite team. Once they’re in your mind, start alphabetizing them and list the players in that order.

4. Use technology (smartly)

Carrying a list of products we want to buy at the supermarket on our cell phone, or a photo of something we’ve never bought but want to try, isn’t necessarily a bad idea.

The use of cell phones and similar devices weakens our memory, but we can use technology to our advantage.

When you go to the supermarket, for example, Restak recommends trying to remember first what you went to buy and only then consult the list, to avoid forgetting something.

The same happens with new products: try to remember what they look like and, once you get it, confirm it with a photo to see if it’s right.

The idea, according to the professor, is “not to replace memory with the device, but to use the brain first and then check its performance”.

5. Take a ‘siesta’

In some countries, siesta is not very well known, but several studies have shown that taking a short nap is essential to help memory. Restak takes a nap every day and claims that it helps to absorb information, consolidate it and encode the memory, so that he can access it later.

“In fact, when we took two groups of students and allowed one of them to take a nap after learning something and the other not, we observed that the group that slept a little learned much better,” says Restak.

The teacher’s recommendation is to sleep from 20 to 40 minutes. “If you go too late, you’ll interfere with your night’s sleep. So set your alarm or have someone wake you up.”

6. Improve your diet

More than specific foods, Restak states that the main thing is to avoid certain foods, such as ultra-processed ones – those that contain excess fats, salts, preservatives, etc.

“These foods are not good for memory because, in the long run, they reduce blood circulation in memory-related regions and cause hypertension and diabetes,” he explains. “These are factors that can cause dementia.”