Changes in memory as you get older—frustrating as they might be—are completely normal.
“It might become more difficult to access things as quickly, but you get into that state of, ‘If you give me a couple minutes, or you give me a cue or a clue, then yes, it’ll come back,’” says Dr. Daniel Lesley, a neurologist at Remo Health, a virtual dementia care company. “You aren’t quite as sharp as you were, but as long as you can set up strategies for yourself—like learning to write things down—you can make information much more accessible and know what’s important.”
We asked Lesley to share what to do the moment you start to feel your memory slipping, and little things you can do every day to keep your brain sharp.
Figure out if something reversible is going on
If you’ve noticed you’re having more frequent memory lapses, mention it to your primary care doctor—and be prepared to share specific examples. You could be experiencing something reversible. “Anybody of any age can look like they have some form of dementia if they’re very stressed, if their sleep is poor, if their B12 is low, or if they have an ongoing infection or inflammation or some other psychological thing happening,” Lesley says. For example, infections like Lyme disease and autoimmune diseases like lupus are linked to brain fog that causes cognitive difficulties such as trouble concentrating or recalling words, as well as a drop in working memory, which allows people to do tasks and solve problems without looking up information. “If you feel that you’re having problems,” Lesley says, “look at the things we can fix.”
Set up a routine
The more things you can automate, the more reserves you’ll have to focus on whatever you’re doing at the moment. “If you’re juggling a crazy schedule that always changes, or you’re putting things in different places, then you’re having to relearn or redo the same things differently every time,” Lesley says. “That’s a cognitive load.”
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Instead, make it a point to do your activities at the same time each day (and consider using alarms to signal it’s time to start each one), set up spots where you always drop your keys or set your glasses, and make a to-do list that you cross off as you go along.
Exercise your brain
Many so-called brain games won’t actually help keep you sharp. If you play a computer game where you follow a fish with your cursor, for example, “then you’ll be good at using a mouse to catch fish,” Lesley says. “It doesn’t necessarily translate to anything that matters to you.”
Instead, prioritize increasing your cognitive reserves through continuing education like signing up for a class that fascinates you or using an app to learn a new language, he suggests.
Talk to other people every day
The single best thing most people can do to improve their memory and thinking skills is have a social circle. “Social activity is what people are built for,” Lesley says. Talking to others expands the pool of what you’re exposed to every day, which helps ensure you’re constantly learning. Plus, “you don’t know what’s going to come out of another person’s mouth, so you keep yourself sharper to respond to those comments,” he says.
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If you have trouble hearing what your friends are saying, talk to your doctor. Research has found that mild hearing loss doubles the risk of dementia, while moderate loss triples it, and severe loss increases it fivefold. “If you have hearing problems, that interferes with your social activity, which interferes with your memory more than almost anything else,” Lesley says.
Write things down—or make a jingle about them
“If you just listen to somebody, then it’s going in one ear and it may be going out the other,” Lesley says. If you write it down, however, and then read it out loud—or make a catchy jingle or joke about it—you’ll have many more routes back to easily summoning whatever it is you want to remember.
Cut back on clutter
Keep your life as uncomplicated as possible, Lesley advises. That doesn’t just mean monitoring how much stuff is on your desk or in your office. Even your wall art matters: “If you’ve got different pictures on every part of your wall, and you’re getting distracted every time by a different picture, then there’s more to keep track of,” he says. Going in a more minimalist direction could benefit your brain health.
Take care of financial concerns right away
Tending to money matters efficiently can curb stress and anxiety. Budgeting, planning for the future, and enlisting professional help if you need it around financial concerns is good for your brain. “The anxiety of living on the edge actually can drop your IQ,” Lesley says. Research has found that when farmers are dealing with financial concerns like damage to their crops, for example, their IQ dropped 13 points compared to when they weren’t anxious about their financial stability.
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Not all financial concerns are in your control. But taking care of the ones that are, by incorporating a financial routine, “will do wonders in terms of memory and thinking,” he adds.
