Forgetfulness, the reasons for which can be very different, today is observed not only in the elderly, as it happened before, but also in very young women and men. Moreover, doctors are not even surprised that this problem often worries students and school-age children, who, it would seem, should not worry about their memory at all. This article will talk about the name of the disease, when a person forgets everything, and what common causes cause memory problems.

It should be noted right away that the disease of forgetfulness is most susceptible to modern man because a large amount of very different information coming from radio, television and especially the Internet is assigned to his brain every day. In this state, the human brain can independently block most of the unnecessary information so as not to completely overload.

Important! Scientists have found that the brain of healthy people can sort at least a tenth of all incoming information and not perceive it at all. That is why, in a way, forgetfulness is a physiological norm that allows a person to correctly assimilate information and not "clog" his memory with it.

There are the following main reasons that a person's memory is impaired and he claims that he forgets words during a conversation, especially if he carefully tries to remember everything at the right time:

1. Lack of sleep.
2. Various diseases of the central nervous system and mental disruptions.
3. Vascular atherosclerosis.
4. Diabetes.
5. Alzheimer's disease.
6. Diseases of the thyroid gland.
7. Osteochondrosis.
8. Depression.
9. Lack of nutrients.

Consider each of these reasons bad memory in details.

Sleep disturbance

The problem of lack of sleep (see) is very common today, especially among working people who can work at night. Also, with regular watching TV or spending time on the Internet until late at night, the human brain does not get enough time to rest and fails in the form of memory impairment.

In addition, you should know that disturbed sleep can negatively reflect on the psycho-emotional background of a person, making him scattered, disrupting the reaction rate.

In this state, there is no need to rush to take pills, because the problem is simple to solve - you just need to normalize your sleep, sleep at least eight hours a day. This fully compensates for the time spent on rest, because then the brain will work much better.

Trauma

Head injuries are a common cause of forgetfulness. Moreover, the more complex the injury, the more serious the consequences can be in the form of memory impairment, nausea, weakness, and even deterioration of vision. In order to prevent the development of undesirable complications, immediately after the injury, you should consult a doctor, diagnose and treat.

Mental malfunctions

Forgetfulness, the causes and treatment of which is considered by a neurologist, often develops due to mental illness and disorders. This may be, for example, Korsakov's syndrome, which involves a violation of remembering current events. This condition is treated for a long time. It sometimes requires lifelong supportive care. In many ways, treatment depends on the specific cause of the disease.

Atherosclerosis

Many patients forget words when speaking (the reasons, symptoms depend on the neglect of the disease). This may be due to, in which blood circulation and blood flow to different parts of the brain tissue are impaired. This, in turn, can easily impair a person's memory. Treatment of this condition is long-term. It requires the most accurate adherence to all medical prescriptions.

Diabetes

When diabetes mellitus occurs in a person, the vessels are severely affected. This leads to a disruption in the flow of blood to the brain. Signs of diabetes can include intense thirst, fatigue, dry mucous membranes, and frequent urination. Also, sometimes there are jumps in blood pressure, impaired appetite. With these symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Alzheimer's disease

This disease is just that pathology in which a person's memory and intellect are irreversibly impaired. Most often, it affects the elderly after the age of 60. At the first suspicion of this disease, you should immediately consult a doctor. With a timely detected pathology, it is easier to treat it and you can achieve a slower progression of forgetfulness.

Diseases of the thyroid gland

With such diseases, a person experiences an acute shortage of the production of certain hormones, which affect the general deterioration of a person's well-being, as well as a decrease in memory. In this state of affairs, you need to contact an endocrinologist and get tested. Treatment involves taking medications, adhering to a diet with iodine (eating fish, persimmons, nuts, seaweed, and other foods rich in this useful substance).

Osteochondrosis

With this disease, the blood circulation in the brain is severely disturbed in a person, which leads to memory failures. Moreover, sometimes osteochondrosis even leads to a stroke, so it must be treated. The symptoms of this condition are headaches, weakness and numbness in the fingers.

Depression

- this is not only a violation of the human psyche, but also a condition that can impair memory. To eliminate it, the patient should take antidepressants, which will help normalize his condition and normalize the psycho-emotional background.

Lack of nutrients

With a meager, monotonous diet, a person does not receive even half of the vitamin he needs. The same applies to frequent dieting, which leads to a deficiency of nutrients and memory impairment. To prevent this, it is important to eat properly and in a balanced way. The diet should be rich in vitamins, minerals, calcium and other essential substances.

So forgetfulness is not a "character trait." If you suddenly start to forget words, events or people, it is worth worrying. You can not engage in self-diagnosis and even more self-medication. It is better to immediately contact a neurologist, undergo an examination. Only a doctor prescribes medications after establishing the cause.

What I planned to do, what I wanted to say in a minute, completely falls out of my memory. Sometimes I go to the closet and can't remember why. Or I’ll start talking, but why I’m talking and what to say next, I don’t know.

I began to forget the appearance and names of familiar people. I was walking down the street, my teacher was walking towards me. I see that his appearance seems to be familiar, but where I saw him, I don’t remember. I feverishly remember if we know each other well enough to say hello. I thought and thought, just in case, I said hello. And then, having already walked 500 meters, I remembered that this is our teacher and conducts computer science with us (do not think that I am an irresponsible student, skipping couples, therefore I cannot guess the teachers! not a single disrespectful pass for all the years of study and I am going to graduate with honors). And this is now more and more often - I am walking down the street and cannot remember whether I know the person or not.

My forgetfulness really interferes with my studies, and why this is happening, I cannot understand, because I am 20 years old, it's too early even before sclerosis!

Something seems to me that there is constant stress in your life. Judging by one of your previous questions and this one. Or some kind of autoimmune disease. Although, a pinched nerve in the cervical spine can also have such manifestations.

In general - analyze your life over the past couple of years. What has changed, how easy is it to piss you off? How often do you get nervous about this or that reason? Did it start after entering the university, or even before that? Perhaps you are just stressed and your nervous system does not cope with it, thus there is a psychosomatic disorder. Here is my girlfriend - as soon as the session approached, she immediately started to get sick with something 🙂

If it's stress, you should limit communication with people who cause you unpleasant emotions or nerves, change your lifestyle, walk more, bother less and, in general, find someone to get infected with healthy indifference 🙂

If there is no stress as such, remember, have you ever been in situations in which the discs in the spine could have shifted? If so, a chiropractor will help here, just do not go to the first person you see - be sure to ask your friends, maybe someone was with such a specialist and knows who is breathing what. If you are not far from Kiev, then I can tell you too - I know a very good specialist.

In general, it is best to consult a doctor. It is advisable not to see a therapist in a district clinic - I know not by hearsay how they treat. Find a normal neurologist, or even better a rheumatologist - if it is autoimmune, then sooner or later you will come to him anyway. So it's better early. If it is not autoimmune, then he himself will refer you to the right specialist. And so, according to the description of the symptoms, no one will diagnose you - there can be many options, up to STDs (pah-pah, just not that), some of them have similar symptoms.

I am certainly not a doctor. This condition may be due to stress, lack of sleep. More serious may be a microstroke. Maybe just an elementary lack of oxygen. If the neck does not hurt and the head is not associated with pinching.

see a neurologist, describe the situation, you will be sent for an MRI and most likely will be suspected multiple sclerosis and this can be! And so cortexin, piracetam and neuromidin will help you, I think the doctor will definitely prescribe them.

Forgetfulness. Causes, symptoms and what to do with forgetfulness

It used to be thought that forgetfulness affects only the elderly, or, in extreme cases, some middle-aged people. Now doctors are no longer surprised that problems with memorization haunt young people - even students and schoolchildren, whose brains are considered "flexible" and capable of perceiving the most difficult learning. And it's not about memorization teaching material- he is often not remembered due to lack of interest, but that young people forget about ordinary things in the same way as adults or the elderly. Someone might get lost in familiar places; cannot remember recent events, conversations, books read, etc.

Of course, this happens more often with older people, but the reasons, as studies show, in most cases are the same.

Forgetfulness - symptoms and causes

Western doctors, worried about the increase in the number of "forgetful" patients, decided to investigate the problem, and found the new kind"Diseases". They called it "the syndrome of a vain life" - how can you not recall the biblical expression "vanity of vanities - everything is vanity!"

The life of modern people from a young age is filled with many events that occur so quickly that normal memorization becomes impossible. Huge amounts of information are "dumped" on us: television is no longer what it used to be - hundreds of channels; radio became aggressive due to the flow of advertisements and crime news; there is no escape from mobile phones - we are always “on a leash”. And without the Internet, most people of working age can no longer imagine life: addictions are generated, and it is difficult to fight them - for many of us, using the world wide web is directly related to work.

It is not surprising that the brain breaks down and begins to block access to information so as not to "boil". Hence the conclusion: for most people, forgetfulness is not a disease or mental disorder. Experts note that even healthy people are normally prone to forgetting at least 1/10 of all the information entering the brain, and today there is so much information that you can not talk about the norm.

Forgetfulness reasons

TO frequent reasons forgetfulness refers to lack of sleep, and this is now "sinned" by almost everyone - both students and working people. Many employees of different firms and companies take work "home", sit at it until late at night, and get up a little in the morning: after all, you still need to get to work - residents of megacities know this very well. Even in the absence of workload, people manage to find themselves a bunch of "urgent" and "urgent" things, or sit in front of the TV or computer, instead of going to bed.

If this situation is prolonged, the brain lacks rest, the ability to react and remember is reduced, so that forgetfulness is a direct consequence of the lifestyle. In this direction, studies were also carried out, and it turned out that after a week of regular lack of sleep - less than 6 hours a day - young and healthy subjects began to lose their memory. Doctors consider this brain reaction normal, and recommend not to swallow pills (nootropics and antidepressants), but to start going to bed and get up on time. Do not be afraid that “extra” sleep will “take up time”: our brain is better at sorting and assimilating information in a dream, so those whose work is connected with large amounts of information must get enough sleep.

Other causes of frequent forgetfulness.

• The body does not have enough fluid - the brain suffers in the first place. The brain function deteriorates even with a slight lack of fluid, but we do not drink so much pure water, preferring coffee, tea, sugary drinks and soda.
• Memory impairment can occur due to frequent stress. During stress, the brain is heavily overloaded, and the nervous system loses vitamins and minerals: they literally burn out - the cells have nothing to feed on.

• Also, the nutrition of the brain can deteriorate due to excessive enthusiasm for diets for weight loss: most often women who "sit" on such diets sharply reduce the amount of fats and carbohydrates - for the brain, which needs glucose and fatty acids, this is a shock.
• Alcohol and smoking provoke the development of forgetfulness: they generally poison the brain, cause vasospasm, slow down thinking processes and reduce the speed of perception.

In addition to the above, forgetfulness can be caused by the following problems: chronic intoxication, syndrome chronic fatigue, depression, craniocerebral trauma and tumors, atherosclerosis of the vessels of the brain, infections and inflammations - after they are healed, forgetfulness recedes; hypertension, epilepsy, menopause, thyroid diseases, etc.

Separately, it should be said about Alzheimer's disease. The disease, which modern medicine considers incurable, affects the elderly and the elderly, but early forms can develop after 40 years - this is relatively rare, and is more often associated with heredity. Experts still do not say anything definite about the causes of Alzheimer's disease, the characteristic symptoms of which are the growing impairment of memory and other functions of the central nervous system, but they still managed to find out: the fading of neuronal functions is caused by a decrease in the level of special hormones responsible for the transmission of information - neurotransmitters ... These substances are synthesized in our brain from amino acids - therefore, memory and attention depend on metabolism and other vital processes - lifestyle and nutrition are the determining factors here.

What to do with forgetfulness

If the examination does not reveal serious health problems, do not worry - forgetfulness can be dealt with. Experience shows that people who are often exposed to bad mood, memory weakens faster, so it's better to be optimistic. Sports perfectly helps to improve cerebral circulation: stress is relieved, and cells receive more nutrition.

Here we will remember about nutrition for the brain. If you like meat, go for red beef, beef and veal liver, and dark turkey meat - they have more iron than other types. Many vegetables, fruits, seafood are rich in iron - with a reasonable approach, there should be no problems; sea ​​fish is a necessary product, like natural vegetable oils, but not all carbohydrates are useful. Potatoes, black bread, and whole-flour pasta provide the brain with energy, but cakes, white pastries and sweets do not contribute to a good memory. B vitamins are very important: cheese, legumes, nuts and seeds, buckwheat, natural yoghurts, low-fat milk, brewer's yeast, eggs, green vegetables, etc.

Memory training against forgetfulness

At the same time, it is worth training memory.

• Having received any information, try to delve into it deeper - this way it will be more accurately "imprinted" in the memory.
• Information can be "encoded" by associating it with a known word, object, image or event. Transposition into a poetic form also helps - the search for rhyme in itself is an effective exercise for the brain.

Going to bed, remember in as much detail as possible the whole day, to the smallest detail: your actions, events, people you met, etc. - over time, such a training will result in excellent results.

Help. What to do with memory? I forget everything

But keep in mind, I was just speculating. Since she herself went through this. Do not despair, just approach this issue correctly, without haste and without emotion.

Then I analyzed it and realized that I was doing everything out of habit, without thinking. Had to come up with a new habit, like. Stop: what should I do and that is good -)))

Here's another example: In the evening I throw a toy in the middle of the room, so that in the morning I remember that I have to take to work or do something.

Memory problems: how to deal with it?

Photo gallery: Memory problems: how to deal?

Symptoms of memory problems

How can you tell if you are having memory problems? If you start talking and forget what you wanted to say; if you do not remember whether you closed the door with a key when you left for work; if you opened the closet to get your pants out of it, and stand in front of it, forgetting what you were going to do, you almost certainly have memory problems. Of course, if this happened once, you should not panic. However, when you regularly forget the simplest things, memory and concentration problems need to be addressed.

Causes of memory problems

Memory impairment at a young and mature age can be due to different reasons. The main causes of memory problems are stress, sleep disturbances, depression, alcohol abuse and illness. Memory impairment can also be caused by taking certain medications or vitamin B12 deficiency.

Prolonged stress depletes the human body. All functions of the body deteriorate, respectively, memory - too. Therefore, with prolonged mental stress, uncomfortable working or study conditions, memory significantly deteriorates, and performance decreases. Paradox: the more you try to remember something and strain, the worse you get it.

Lack of sleep can also cause memory impairments. The fact is that it is in a dream that our brain processes and assimilates the information received. If you don't sleep enough, the information you need will simply not be remembered. In addition, chronic sleep deprivation exacerbates stress, leading to distraction, irritability and memory problems. Long-term depressive disorder has a similar effect.

Alcohol abuse can cause memory lapses (especially for events that occurred during the direct use of alcoholic beverages), if you do not stop drinking on time - memory problems can worsen, they can be accompanied by a decrease in intelligence. Some medications (sleeping pills, pain relievers, some antihistamines, antidepressants) can also cause memory impairment, but memory problems usually go away after the corresponding medication is discontinued.

Some somatic diseases can lead to memory impairment. Among them are problems with the thyroid gland, infectious diseases (meningitis, encephalitis), diabetes, dysfunction of organs and systems. Memory problems can be observed during the recovery period after a number of diseases - for example, as a result of a stroke.

Finally, memory problems are caused by a deficiency in vitamin B12, which is essential for the proper functioning of the brain.

How to deal with memory problems

A healthy lifestyle is very important for the absence of memory problems. It is necessary to observe the correct daily routine, get enough sleep, play sports. If you don't have time for the gym, it doesn't matter. Just walk more, especially if the weather permits. Alcohol and smoking also negatively affect human memory. The dangers of alcohol have already been mentioned above, and nicotine causes difficulties with long-term memory.

In order to get rid of memory problems, you need to eat right. For the normal functioning of brain cells, we need vitamins (especially A, E and B vitamins) and trace elements (iron, magnesium, zinc). For example, a drop in the level of iron in the body leads to the fact that the molecules that transmit nerve impulses will not function normally and memory will deteriorate. To prevent iron deficiency, you need to eat apples. By the way, apples also contain antioxidants that help raise the level of acetylcholine (a substance needed for memory) and protect brain cells from the negative effects of free radicals. Apples also help eliminate cholesterol from the body. This is also very important for the prevention of memory problems, because high cholesterol levels lead to the formation of plaques in the blood vessels, as a result, the blood supply to the brain is disrupted and memory suffers.

Also, to improve memory, fatty acids (they are found in fish, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils) and carbohydrates should be present in the diet. Simple carbohydrates that the body receives from sweets, flour products and fruits should not be abused. They are quickly absorbed and dramatically raise blood sugar levels, so the body begins to produce insulin to bring the amount of sugar back to normal. It turns out that the resources that the body could spend on the normal functioning of the brain are spent on maintaining the balance of insulin. Give preference to complex carbohydrates (they are found in potatoes, meat, cereals, nuts, legumes). The brain will receive the necessary nutrients, but the sugar level will be normal.

To avoid memory problems, give yourself and your brain a rest. Try to minimize stress and avoid bringing work problems into the home. Some experts even advise you to try meditation, but this is an amateur activity. If you cannot remember important things - use methods of memory development. During work, do not do several things at once: when information from different sources simultaneously enters the brain, it is difficult for it to process it, so many details are not remembered, and memory suffers. If memory problems are associated with taking medication or a disease, you need to eliminate the cause: stop taking medication (or reduce the dosage), cure the disease.

A healthy lifestyle and attention to your health will help you avoid memory problems and remember all the necessary information.

One of the innovative developments of scientists of the Research Institute of Pharmacology named after V.I. VV Zakusova RAMS is NOOPEPT - a new generation drug that has a unique peptide nature. NOOPEPT promotes memory recovery, acting on ALL phases: the initial processing of information, its generalization and extraction.

The spectrum of activity of NOOPEPT also includes anti-anxiety and mild stimulating effects, which are manifested in a decrease or disappearance of anxiety, increased irritability, and sleep disturbances.

Maybe a consequence of my sports activities?

I have been doing martial arts for more than 16 years, it is boxing, kick-boxing, hand-to-hand.

Or is there another reason?

Tell me what to do? And how to be?

And how long, at least approximately, will you need to work on yourself to achieve the effect?

TELL WHERE AND WHOM TO GO TO OR WHAT VITAMINS TO DRINK

By the way, there are also problems with grammar.

If you have health problems, and I attribute memory problems to health, you need to go to the doctor, and not self-medicate. I know that Rosmid Medical Center treats all this very effectively.

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"I keep forgetting everything"

They get confused in appointments, leave keys at home, cannot remember the name of the book they are reading now ... Such forgetfulness gives them a lot of trouble. Why does it arise?

Simple distraction or an obvious health disorder? Can we cope with our forgetfulness on our own, or is it worth turning to specialists for help?

Memory impairments can have many causes. The most difficult cases are associated with neurological disorders. “And above all with Alzheimer's disease,” says neurologist Vladimir Zakharov. - Only at the initial stage of this incurable disease can we make life easier for patients. We preserve their memory with the help of transmitters, drugs that compensate for the lack of acetylcholine, a substance through which information is transmitted from cell to cell. Another common cause of forgetfulness is vascular dementia. It develops rapidly, and in this case, the memory helps to preserve the drugs that normalize cerebral circulation. " It is necessary to distinguish these serious disorders from simple forgetfulness, which can be caused by stress, depression, or long-term traumatic experiences. And in these cases, it is quite possible to improve memory. “If, having forgotten the actor’s surname, you remember it when you hear his name, then the violation is not of a systemic nature. In this case, it is worth contacting a psychologist, ”says Vladimir Zakharov.

Nikolay, 51 years old, employee of the Ministry of Culture "I could not remember how old I am"

“For the past few years, I keep forgetting something. For example, I need to find something in the office. But, while I go there, I forget what I went after. On duty, I have to conduct a lot of negotiations with a variety of people. And suddenly I completely forget our preliminary agreements. Some kind of sudden failure, a veil ... This happens to me more and more often, and it becomes simply unbearable. And the other day something happened quite out of the ordinary: I could not remember how old I was! All this makes my life very poisonous. "

To the one who is near

The main victims of forgetfulness are the forgetful themselves! So don't be too hard on them. If, forgetting about the agreement, the person has let you down again and is trying to find the reason for his forgetfulness, show tolerance. Suggest, ask leading questions related to a specific situation. This is exactly what the therapist does during the session. Help your forgetful loved one exercise their memory by asking them if they remember what you just said instead of repeating the same thing three times. Such "checks" will contribute to his greater focus.

Psychological reasons

“Forgetfulness often arises at the moment when a person’s connection with himself is broken, he ceases to hear his inner voice, and he perceives life as a difficult test,” says psychoanalyst Ksenia Korbut. - Oblivion turns out to be a saving way out, however, only for a short time". Psychodramatic trainings, work with a psychotherapist help to clarify relationships with oneself and with one's family history.

From the point of view of psychoanalysis

Everything that we have experienced once, everything that causes us a feeling of discomfort, anxiety, fear, we displace into our unconscious. “This is one of the methods of psychological protection,” explains Ksenia Korbut. - “Forgetting”, we get rid of the ambivalence of our feelings, defend ourselves from negative experiences - in short, for a while we forget about what causes mental pain. But at the same time we move away from ourselves, because the cause of our suffering remains unchanged. "

Everything that is stored in our unconscious periodically breaks through in symbolic form, in the form of plot dreams, erroneous actions (clerical errors, reservations), memory lapses. 32-year-old Alexander constantly forgets or loses the keys to his apartment. He grew up in an authoritarian family, and his parents made it clear very early that he had no place in their house. From the age of 18, Alexander has been living independently. It would seem that he forgot about his childhood experiences, and perhaps only such a strange forgetfulness worries him. “Rejection is a strong destructive feeling, it is difficult to cope with it,” comments Ksenia Korbut. - Unconsciously forgetting the keys, Alexander is still trying to free himself from this experience. But each time, colliding with a locked door, again and again feels abandoned. " Forgetting indicates a problem, and what we have forgotten can tell us where to look for the cause of suffering. Psychoanalysis helps to plunge into the unconscious, relive painful experiences and thus get rid of them.

What to do?

Buy a beautiful frame, insert a sheet with a poem into it and hang it in a prominent place. Your goal is to remember to memorize one or two poems per week.

Work with the body.

Sign up for a dance studio: lessons will help you maximize your memory and focus.

Do not strive to do everything.

Forgetful people often think about a hundred things at the same time. Let yourself rest and learn to shift some things to others - then you will firmly adhere to the main thing.

Exercise associations.

Connecting one idea to another is a great way to memorize them. Look for your own memorization techniques.

Develop your senses.

The more your feelings are included during a certain activity, the more likely it is that associated with it will be well remembered. Stop by a perfume store to enrich your olfactory palette, quit smoking for a better taste, and pay attention to your tactile sensations.

Memory impairments: why memory becomes poor, the norm and connection with diseases, treatment

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive the information received and store it in some invisible "cells" of the brain in reserve in order to extract and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person's mental activity, therefore the slightest memory impairment weighs on him, he gets out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and irritating others.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some kind of neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease to the development of which no one pays attention, believing that a person is such by nature ...

The big riddle is human memory

Memory is a complex process that takes place in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. Most of all, we think about the properties of our memory when we need to master something new. The result of all the efforts made in the learning process depends on how someone manages to hook, hold, perceive what he saw, heard or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From the point of view of biology, memory is short-term and long-term.

Information received in passing or, as the saying goes, "flew into one ear, flew out of the other" - this is a short-term memory, in which what was seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning and content. So, the episode flashed and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts of a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you hold your gaze on it or listen and penetrate, will be transferred to long-term storage. This also happens against the will of a person, if some episodes are often repeated, have special emotional significance or, for various reasons, occupy a separate place among other phenomena.

Evaluating their memory, some people claim that they have a short-term memory, because everything is remembered, absorbed, retold after a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens in preparation for exams, when information is put aside only in order to reproduce it to decorate the grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, referring again to this topic, when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It is one thing to know and forget, and another thing to not get information. And here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge without much human effort was transformed into the departments of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes, structures, creates volume and purposefully postpones it for future use indefinitely. That’s what keeps things going on long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so used to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the necessary subjects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after a while, if he does not periodically extract his knowledge in order to use them, therefore, not always the inability to remember something should be attributed to memory impairment. Each of us has experienced a feeling when “it is spinning in our head, but it doesn’t come to mind,” but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in our memory.

Why do blackouts happen?

The causes of impaired memory and attention in adults and children can be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has problems with learning, then he will come to an adult state with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child's psyche is more delicate, so it is harder to endure stress. In addition, adults have long learned what the child is still trying to master.

Sadly, the tendency towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by adolescents, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in the reports of law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for the child's brain, alcohol is the strongest poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that are often the cause of absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults, as a rule, are excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of impaired memory and attention in children can be considered:

• Lack of vitamins, anemia;
• Asthenia;
• Frequent viral infections;
• Traumatic brain injury;
• Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, parental despotism, problems in the team that the child visits);
• Poor eyesight;
• Brain tumors;
• Mental disorder;
• Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
• Congenital pathology, in which mental retardation is programmed (Down syndrome, etc.) or other (whatever) conditions (lack of vitamins or microelements, the use of certain drugs, a change not for the better in metabolic processes), contributing to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, as you know, memory does not improve.

Causes of Problems in Adults

In adults, the reason that poor memory has become, absent-mindedness and an inability to concentrate for a long time have appeared, are various diseases acquired in the course of life:

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of microelements, vegetative-vascular dystonia, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, contributes to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What types of memory disorders are there? Among them, dysmnesia (hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) is distinguished - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia - a distortion of memories, to which the patient's personal fantasies are added. By the way, some of them, on the contrary, consider others to be a phenomenal memory rather than a violation of it. However, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia - with such a violation, people remember and perceive quickly, information put off many years ago pops up in memory for no reason, "rolls over", returns to the past, which does not always evoke positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to keep everything in his head, however, he can reproduce some long-past events to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (up to the teacher's clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the litmontage of the pioneer gathering, it is not difficult for him to recall other details concerning his studies at the institute, professional activities or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease; rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People with a similar phenomenon are able to memorize and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not associated with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Such a memory is often possessed by great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people of other professions that require genius abilities. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

• With paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
• In case of intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
• In the case of hypomania, a condition similar to mania, but not reaching it in terms of the severity of the course. Patients may experience a surge of energy, increased vitality, and increased working capacity. In hypomania, memory and attention disorders (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate) are often combined.

It is obvious that only a specialist can understand such intricacies, distinguish between norm and pathology. Among us, the majority are the average representatives of the human population, to whom “nothing human is alien”, but at the same time they do not turn the world upside down. Periodically (not every year and not in every locality) geniuses appear, they are not always immediately noticed, because often such individuals are considered just eccentrics. And, finally, (maybe not often?) Among the various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

Bad memory

Hypotension - this type is usually expressed in two words: "poor memory".

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed in asthenic syndrome, for which, in addition to memory problems, other symptoms are characteristic:

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, forms another pathology, for example:

• Arterial hypertension.
• Postponed traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• Atherosclerotic process.
• The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of impaired memory and attention by the type of hypomnesia can be various depressive states (there are countless ones), climacteric syndrome proceeding with adaptation disorder, organic brain lesions (severe TBI, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

"I remember here - I don't remember here"

With amnesia, not all memory falls out entirely, but some of its fragments. As an example of this type of amnesia, I just want to recall the film by Alexander Sery "Gentlemen of Fortune" - "I remember here - I don't remember here."

However, not all amnesias look like in the famous motion picture, there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore, among such memory impairments (amnesia), several types are distinguished:

1. Dissociative amnesia erases traumatic events from memory. Severe stress causes a defensive reaction of the body, and he tries to hide away situations that a person cannot survive on his own. From the depths of the unconscious, these events can be obtained only by special methods (hypnosis);
2. Retrograde amnesia - a person forgets what happened before the injury (most often this happens after a TBI) - the patient regained consciousness, but does not remember who he is and what happened to him;
3. Anterograde amnesia - everything is remembered before the injury (traumatic brain injury or a severe traumatic situation), and after the injury - failure;
4. Fixation amnesia - poor memory for current events (a person forgets what happened today);
5. Total amnesia - all information disappears from the memory, including about one's own “I”.

A special type of memory loss that cannot be dealt with is progressive amnesia, which is the sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The cause of memory destruction in such cases is the organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of everyday objects that they use every day (plate, chair, clock), but at the same time know what they are intended for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). However, one should not confuse the habits of the "happy" owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (you can make a beautiful dish or stand out of an expired kitchen clock in the form of a plate).

Well this must be invented!

Paramnesia (distortion of memories) is also referred to as memory impairment, and the following types are distinguished among them:

• Confabulation, in which fragments of one's own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to him "in all seriousness", since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and sometimes even about crimes.
• Pseudo-reminiscence is the replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient's life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov syndrome).
• Cryptomnesia, when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events he himself experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, go to involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas encountered in organic disorders.
• Echomnesia - a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or saw in a dream?). Of course, such thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special importance to such phenomena ("get hung up"), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
• Polypsest - this symptom exists in two versions: short-term memory lapses associated with pathological alcohol intoxication (episodes of the past day are confused with events of the past), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what was actually.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by other clinical manifestations, therefore, having noticed the signs of "deja vu" in oneself, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

Impaired memory and attention, loss of the ability to concentrate on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

1. Instability of attention - a person is constantly distracted, jumps from one object to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as one of the forms of schizophrenia in adolescence);
2. Rigidity (slowness in switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very typical for epilepsy (whoever communicated with such people knows that the patient is constantly "stuck", which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
3. Insufficient concentration of attention - they say about such people: "Here is how absent-minded from Basseinaya Street!"

Undoubtedly, a decrease in concentration of attention, in particular, will negatively affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory in general.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments characteristic of adults and especially the elderly are very rarely observed in childhood... Memorization problems arising from congenital features require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible) may recede a little. There are many cases when the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on different circumstances.

It's another matter if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So, a child can expect a slightly different reaction to various situations:

• Amnesia in children in most cases is manifested by memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not for nothing that they say that children quickly forget;
• Alcoholization in adolescence also proceeds differently from adults - the absence of memories (polypsets) of events occurring during intoxication appears already at the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
• Retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, affects a short period of time before injury or illness, and its severity is not as pronounced as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child cannot always be noticed.

Most often, in children and adolescents, memory impairment of the type of dysmnesia is observed, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) the information received. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in the team and behavior in everyday life.

In toddlers attending nurseries preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia are problems with memorizing rhymes, songs, children cannot participate in children's matinees and celebrations. Despite the fact that the kid attends kindergarten all the time, every time he comes there, he cannot independently find his locker to change, it is difficult for him to find his own among other items (toys, clothes, towels). Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable at home: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, he perceives fairy tales read many times, as if he hears them for the first time, does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient memory and attention disorders, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all kinds of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with cerebrasthenic syndrome of various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before you start treating the symptoms of memory impairment, you need to make a correct diagnosis and find out what caused the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get as much information about his health:

1. What diseases does he suffer from? Perhaps it will be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or transferred in the past) with a deterioration in intellectual abilities;
2. Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebrovascular insufficiency, head injury (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
3. What medications does the patient take and is memory impairment associated with the use of medications? Certain groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines, have side effects of this kind, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, in the process of a diagnostic search, a biochemical blood test can be very useful, which makes it possible to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, deficiencies of trace elements and vitamins.

In most cases, when searching for the causes of memory weakening, they resort to neuroimaging methods (CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a GM tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, differentiate vascular brain damage from degenerative ones.

There is a need for neuroimaging methods also because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are depressive conditions, forcing in other cases to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out whether there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself implies a slight decrease in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention decreases, especially if the neck is "pinched" or blood pressure rises, however, such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior in everyday life ... Elderly people, who adequately assess their age, learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many people do not neglect pharmaceutical treatment to improve memory.

There are a number of drugs now available that can improve brain function and even help you complete tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are nootropics (piracetam, phezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for elderly people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. The drugs of this group are suitable for improving memory in case of cerebrovascular accident caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are symptomatic treatment, and in order to obtain the desired effect, one must strive for an etiotropic one.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, mental disorders, here the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single prescription for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to see a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send you for an additional examination.

Difficult in adults and correction of mental disorders. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize poetry, solve crosswords, practice solving logical tasks, however, training, while bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still does not give particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with various groups of pharmaceuticals, provides classes with a psychologist, exercises for the development of memory (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the child's psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, in contrast to the psyche of an adult. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while in older people, only the opposite effect progresses.

Why am I forgetting everything, getting distracted? burn, spoil food, spoil, turn off, miss, oversleep, play too much, forgetfulness

(10+)

Why am I forgetting everything? How not to forget? Why am I distracted all the time? What to do with forgetfulness?

Question:

I am constantly distracted, I forget about food on the stove, urgent matters, open windows, call my wife, meet the child from school, etc. I have already turned to doctors, I train my attention. Nothing helps, what should I do?

Answer:

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness is normal

V Lately a colossal flow of information fell upon us. Our head is simply not adapted to it. Our environment during our evolution was not filled with so much information. Forgetfulness and distraction arise as a response to brain overload.

The main thing here is not to panic. Anxiety can make your forgetfulness worse. This is exactly what happens with you. Relax. There is an exit.

Forgetfulness is our scourge

Often in everyday life we ​​need to do something that in no case should be forgotten. For example, heat a frying pan, soldering iron or iron, boil broth, heat food, pour water into a bath, charge batteries for a trimmer, drill or screwdriver. The consequences of forgetfulness can be very different - from gloomy but kind faces of household members, to damage to property and fire. The matter is complicated by the fact that different jobs require very different time intervals. So, warming up a frying pan takes 3 minutes, cooking broth - 2 hours, and charging the battery - a day.

The situation is aggravated by constant stress, the appearance of such attention accumulators at home as TVs with a large number of programs, computers, the Internet, mobile phones and smartphones.

Let's remember what other things require time control. Favorite TV show. Feeding the animals. Boiling soup. Cooking steps, for example, fry for three minutes over high heat, half an hour over low.

The cost of forgetting nationwide is colossal

Surely you can easily remember many cases when forgetfulness led to smoke in the apartment, a scandal, peeling of the non-stick coating from the pan, and even to more serious consequences. According to my estimates, forgetfulness causes material damage, commensurate with 1% of the annual income of the farm.

Buy a timer

What to do? The answer is simple. We need a household timer. But not just so mechanical, turned for 5 minutes, it rang in five minutes. We need a timer on which it would be possible to set how many moments for a reminder, at different times, at different intervals, for five minutes, for an hour, for a day, for a week in advance. A timer like in mobile phone but only large and flat to hang on the wall. Electronics has created a problem of excess information for us, let it help us to cope with it.

There are such timers on sale. Share your experience if anyone used it.

Smart home systems already have such timers, and they will not only beep on time, but also send you SMS if you are far away.

Train yourself to use the timer all the time, even in small matters. All your problems will gradually disappear over time. Tension and stress will pass. Then your own head will work better.

Be healthy and don't be nervous.

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Forgetfulness can appear in many people due to improper lifestyle. Many experts argue that if people sleep less than 6 hours a day, they may have memory lapses.

The main reasons for the appearance of forgetfulness in people

• Frequent stress. The brain is overloaded during stress, and our nervous system loses minerals and vitamins too quickly.
• To the body not enough fluid. In this case, the work of the brain will deteriorate significantly, so sometimes it is better to drink a glass of pure water together with a cup of coffee or tea.
• Frequent diets for weight loss can cause forgetfulness. People who "sit" on diets sharply and quickly reduce the amount of carbohydrates and fats in the body, therefore, the brain will be in a state of shock.
• Smoking and alcohol provoke the development of forgetfulness. They can cause vasospasm, poison the brain, slow down the speed of perception, slow down the thinking process.
• Other reasons the development of forgetfulness: chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic intoxication, tumors, traumatic brain injury, cerebral atherosclerosis, inflammation and infections.

Absent-mindedness - a thing acquired by a person, to get rid of which, you need to make some effort. Very often, this condition can manifest itself in the following:

• boredom;
• inability to focus on a subject or topic for a long time;
• relaxation and powerlessness;
• disinterest;
• indifference;
• lack of concentration in thoughts and sensations.

To treat absent-mindedness, you need to know due to what factors it appeared:

1. External factors- illness or overwork.
2. Internal factors- brain damage, the need for clinical treatment.

Forgetfulness and absent-mindedness - treatments and methods to improve memory

People who are prone to forgetfulness and absent-mindedness need to understand what is wrong with them need to work:

• Do not overload your brain, take pauses for a few minutes.
• Follow the train of thoughts, direct them in one direction.
• Stop fussing in your head.
• Exercise your body. Any movement saturates the brain with oxygen, physical exercise is an excellent way to combat stress.
• You only need to do one thing at a time.
• Develop observation, look at other people, at the world around you.
• Train mindfulness. Learn to focus on just one process so you can remember more and focus at the right time.
• In any nervous situation - anxiety, stress, haste, it is necessary to consciously say "stop", today is not the time for panic, calm your mind and you will definitely find a way out.

Also, in addition to special training, what you eat affects performance. Below is a list of things that can help improve your memory.

Water

Dehydration is one of the leading causes of brain disorders. Human fluid is the main component for normal functioning. Try to drink 6-7 glasses of clean water a day.

Avoiding fats

Many studies have shown that fat contributes to clogged arteries. Therefore, oxygen cannot fully saturate the brain. Avoid margarine, baked goods, trans fat butter, cookies, etc. So you can improve your memory and still help the whole body - blood vessels, heart, brain.

A fish

You need to add fish to your diet. It is advisable to use it at least 3-4 times a week. Fish has a beneficial effect on the human body, improves brain activity and cleanses blood vessels.

Vitamin B

The menu should be rich in vitamins B6, B12, niacin, thiamine. such components have a positive effect on human memory, improve brain performance. High level such substances are found in bananas, wheat germ and rye.

Forgetfulness. How to deal with it? - video

Forgetfulness is different. Sometimes you freeze in mid-sentence, having lost the thread of your own thought. In the grocery store, once again pass by the necessary department, not remembering that the house has run out of salt. Having met an old acquaintance, you start to blush, because you forgot his name. To a simple question from the boss about a project that has recently been handed over, they have to go into the computer - because they no longer remember what was there. Per different cases"Gaps in memory" are responsible for different systems of information storage in the brain. And in order to understand whether it is normal that you forgot about something, you need to find out what type of memory is responsible for storing this information.

Remember everything

All human memory consists of four main systems. V working, or operational, the memory stores the information that is needed right now. The working memory expires in seconds. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for its correct work - the very part of the brain that makes a person a person, determines consciousness and behavior.

Episodic memory- these are memories, both about what happened a couple of minutes ago, and about the events of twenty years ago. These memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. Semantic memory- this is a kind of a set of human knowledge about the world. Here are the words and their meanings, the names of objects. The temporal lobes of the brain are responsible for semantic memory.

Procedural memory about the ability to do something. If a person remembers how to ride a bike, once having learned to do it in childhood, then his procedural memory is working well. The basal ganglia, cerebellum, and the motor cortex are responsible for "body memory".

Check out our gallery of amazing facts about the human body

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What does “forget” mean? This is usually not about the fact that some information has disappeared from the brain. Rather, the difficulty arose to "get" her out of there. For example, a word that literally spins in a language is a semantic memory access problem. A person can remember the right word if you tell him the first letter or give a semantic hint. Forgetfulness in a healthy person is difficult access to one or more types of memory. If you cannot quickly retrieve from your episodic memory the memory that you ran out of salt at home, you will not go to the appropriate section in the supermarket. Also, forgetfulness can take place due to a small amount of RAM: now you have already come for salt, but were distracted by torment and forgot about your original goal.

The difference between simple forgetfulness and severe memory impairment is that a healthy person, although not immediately, can remember important facts and events from your life. With memory impairments, patients forget the names of objects that they use every day, the names of loved ones, and even forget how to do simple household operations.

You may not immediately remember what you were doing last weekend, but if you have lost your memory of what happened five minutes ago, this is a reason to be wary. If you can't remember the name of a classmate you last saw 15 years ago, that's fine. If you forget your husband's name or the way home, this is a reason to see a doctor - such symptoms can be a sign of amnesia associated with a stroke or, alcohol or drug abuse, infection or dementia.

So why are you forgetting everything?

There are several very common and common reasons that cause "minor" memory problems.

Numerous studies have shown that it negatively affects the function of the hippocampus - and it is in this area of ​​the brain that episodic memory is concentrated. Under the influence of severe stress, it becomes especially difficult to extract the desired memory from episodic memory.

Scientists have confirmed this in an experiment on rats. The rodents had to complete a simple task - select the one in which the platform is hidden in the pool with several lanes. Before participating in the experiment, the animals were trained so that they memorized the "correct" track. After training, the rats were sent to rest. The control group was returned to their familiar and safe cage - and their representatives did not experience any excitement. But the experimental group was forced to experience stress, being in a cage next to a cat.

When the rodents returned to the task at the end of the break, the calm rats coped with it better. Stress did not affect the animals' memory when the task was simpler, but the more difficult it got, the worse the agitated rats remembered the correct answer.

Stress also reduces the amount of working memory. In this experiment, 35 young men had to read several sentences in a row, memorizing the last word in each of them, and at the end pronounce these words in the correct order. Half of the participants had to go through a stress test before the task, the rest were calm. The presence of anxiety in the first group was confirmed by analysis of saliva for the stress hormone cortisol. The result of the experiment confirmed the hypothesis - the nervous group remembered words worse than the participants from the control group. This means that stress worsened the work of their RAM, in which they had to retain the necessary information. When you are under the influence of stress, it is harder for you to remember difficult information and keep different tasks in your head. Do not rely on the hippocampus and working memory - if you have an exciting event, it is better to write down the most important things in your diary or smartphone notes (and set reminders). And given that many people today are under chronic stress, writing everything down is not such a bad idea.

Check out another selection interesting facts about physiology

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Forgetfulness can be one of the first symptoms. How memory works in depressed people can be figured out with a word test. In the experiment, subjects - healthy volunteers and patients with depression - were required to memorize words after one, three, or five repetitions.

When depressed people were required to recall words after five repetitions, they memorized as many words as participants in the control group, but did so more slowly. But after one repetition, depressed patients recognized fewer words and forgot them faster.

Scientists have concluded that depression affects memory in two ways: on the one hand, it makes it difficult to learn and remember new information, on the other hand, it complicates access to existing memories. Therefore, if you have been diagnosed with depression, do not be angry with yourself for the fact that you can remember what you need longer than usual. And you definitely shouldn't start learning new things during a period of illness - knowledge will be poorly retained in your head, which will ruin your mood and self-esteem even more.

The first to suffer is RAM. Studies in which people were deprived of sleep for 24-72 hours showed that sleep-deprived participants performed worse on tasks in which they had to keep information in their heads. Episodic memory also suffers from sleep deficit. For this, according to scientists, the prefrontal cortex is responsible - it also controls working memory. And although episodic memory is "stored" in the hippocampus, in order to get memories from there, increased work of the prefrontal cortex is required. But this most "conscious" part of the brain works worse with every hour of sleep deprivation - so it becomes more difficult to extract a specific episode from memory.

Forgetfulness persists for some time after a day when you don't get enough sleep: for example, in a study where people were deprived of sleep for two days, participants did not fully recover even after two nights of proper sleep. Interestingly, sleep problems increase the likelihood of false memories. This was confirmed in an experiment on students who were deprived of the opportunity to sleep normally.

Students were shown photographs with scenes from the crime scenes. After a while, they were allowed to read certain statements related to the crimes - and some of them contradicted the images in the photo (but the participants did not know that they were trying to confuse them). At the end, the students had to answer questions about what actually happened.

As a result, young people who were deprived of sleep were more likely to make mistakes - they had already forgotten what was shown in the photo and believed in what was written after. Thus, they formed false memories. So, if you regularly get enough sleep, it will not only be difficult for you to keep information in your head and remember the necessary facts - it will also be easier for you to be confused and confused by "planting" fake memories in your head.

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