Monday, March 30, 2009

Sleep and Memory: the Correlation


Did you ever give a thought to the phrase, ‘Let me sleep on it’? Have you noticed how things seem so much clearer and decisions so much easier to make when you have had a good, refreshing night’s sleep?

I recall how during examination days, I would study for a few hours and then take an hour’s nap. That seemed to give my brain the time to consolidate and retain that which I had learnt and studied. If I had a sleep break, I was better able to retain what I had studied, and the material was clearer inside my head somehow.

This is just my personal practical experience of how sleep and memory are linked, there is also a wealth of scientific data now to prove that an optimum amount of sleep is required not just for memory retention but also for good health and well being.

It has been shown that...

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

How Memory is Created!

What is so scary about memory is how it is inexplicably lost. For the longest time memory and the functioning of the brain used to be an incomprehensible puzzle for mankind but now as psychological research progresses, we are understanding more and more how the brain works; how memory is created, how it is stored and how it may be retrieved.

I read an interesting explanation about how memory is created here: creating our brain memories is a bit like creating say a word document which will be lost after creating, unless you hit ‘Save’ and it is similar in the case of our brains as well. Our brain also enables us to first create the memories and then to stabilize and 'save' the memories we've created, which can also then be edited.


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Friday, March 13, 2009

Vitamins to Help Your Memory Loss


Can vitamins help with slowing or reversing memory loss? Well research and studies have shown that vitamins could be very helpful delay the onset or the severity of memory loss because they supply essential nutrients to the brain and prevent several problems related to memory loss. It is possible to provide the brain with specific memory vitamins for memory loss nutrients that help improve mental abilities and speed of recall, no matter what one’s age! Along with glucose, certain memory vitamins and minerals supply the raw materials needed for neurotransmitter production in the body.

Vitamin E
is a powerful antioxidant found in all tissues, including the brain. A study found that the lowest blood levels of vitamin E had the highest incidence of senile dementia and "cognitive impairment" compared to those who had the highest vitamin E levels. Another study also found

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Friday, March 6, 2009

Alcohol Related Memory Loss


I have experienced close at hand the negative effects that alcohol abuse can have on an individual, which I have talked about before. Alcohol related memory loss is not just about getting tanked in the bar tonight and not remembering a thing the next morning. Long term use of alcohol in larger quantities can have several undesirable repercussions such as damage to the liver etc. but also among them, memory loss. The effects that alcohol intoxication can have on cognitive function are not so well known. In short big drinkers are at increased risk of for memory loss and dementia.

As reported here, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. When the researchers compared data from 373 people with dementia (age 65 and older) and

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