Helping Your Elderly Family Member With Their Memory Loss

We're all fully aware that memory loss is nothing to take lightly. We are our memories. Without them, we have no idea where we've been or who we are. It is vital to protect our identity and our experiences. Help to protect those memories you cherish by employing these memory-specific tips.

Color code information to help you memorize it. Color coding helps the left and right sides of your brain to work together, and better allows you to commit material to your long term memory. The color also plays as an association to the word or phrase you're working to memorize.



To boost your memory, make sure you are getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can seriously impair memory, causing you to forget even the most basic things in your day to day life. If you regularly have trouble sleeping, you can try natural sleep aids such as melatonin or consider talking to your doctor about prescription sleep medication instead.

Like an actor does before putting on a play, rehearsing what you learn is a great way to improve your memory. If you are attempting to study, recite the problems and answers aloud, and you will absorb the
information easier, and ultimately, retain it more efficiently. This is a great way to improve your overall memory.

A useful strategy when tasked with the memory of new information is to restructure and reorganize the information. The simplest way to do this is to take the information and create a summary outline in a notebook or on your computer. This works for two reasons. It is easier to remember something that you have worked with, and the process also naturally reorders the information in a way that is easier for you to remember.

Avoid smoking cigarettes to keep your memory from being negatively affected. Studies have shown that the memory of smokers suffers more than compared to non-smokers. You probably didn't need yet another reason to quit, but maybe this will be the one that lets you finally put down that pack.

Putting information into categories will help you to remember it later! Everything has a category and compartmentalizing things in your memory by category can give you much greater recall. For example, chicken and hot dogs on your grocery list go into the category of meat and milk and water into beverages and so on.

A great technique to help you memorize new material is to read the information out loud. Research has shown that this simple act significantly improves the memory of this material. Research has also divulged that teaching a new concept to others will also increase understanding and recall of the information.

Improve memory with mnemonics. Use an acronym to remember lists of related things. For example, 'Homes' is used to remember the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. The first letter of the words in a sentence can represent a list of letters that you have to remember. For example, "Every good boy does fine" can be used to memorize the notes on the lines of a treble clef: E,G,B,D and F.

Knowing what type of learner you are will enable you to reinforce your memory! If you know that you are a visual learner, for example, then keep a small notebook with you at all times to write down the information you need to remember, or if you are an auditory learner, use a small recorder. These small aids will be a big help when you need to call on your memory later!

We all cherish our memories greatly. Even those things that you wish you could forget, would leave an empty space in what type of person you are, if you would forget them. Experiences build character, even the negative ones. Make sure you're reading and memorizing these tips, in order to help your memory!