11 Tips to improve your memory

Maureen Diament

18 Aug 2014

mis à jour le 4 May 2019 à 08:16

Do you need some help to exercise your brain and help your neurons to store information? Here are 11 tips for a better memory at any age.

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Use a paper and pencil
It is all that you need to exercise your memory! A study on about 70 children indicated that those who practiced the famous Dr Kawashima exercises had seen their memory "decline" by 17% during the test whereas the children of the paper/pencil group had improved their memory by 33%. Anyway, all mental stimulations are recommended, whether traditional or digital.
2/11
Learn a foreign language
No matter your level, no matter the language. It is about opening up to another system of thought, to another culture, to another reference system. When you speak just one language, you are encouraged always to think from the same perspective: it is the opposite thing to the neuronal plasticity essential to have a good cognitive reserve, that is to say, a good memory.
3/11
Get into music
Playing a music instrument enables you to learn foreign languages more easily, to memorize better and to have a better capacity of concentration and more imagination. This is because playing music requires a lot of delicacy, a lot of neuronal and physical flexibility, as well as an important capacity for attention. It is the perfect exercise to engage all your neurons.
4/11
Take naps
Sleeping just after learning helps to you store information.. .and to learn something else. A small nap enables you "to download" the information, to register and so learn something new without forgetting everything. This is valid for people of all ages, including for adults.
5/11
Sleep well
During NREM sleep (= deep sleep), the memory records knowledge and facts as with naps. REM sleep (= our dreams), records our gestures to achieve our tasks. Sleep enough and be careful of the traditional medicines prescribed for sleep: most of them do not respect the various steps of sleep.
6/11
Group everything in 7s
It is a magic figure: it is on average the number of information units that a "normal" short-term memory can remember (that is to say information which is stored for 20 seconds before determining if it must be kept or deleted). For example, if you try to remember 10 random numbers, you will notice that most of the time you will recall only 7 of them. But here is the magic: if in one sentence you can place your 10 numbers, you will not only trot them out again but you will also be able to create 6 other sentences full of other numbers. So, think in terms of units with a group of things rather than in terms of isolated information, which is always more complicated to record.
7/11
Move!
Sports help the brain to work better and to even better memorize and improve its performances. Apart from the well known endorphins secreted during and after the effort, blood also irrigates the brain, which is enough for better oxygenation and better nutrition of the neurons. The icing on the cake? Practising a sport increases the rate of BDNF, which is a great protein involved in the creation and the connection of new neurons.
8/11
If you are in overweight, try to lose weight
Studies indicate that people who are overweight can improve their memory by 20% just by losing weight.
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Vary your activities
You may not feel like it but have a walk, join friends to watch a movie then go to have a meal and why not then play a card game – all of this exercises your memory. In contrast, staying alone causes a reduction of the variety of activities and, therefore, a decrease in memory.
10/11
Meditate
To cultivate altruistic feelings, is to develop your neuronal networks and establish more and more connection between the various intellectual areas. Fundamentally, it helps improve your memory. Meditation can be a way to develop this feeling because it is essential to release your spirit from the day’s problems to let it fill with something bigger and more interesting. It's called altruistic meditation, and tens of thousands people who practise to it are happier. Copy them!
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Switch on the light
Light possesses a direct stimulating effect on your attention and activates the central nervous system. Even better: blue light excites the various learning zones and the memory. If you possess one of those devices that change the light colour, adjust it to blue during your memorization exercises or if you are trying to remember something that escapes you.

The brain is a muscle and as with any other muscle, to get the best from it, you have to exercise it regularly. Although the number of video games dedicated to cerebral training has exploded these last few years, it is not necessarily the most effective method. Here are 11 tip on how to have a super memory, extracted from "Entraîner sa mémoire, c'est malin" (Training your memory, it's clever) by Anne Dufour and Catherine Dupin.

Maureen DIAMENT

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