Omega-3s play an important role in building brain and nerve cells. Sugar and fat has been linked to impaired memory. A recent study in humans found that a diet high in fats and sugars — common in a Western diet — impairs hippocampal memory. However, the study relied on questionnaires and surveys, which may not be as accurate.

Other medications that might affect memory include:. Exercising has been shown to have cognitive benefits. It improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to the body, and helps to create new cells in the brain which are essential for memory storage. Exercise especially increases the number of cells in the hippocampus.

Walking , for example, is a great choice. Stress and depression have even been shown in animal studies to shrink the brain. Check out this article for 16 easy ways to reduce stress and anxiety.

Humans are social creatures. Research shows that a strong support system is vital to our emotional and brain health. One study from found that people with very active social lives had the slowest memory decline.

Just 10 minutes of talking to another person was shown to improve memory. Your brain is made mostly of water. Water acts as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord. It helps our brain cells use nutrients. So just a small amount of dehydration can have disastrous effects.

Mild dehydration has been shown to cause brain shrinkage and memory impairment. But this one comes with a caveat. Having too much caffeine , or consuming it later in the day, can have the opposite effect as it can impair sleep in sensitive individuals.

Drinking more than that can have a negative effect on your ability to retain information as well as your sleep.

Studies show that meditation helps improve several cognitive functions, like focus, concentration, memory, and learning. Meditation may actually rewire the brain and encourage more connections between brain cells.

There are several ways to meditate — find out which one is right for you. Getting out into nature is incredibly important for our emotional and physical health. Enjoying nature can even be considered a form of meditation. One study found that a walk in a park improved memory and attention compared to walking in a city.

Likewise, daily gardening lowers your risk of dementia by 36 percent , according to one study. Participants performed significantly better on the tests after yoga compared to aerobic exercise. The study, however, was limited by its narrow sample size of just 30 young, female students.

Yoga also emphasizes breathing from the diaphragm, which helps maximize our oxygen intake, thus improving mental function. People with more fatty tissue tend to have less water than people with less fatty tissue.

Overweight people also have less brain tissue. The more overweight you are, the more your brain is likely to shrink and affect your memory. Follow this guide for tips on losing weight naturally. Our memory is a skill, and just like other skills, it can be improved with practice and healthy overall habits.

You can start small. For example, pick a new challenging activity to learn, incorporate a few minutes of exercise into your day, maintain a sleep schedule, and eat a few more green vegetables, fish, and nuts. The next time you have to study for an exam, try one of the techniques suggested by memory champions, like chunking, mind palaces, or retrieval.

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available. Mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness. Learn more about how to exercise your mind and keep your brain in shape.

Depression can affect more than just your mood. Find out how it affects your memory, whether it leads to memory loss, and what you can do about it. Constantly dream of romance? Fixate on thoughts of your partner? Feel a need to always be in love? Learn why — and why this isn't an "addiction.

Toxic femininity, or behavior that aligns with patriarchal beliefs about what women should and shouldn't do, can affect your well-being.

Here's how. A new study, released this week has found that death rates are increased for people with obesity who are also socially isolated and lonely.

A new study finds a type of psychedelic called ibogaine may help people with traumatic brain injury. In the study 30 male Special Operations Forces….

A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Mental Well-Being. Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, PsyD — By Jacquelyn Cafasso — Updated on September 18, Share on Pinterest. Learn something new.

Repeat and retrieve. Try acronyms, abbreviations, and mnemonics. Use all of your senses. Lose the GPS. Keep yourself busy. Stay organized. Sleep on a regular schedule.

Avoid bright screens before bed. For example, if you need to remember to buy bananas at the supermarket, picture giant bananas raining inside the supermarket. The Number Shape System is an example of how you can remember numbers by linking them to something you already know.

The images can supercharge your memory even further if you use stories to link the images together. An acrostic mnemonic is a kind of poem that you can create out of the first letters of words.

A good example is a mnemonic for the order of planets , which is:. M y V ery E ducated M other J ust S erved U s N achos. You can create your own acrostics by inventing a new sentence from the first letters of each fact that you want to remember.

There is evidence that brief, wakeful resting can help with memorization. Our group and others have demonstrated that a min period of eyes-closed rest following encoding enhances memory for both procedural and declarative memory tasks, compared to an equivalent period spent completing a distractor task.

Other recent studies have demonstrated that post-learning rest enhances subsequent memory for spatial and temporal information, facilitates insight into a complex problem, and enhances auditory statistical learning. These memory effects can be maintained for a week or more after the rest intervention.

Together, these observations suggest that even during wakefulness, memory is preferentially consolidated during offline states characterized by reduced attentional demands. Yet taking the occasional down time — to do literally nothing — may be exactly what you need. So no running errands, checking your emails, or surfing the web on your smartphone.

You really need to give your brain the chance for a complete recharge with no distractions. Read more about rest and memory.

Studying right before going to sleep appears to boost memory. If you go to sleeping consciously knowing that you will be tested on the information the next day, it can improve your recall.

Slow electrical waves act as a replay button, causing the hippocampus to reactivate new memories and synchronizing the neocortex so that it accepts them into long-term storage.

There is some evidence that short naps of as little as 10 minutes can boost cognitive performance. The minute nap produced immediate improvements in all outcome measures including sleep latency, subjective sleepiness, fatigue, vigor, and cognitive performance , with some of these benefits maintained for as long as minutes.

The minute nap was associated with improvements emerging 35 minutes after napping and lasting up to minutes after napping. The minute nap produced a period of impaired alertness and performance immediately after napping, indicative of sleep inertia, followed by improvements lasting up to minutes after the nap.

Peg lists can help you remember lists of information. First, create a list of pegs, like this list of images that rhyme with numbers :. Now that you have a list of pegs, take a list of items that you want to remember, and imagine each item in your list interacting with one peg.

To recall the list, recite the numbers from 1 to 10, convert each number to its rhyming image, and then recall what the image was doing. You can also create pegs based on number shapes or letters of the alphabet. A mind palace, or memory palace, is an imaginary place in your mind where you can store memories.

You create a mnemonic image for each fact you want to remember and then place each image in a location in your mind palace. To recall the data, you mentally walk through your mind palace and convert the pictures back into facts.

To learn the technique, see our separate tutorial on how to build a memory palace.

Use this approach in your own studies by teaching new concepts and information to a friend or study partner. Have you ever noticed how it's sometimes easier to remember the information at the beginning or end of a chapter?

Researchers have found that the order of information can play a role in recall, which is known as the serial position effect. While recalling middle information can be difficult, you can overcome this problem by spending extra time rehearsing this information.

Another strategy is to try restructuring what you have learned so it will be easier to remember. When you come across an especially difficult concept, devote some extra time to memorizing the information. Another great way to increase your recall is to occasionally change your study routine.

If you're accustomed to studying in one specific location, try moving to a different spot during your next study session. If you study in the evening, try spending a few minutes each morning reviewing the information you studied the previous night. By adding an element of novelty to your study sessions, you can increase the effectiveness of your efforts and significantly improve your long-term recall.

Researchers have long known that sleep is important for memory and learning. Research has shown that taking a nap after you learn something new can actually help you learn faster and remember better. In fact, one study published in found that sleeping after learning something new actually leads to physical changes in the brain.

Sleep-deprived mice experienced less dendritic growth following a learning task than well-rested mice. So the next time you're struggling to learn new information, consider getting a good night's sleep after you study.

Research suggests that both the Mediterranean and MIND diets may help prevent memory loss issues, and each of these dietary eating plans is rich in veggies, whole grains, and fish. Many factors can contribute to memory issues, some of which include certain medical conditions, medication side effects, diet, head injury, and more.

Winerman L. Study smart. American Psychological Association. Manning JR, Kahana MJ. Interpreting semantic clustering effects in free recall. Forrin ND, Macleod CM. This time it's personal: the memory benefit of hearing oneself.

Cortis Mack C, Cinel C, Davies N, Harding M, Ward G. Serial position, output order, and list length effects for words presented on smartphones over very long intervals.

J Mem Lang. Yang G, Lai CS, Cichon J, Ma L, Li W, Gan WB. Sleep promotes branch-specific formation of dendritic spines after learning. National Institute on Aging.

What do we know about diet and prevention of Alzheimer's disease? Do memory problems always mean Alzheimer's disease?

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising.

Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources.

Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. By Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book. Kendra Cherry, MSEd.

Learn about our editorial process. Learn more. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates.

Medically reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW. Learn about our Medical Review Board. Trending Videos. How to Use Mnemonic Devices to Improve Your Memory. Focus Your Attention. Set aside a short period of time to be alone. Avoid Cramming. Structure and Organize.

Utilize Mnemonic Devices. Come up with a rhyme, song, or joke to help remember a specific segment of information. Short-term memory is important for simple tasks such as remembering where you left your car keys.

Long-term memory plays a significant role in developing who you are since it allows you to learn unique skills and gain knowledge to be retained for regular use. Much of what you remember happens subconsciously and is out of your control. Experiences that are tied to strong emotions tend to create powerful, longer lasting memories due the effect these emotions have on neural networks and the activation of specific regions in our brain.

However, you can control your memory to a certain degree with some effort. There are skills and habits you can develop to enhance your ability to remember information. By committing to memory-boosting activities and practices, you can strengthen your cognitive abilities and enjoy the benefits of a sharper mind.

Let's explore some effective strategies that you can implement right now to improve your memory retention. We've divided them into "lifestyle" and "learning" strategies. Lifestyle factors directly affect the health and functioning of the brain. The brain requires nutrients and stimulation to perform at its best.

Positive lifestyle habits can promote brain health and function. Sleep has been consistently proven to help consolidate memories. Specifically Stage 3 sleep, also known as slow wave sleep or deep sleep, is believed to be essential for improving memory retention.

Moderate-intensity exercise is excellent for brain health. Stress can have a negative impact on our memory. Yoga, meditation, and other forms of physical activity are great options to manage your stress levels.

There are all kinds of games you can use to get your brain activated, from puzzles to cards. Keeping your brain active can be both fun and effective in improving your memory. Water accounts for 75 percent of your brain's mass [ 1 ]. Proper hydration is critical for your brain to be working at its best.

It helps transport nutrients and bring more oxygen to the brain. The amount you need varies from person to person based on factors such as age, but a good place to start is to aim for at least As we learn new information, it is processed and stored in our brains to retrieve for later use.

The way that we learn can impact how we encode and retain information in our memory. Active recall is key when it comes to storing information as memories. Next time you have to study for a quiz or exam at school, a presentation at work, or vocabulary for a language class, you can make a set of flashcards.

You can absorb the information much more quickly after reviewing them multiple times. Quiz yourself or ask a study partner to quiz you for additional practice in repetition and recall. Other popular mnemonics that can help you memorize content are acronyms and chunking.

You may have asked yourself why you believe what you believe. You most likely asked why the system works the way it does. The more questions you ask, the more engaged you are. Your molecular biology professor informs the class that DNA is packaged in histone proteins.

Why is that important? It will help you understand your study material better see 2. As an active learner, you are most likely to recall information that you have invested much energy into remembering.

This practice is well known but not well practiced. Most of them are forced to so because they procrastinated. Even so, forgoing sleeping before a test is not a good idea. If you need to pull an all-nighter, do it 2 nights before the test. Study as much as you possibly can the day before and get sleep the night before your test.

Your sleeping may be even more valuable than your studying. These are just some memory improvement tips that should help you remember better and thus score better on your exams.

Obviously there are more, but try practicing these four and see if you see any improvement. It was so easy! Repeated exposure in various ways It seems obvious.

Understanding over memorization Sometimes the reason why we forget certain things is because we try to memorize without understanding. Ask why We often remember things that we are most engaged in. The mind palace technique is often used by memory champions.

In this ancient technique, you create a visual and complex place to store a set of memories. For more instructions on how to create memory palaces, watch U.

Instead, they relate information to other senses, like colors, tastes, and smells. This process helps reinforce the neural pathways in your brain.

Another common mistake is relying on the GPS every time you drive. Researchers found in that relying on response techniques — such as GPS — for navigation, shrinks a part of our brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for spatial memory and moving information from short-term to long-term memory.

Poor hippocampus health is associated with dementia and memory decline. Perhaps use GPS to get there, but use your brain to get back home. Your brain will thank you for the extra challenge.

One study linked busy schedules to better cognitive function. This study, however, was limited by self-reporting. An organized person has an easier time remembering. Checklists are one good tool for organization.

Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning. Try not to break your routine on the weekends. This can greatly improve sleep quality.

The blue light emitted by cell phone, TV, and computer screens inhibits the production of melatonin , a hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle circadian rhythm. A poorly regulated sleep cycle can really take a toll on sleep quality. Without enough sleep and rest, the neurons in our brain become overworked.

They can no longer coordinate information, making it more difficult to access memories. Roughly an hour before bedtime, turn off your devices and allow your brain to unwind. Diets such as the Mediterranean diet , DASH dietary approaches to stop hypertension , and the MIND diet Mediterranean-DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay have a few things in common.

Fatty fish are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s play an important role in building brain and nerve cells. Sugar and fat has been linked to impaired memory. A recent study in humans found that a diet high in fats and sugars — common in a Western diet — impairs hippocampal memory.

However, the study relied on questionnaires and surveys, which may not be as accurate. Other medications that might affect memory include:. Exercising has been shown to have cognitive benefits. It improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to the body, and helps to create new cells in the brain which are essential for memory storage.

Exercise especially increases the number of cells in the hippocampus. Walking , for example, is a great choice. Stress and depression have even been shown in animal studies to shrink the brain.

Check out this article for 16 easy ways to reduce stress and anxiety. Humans are social creatures. Research shows that a strong support system is vital to our emotional and brain health.

One study from found that people with very active social lives had the slowest memory decline. Just 10 minutes of talking to another person was shown to improve memory. Your brain is made mostly of water. Water acts as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord.

It helps our brain cells use nutrients. So just a small amount of dehydration can have disastrous effects. Mild dehydration has been shown to cause brain shrinkage and memory impairment.

But this one comes with a caveat. Having too much caffeine , or consuming it later in the day, can have the opposite effect as it can impair sleep in sensitive individuals.

Drinking more than that can have a negative effect on your ability to retain information as well as your sleep. Do memory problems always mean Alzheimer's disease? By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book.

Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance.

Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content.

List of Partners vendors. By Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book. Kendra Cherry, MSEd.

Learn about our editorial process. Learn more. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates.

Medically reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW. Learn about our Medical Review Board. Trending Videos. How to Use Mnemonic Devices to Improve Your Memory.

Focus Your Attention. Set aside a short period of time to be alone. Avoid Cramming. Structure and Organize. Utilize Mnemonic Devices. Come up with a rhyme, song, or joke to help remember a specific segment of information.

Elaborate and Rehearse. Visualize Concepts. Relate New Information to Things You Already Know. Read Out Loud. Pay Extra Attention to Difficult Information.

Vary Your Study Routine. Get Some Sleep. Frequently Asked Questions What are the three foods that fight memory loss?

What causes weak memory? Learn More: Causes of Memory Loss. Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles.

For a simple explanation of how playing these types of games can boost your brain power, check out this short video below by Asap Science:.

Can Brain-Teasing Video Games Make Your Smarter? The cognitive complexity and mental energy you must exert while interacting with such games challenges your brain. By stimulating your brain, new connections are formed in the brain's networks and existing connections are strengthened. Most of the brain games also strengthen attention, focus, and concentration in addition to brain skills like short-term memory or verbal fluency.

Some of the games, such as the RUN Game , train attention, focus, and concentration specifically. Because of this, if you play a variety of games that require different brain skills, you can boost your overall brain power.

These skills are valuable at school, at work, and in everyday life. For an example of how brain games can help cognition in older people, check out the podcast at left by National Public Radio entitled, "Multitasking After Video Game Boosts Focus, Mental Agility.

With online free brain games, it is easy to waste time. Unless you approach the games in a structured way, you won't get as much benefit. Here's one way to create your own very own personal brain exercise program using the free games on this site. Follow the step below, and work on forming a consistent habit until brain training becomes a regular part of your daily schedule.

Decide on playing one or more games from the Games List. For example, you might select Microsoft Sudoku or Kyodai Mahjong. Once a day, for 10 minutes, work on solving the puzzle or game. Use a stopwatch to track time if you need to.

Each time you play, try to solve the game more quickly than the last time or get a higher score. In addition to being a fun way to give your brain a workout, solving puzzles, mind benders, brain teasers, and other online brain games is a great way to take a break from other "normal" work.

Now you can justify to your parents, significant other, or boss why you spend so much time playing games. You are keeping your mind active and building a stronger brain! Can't make up your mind which free online brain games to start with? To make it easier to find specific types of games, I've grouped related games together on their own pages.

Here are some game categories to choose from:. To help you practice the math games, I've also created a free printable multiplication chart and a Multiplication Speed Test that you might find useful.

You might also want to check out my free Printable Math Flash Cards. As mentioned above, for a list of all the free printables on this site, including puzzles like Sudoku, Crosswords, and Word Searches, see the Free Printables page.

And if you want to practice memorization, try the online U. State Capitals Quiz that I made. Be sure to read the memorization tip at the bottom of that page. The authors of the study concluded that for both action and non-action games:.

Hidden-Object Games , which improved visual search performance and spatial working memory. Memory Matrix , which improved visual search performance and spatial working memory.

Match 3: Bejeweled , which improved visual search performance and complex verbal span. Action Games which eliminated attentional blink, and improved cognitive control, multiple-object tracking, and complex verbal span.

These proven methods help students of all ages remember better. Maybe It's a Sleep Problem It's amazing how poor sleep can hurt your memory.

If you have trouble sleeping at night or simply are not getting enough hours of sleep, it could be causing your memory problems.

Check out the Sleep and Memory page for great tips on getting more sleep and better sleep. Fish Oil - The New Memory Fix. Do you or someone you know have problems concentrating?

An Omega-3 deficiency sometimes causes this problem, because modern diets often don't provide enough of this nutrient. In one study in Britain, school children with poor concentration and memory who received Fish Oil vitamins showed a big improvement in behavior and school performance.

Read more about the many benefits of fish oil supplements. Grow New Brain Cells. Amazingly, it is possible to grow new brain cells neurons in the memory center of your brain. According to research, intense aerobic exercise such as running, biking, etc.

stimulates the growth of cells in the brain's hippocampus. As you can see from the partial list above, there are many different ways you can begin to build a stronger memory. Go straight to my Get a Better Memory page for a detailed list of memory improvement tips steps.

You don't have to be satisfied with a poor memory. Don't accept that you can't remember things. It's my goal to help as many people as possible improve their memory. No sign-up or log-in needed. Just go to a game page and start playing! Copyright © Memory-Improvement-Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction without permission is prohibited. For example, the colors of the spectrum can be remembered with the name ROY G. BIV Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Grouping or chunking refers to the process of dividing newly learned information into chunks to produce fewer, larger chunks of information.

The mind palace technique is often used by memory champions. In this ancient technique, you create a visual and complex place to store a set of memories. For more instructions on how to create memory palaces, watch U. Instead, they relate information to other senses, like colors, tastes, and smells.

This process helps reinforce the neural pathways in your brain. Another common mistake is relying on the GPS every time you drive. Researchers found in that relying on response techniques — such as GPS — for navigation, shrinks a part of our brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for spatial memory and moving information from short-term to long-term memory.

Poor hippocampus health is associated with dementia and memory decline. Perhaps use GPS to get there, but use your brain to get back home. Your brain will thank you for the extra challenge.

One study linked busy schedules to better cognitive function. This study, however, was limited by self-reporting. An organized person has an easier time remembering.

Checklists are one good tool for organization. Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning. Try not to break your routine on the weekends.

This can greatly improve sleep quality. The blue light emitted by cell phone, TV, and computer screens inhibits the production of melatonin , a hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle circadian rhythm.

A poorly regulated sleep cycle can really take a toll on sleep quality. Without enough sleep and rest, the neurons in our brain become overworked. They can no longer coordinate information, making it more difficult to access memories. Roughly an hour before bedtime, turn off your devices and allow your brain to unwind.

Diets such as the Mediterranean diet , DASH dietary approaches to stop hypertension , and the MIND diet Mediterranean-DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay have a few things in common. Fatty fish are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s play an important role in building brain and nerve cells.

Sugar and fat has been linked to impaired memory. A recent study in humans found that a diet high in fats and sugars — common in a Western diet — impairs hippocampal memory. However, the study relied on questionnaires and surveys, which may not be as accurate.

Other medications that might affect memory include:. Exercising has been shown to have cognitive benefits. It improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to the body, and helps to create new cells in the brain which are essential for memory storage.

Exercise especially increases the number of cells in the hippocampus. Walking , for example, is a great choice. Stress and depression have even been shown in animal studies to shrink the brain.

Check out this article for 16 easy ways to reduce stress and anxiety. Humans are social creatures. Research shows that a strong support system is vital to our emotional and brain health. One study from found that people with very active social lives had the slowest memory decline.

Just 10 minutes of talking to another person was shown to improve memory. Your brain is made mostly of water. Water acts as a shock absorber for the brain and spinal cord. It helps our brain cells use nutrients. So just a small amount of dehydration can have disastrous effects.

Mild dehydration has been shown to cause brain shrinkage and memory impairment.