3 Habits To Improve Your Memory and Boost Your Brain Health

Improve your memory. You want to remember those names and faces from the gym, because you don’t want to spend the rest of your life calling them, “hey you.”

Or maybe your job entails having to juggle two or three pieces of information at the same time and you don’t want to forget that crucial phone number that got called out to you but you didn’t have a pen handy to write it down.

Here’s how.

SLEEP IS CRUCIAL: HEALTHY HABIT NO 1

The latest medical advice states that you need between seven and nine hours sleep in every twenty four hours in order to maintain a healthy fully optimized brain.

But do you get it?

The link between getting a good nights sleep and your ability to focus, process information and then remember that information is clear.

REM sleep or rapid eye movement is the dream state you enter when processing the events of the day. It’s here that you put your short term memories into long term storage. If you don’t get enough REM sleep, you won’t remember what you learned the day before.

Deep sleep is where your brain flushes out the bad proteins that gather during the course of the day. Neurologist’s now believe that this flushing process or rather the lack of it, potentially contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.

A refreshing sleep will improve your cognitive ability, increase your learning ability and make for deeper, stronger connections in your brain, allowing for easier recall. It’s critical that you get a regular good nights sleep.

EAT HEALTHY: HEALTHY HABIT NO 2

The Lancet Global Burden of Disease Study, published in 2017, found that 1 in 5 deaths (11 million in total) were associated with poor diet.

This study looked at the dietary intake of 195 countries and their findings were shocking.

The main risk factor wasn’t eating unhealthy foods as you would have assumed but rather, not eating enough nutrients and healthy foods.

The report found that low consumption of the foods listed below led to a reduction in the quality of life, higher risk of disease and a lowering of lifespan:

• vegetables legumes

• fruit

• wholegrains nuts and seeds milk

• fibre

• calcium long chain omega 3s from seafood polyunsaturated fats

Not eating enough of the healthy foods listed above will lead to poor health and increased risk of disease and shortened lifespan.

While the consumption of red meat, processed meat, sugar-sweetened drinks, trans fats and sodium, all contributed to poor health and shortened lifespan, it was the lack of healthy food and nutrients that made the greatest impact.

The message from the study is clear. Reduce your risk of disease by eating a healthy diet.

What’s also clear is that eating healthy is critical for keeping your mind sharp. Eating the right brain foods will keep you operating at your peak.

If you’re interested in learning more about brain foods then check out Optimum Nutrition for the Mind.

EXERCISE: HEALTHY HABIT NO 3

We all know that to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to exercise regularly. The benefits of regular cardio exercise include: lower risk of heart disease, longer life span, improve immune system, to name but a few. (more on this below.)

And yet, the majority of us don’t do enough exercise. Life is just too busy. For instance, the kids need to be taken to team events. Your boss has given you a big assignment, or you’re working two jobs to pay the bills. You’re just too tired after a day cleaning the house and chasing after the kids.

There are a lot of reasons why exercise might be low on your list of priorities. Cardio exercise reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease. Doing cardio can help prevent that heart attack or stroke from ever happening. It can also lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of diabetes and osteoporosis. It reduces stress by lowering your cortisol levels and producing endorphins.

And if that’s not enough for you. Here’s another good reason to get sweating. Exercise, especially when done socially, can be relaxing and fun.

CONCLUSION

It may seem elementary, but sleeping, eating and exercising for optimal health is not something you do as a matter of course.

But the benefits of building these three habits include:

1. A stronger, healthier bond between body and mind

2. Potentially longer lifespan

3. Reduced risk of getting heart disease, Cancer or Alzheimer’s

4. Improved learning ability and memory retention

5. A more active and happier lifestyle

In conclusion, living a longer and healthier life is a worthy goal, and if you work hard to improve your memory, you gain the added benefit of ensuring that you maintain strong mental health, which this means that you can be active and productive long after you retire.

And isn’t that worth the effort?

Resources

What is Healthy Sleep? – National Sleep Foundation

Sleep is vital to your physical and mental health. But, how can you tell whether you’re truly sleeping well? Especially if you work shifts, your sleep probably does not look exactly like other peoples’ sleep. It can be hard to measure…

British Nutrition Foundation

Poor diets associated with 11 million deaths worldwide according to the Lancet Global Burden of Disease Study.

Harvard.edu

Getting regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your health. It lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and certain cancers, and it can also help control stress, improve sleep.

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