Recharge Your Mind to Recharge Your Memory

Sit Back, Relax & Do Nothing to Refresh Your Mind

“Human minds work faster than a computer” is becoming no more relevant as people rely upon their smartphones, calendars and task lists to remind them of their important schedules, appointments and even personal things such as birthdays, anniversaries and other important occasions. You wish your friend on Facebook and when she is surprised but happy, you blow away the entire happiness by telling her that you got a reminder in your smartphone. This is the bitter truth nowadays.

Our memory helps us remember numbers, dates, event and things. People assume that more the work/efforts they put in, better will their performance output be. Most don’t realize that a small break of 10-15 minutes between busy schedules can help them perform better, faster and smoother.

Take time off to sit back, relax and do nothing. By nothing, I mean literally nothing-no checking mails, replying to messages or surfing your smartphone. Give your brain the time and opportunity to recharge itself completely devoid of any distractions. Once this is done, you will realize that what you feed your brain gets stored more quickly than if you had used the time more productively.

While doing nothing seems to be the perfect gift for the lazy people out there, this also provides another dimension to amnesia and dementia patients. It is a new way to learn and remember things that could otherwise be impossible for such people.

Muller-Pilzecker Experiment

In 1990, Muller and his student, Pilzecker, in one of their many experiments on memory consolidation asked their subjects to learn a list of meaningless syllables. After this, half the group was given a second list immediately while the other half was given a six-minute break before being provided with the list. When tested for their memory capability after 1.5 hours, there was striking difference among the two groups. The participants who were given a 6-minute break remembered 50% of the list while the other group remembered only 28% of the list items. This clearly proves that memory becomes sluggish when our brains are given back-to-back information to store.

Short Breaks to Enable Huge Benefits

In another setup, researchers tried to find out whether minimal interference improved the memories of people who bounced back after some neurological issue (such as stroke). Just like the previous study set up, the participants were placed in a similar environment and given 15 words. They were tested for their memory capability after 10 minutes. In some trials the participants were kept busy with some other cognitive tests while in other trials they were made to lie in a darkened room and prevented from falling asleep. Apart from 2 patients suffering from severe amnesia, all other participants tripled the number of words they could remember (14% to 49%) placing them in par with normal people devoid of neurological issues.

Similar memory improvement was found in people in the milder stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain takes time to process the new information that enters inside and reducing additional stimulation during these times might make the process smoother. Neurological damage might hamper the brain in its process of learning new things and this resting period might prove to be useful for stroke survivors and patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Even exercising can minimize the effect of Alzheimer’s to a great extent and in-depth details about this are given at www.firsteatright.com. While it is practically not feasible to give enough resting period to increase daily memory capability, it could at least help the patient learn and remember the face and name of his/her new caretaker.

Likewise, for students too, a 10-30% improvement in their studies can help them gain a better grade. Study, take 10-15 minutes break between revisions and study again to remember all that you have studied.

The fact is trivial, but its effect can impact our lives greatly on the positive side. It is not only our laptops, sim cards, mobiles and iPads that need recharge time but our invaluable minds too that can store trillions of information when utilized and channelized in the right way.