apart from mot enough sleep, another cause can be if you have too much routine. the human brain compresses and deletes everything that’s daily routine. like brushing teeth, having breakfast, etc. you always brush teeth and have breakfast, so why remember every instance, when the brain can just remember that you generally brush teeth and have breakfast. if most of your life is routine like that, you will forget a lot of it. you can add an exotic fruit to your breakfast and you will remember it a bit better, except if you start doing it every day.
I had exactly the same thing, and would come to my senses (for lack of a better term) every so often and be genuinely confused where days or even weeks had gone. One thing that has been really helping me is writing all the little things down such as what I ate or learned in classes as you mentioned.
I personally started using Logseq for this but basically any note taking application will do. The most important feature that I use is linking topics, for example I would mark a bullet point with #food and so on, which eventually organizes the thoughts automatically. It’s really nice to be able to just write and not even think about organizing it as that’s the computer’s job.
Kinda depends I guess, each person has varying degrees of recall and you can improve your recall if you’re willing to work on it (barring any actual health conditions that would interfere of course).
Personally, if I’m asked on the spot a question like, “What’d you eat for breakfast last Tuesday?” there’s a pretty good chance I wouldn’t remember and I don’t think that’s too unusual for most people.
If you’re experiencing increasingly poor recall (or just suddenly your recall is noticeably worse), then it’s probably worth getting checked out by medical professionals if you can afford it but not always having perfect recall or even slightly worsening recall as you age is pretty normal.
Yeah, I deal with this. Most notably for me is during the “daily standup” at work in which everyone on the team is supposed to recount what was worked on yesterday, what they’re working on today, and if there are any roadblocks.
Even though I know I was busy the day before, I often struggle to recall precisely what I worked on.
I have this issue too, caused by the anxiety I have knowing that the moment I have to speak publically my mind goes completely blank and the more I try to recall the worse it gets. To help overcome the issue I take a few minutes to make a brief list of notes at the end of every day that outlines what I worked on that day and where I left things.
It ends up in me mostly reading off a list but since I work remotely I just put it on another monitor and it’s not a big deal. I give it helped a ton and I feel much less put on the spot at the beginning of each work day.
For several years, I wasn’t getting enough sleep (too busy, like most people).
During the COVID years, I was able to sleep 8 hours a day. After a few months of that, I had already noticed my memory improved a lot.
Now it’s been years and I can recall various random things in much higher resolution levels than before (faces details, conversations details, chess patterns, second language rules, my own ideas, etc.).
So much so that I have now made it a top priority to get my 8 hours of sleep every day, because I now remember how much of a time saver it ends up being.
Unfortunately it could be so many things. First off is to consider overthinking a little bit, if you feel your memory performance otherwise is acceptable most of the time. As the reason for why this happens it could be a great many things. Clean up your sleep schedule and quality first. Then maybe check and work on the diet. Vitamin deficiencies can cause all kinds of subtle trouble. Next the obligatory exercise disclaimer as it will improve functioning. It can be frustrating to deal with the human body as many things aren’t as clear cut.
So… if everything had fallen into routine… it’s somewhat normal for those memories to be vague. Like what you had for breakfast, or another example, your commute into work.
Your brain just doesn’t care as much about “normal” things. You probably don’t remember your shits unless there was something weird about it, too.
Are you suffering from depression? Depression takes a lot of mundane memories away. If you work on mindfulness with some of these basic tasks like showering or cooking, you can improve the retention of your day’s events.
I find it normal to leave the minutia of everyday details behind. It takes an effort to commit anything to memory. Sometimes just letting go and not expending the effort is worth it. If you’re missing important details, begin writing things down. Check yourself, your diet, your hydration, and your sleep. Every single one can impact your ability to form memories.
Add comment