Posted on 06/28/2025 9:01:04 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
A straightforward nightly activity may act as a memory-boosting tool, a new study has revealed.
Writing down just five events from the day significantly improved memory performance in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy older adults the following day.
This intervention, which involves recalling and documenting daily experiences, offers a cost-free and easily implementable approach to enhancing memory function.
The RESTED-AD Study (Remote Evaluation of Sleep To Enhance Understanding in Early Dementia) investigated the effects of autobiographical recall on memory performance utilizing 26 participants in two groups—with and without early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
They engaged in a word recognition task on two separate occasions. In one instance, participants were asked to write down five autobiographical events before bedtime. The following morning, when asked to recognize the previously shown words, the results indicated improved memory performance in both groups when the bedtime recall exercise was included.
Dr. Jonathan Blackman explained: "On the nights when participants wrote down events from the day, both the people with AD and healthy older adults did better in the memory task with the AD group benefiting even more.
"We do not believe that this has been demonstrated before in human studies and it holds promise as a drug-free intervention to enhance memory performance in healthy older adults and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment or dementia due to Alzheimer's disease."
While the study did not find a direct link between the bedtime recall exercise and sleep-related brain activity, there are other possible explanations. For example, the recall exercise may have stimulated areas of the brain involved in memory just before bedtime leading to improved memory performance in other tasks.
This approach stands out due to its simplicity and accessibility.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Bump
I have read that it is not indicative of dementia/alzheimers if someone is unable to name something if you are able to describe its function.
Who knows? So many suppositions for cognitive decline. Almost to the point where I believe there wont be a “cure” for it because the industry has become too lucrative for pharma.
I’ll be listing highlights or lowlights of my day. Brushing, flossing, making coffee are everyday chores. Mine for yesterday are
1- worked out in garage for 30 minutes.
2- cell to daughter for 2 hours about her pay raise and how great her wedding was 3 weeks ago.
3 - went to new fresh seafood place only to find a lady in front of me got the last of the Rockfish.
4- went to Fresh Market where we bought Chilean Sea Bass for the 1st time and made a fabulous dinner.
5- drove to office to prep for an appt I have today but forgot my key fob so drove back home
6- watched the Dark Mirror with Olivia Dehaviland and two episodes of Andy Griffith.
Pretty dull day but those were the highlights 5 being the lowlight
#2 is touching and wonderful! What a sweet conversation with your daughter.
Those who replied obviously don’t have recall problems. Are these the sort of memories not created in dementia patients? I’m still not sure about the exercise suggested in the article.
Frequenting FR keeps us sharp.
At 55.........
You must think 90, at least.
The inability to come up with a word at a specific moment is actually quite common. It is helpful to have a wife or husband who can supply the word on demand and lubricate the problem. Seldom do both 80+ individuals lose track of the same word simultaneously.
I have that problem while posting. I have learned to leave out the word and type ////////. By the end of the next sentence it will come forward and be typed in the right place.
In the octogenarian community, the problem is recognized as to some degree universal. We keep on keeping on though
Fortunately, the stupidity in item 7 is nicely counterbalanced by item 2.
Thus, the perfect symmetry of Yin and Yang is achieved in the Person, the Home, the Community, and the Kingdom.*
* NOTE: All of the wisdom above is fully documented in the Confucian jade tablets excavated by friends of SunkenCiv :-)
LOLOL! And…
An old couple are having trouble remembering things，so they go to the doc. ‟Try Word association.” Says the doc. ‟Next time you want to remember something，think of an object that links to it. Make this image bright and vivid in your mind，and then when you need to remember the thing，you will see the object and remember.”
The couple are wary but figure they’ll give it a try. The next day the old man is doing some gardening when his neighbour Bob stops by and says，‟those are some great hedge clippers. Where’d you get those?”
The old man recalls the doctors advice. ‟Bob, what’s that red flower with thorns down the stem?”
‟Rose?”
‟That’s right!” He says triumphantly, and shouts through the open window. ‟ROSE!!! WHERE’D WE GET THE HEDGE CLIPPERS??”
Writing or typing?
What about voice to text?
Reedsey ,,,,
Thanks
Thanks
BKMK
Vitamin B-12 is extremely important.
We are thinking of moving from Microsoft based computers, etc to Apple based...and I want to use Linux...we are in our 70s...think it is worth it? And doable?
Bookmark for later
Sounds like a good idea for everyone.
As opposed to consuming five shots of whiskey before bed?
Put your father on a ketogenic diet. This can be tremendously helpful for disorders of age-related cognitive impairment. It has worked very well for someone in our family. I don’t think she’ll ever be 100% again but after the dietary changes you couldn’t tell there were ever any cognitive deficits. It’s worth a shot.
Interesting. I’m over 60 and it seems that old memory works sometimes better than new memory. For instance, I was at the mall and a song played and I immediately thought- “That’s Boy George from Culture Club.” I was never a huge fan, yet my brain recalled that info even though I wasn’t even trying.
Then a few days later I was telling a friend about my nephew and couldn’t remember his name. So weird!
Our brains are really amazing AND intriguingly mysterious!
Recommend:
That will arrive, probably with MacOS 14.7 installed; it can be upgraded to MacOS 15 Sequoia when you wish.
This Mac would be worth having (at a very low price), so you do not have to “What about this?” and “What about that?” Instead, you get hands-on learning, while retaining your familiar Windows OS activity.
Linux OS is a bear. Use the Mac - its OS has AT&T > FreeBSD roots that you will discover as you get to know the command line via the Terminal.app <— much like the Windows OS Command Prompt.
https://osxdaily.com/2024/09/30/how-install-command-line-tools-macos-sonoma/
So, you get MacOS experience plus Unix -type experience.
Re Linux OS - there are so many flavors. The learning curve is steep (geek stuff), when you encounter Linux OS problems. I would delay all that, until after you are familiar with the Mac.
Thx...for that price maybe I should get it just to exercise my brain....and have as a backup for the refurb Dell I got last year, and for my very old laptop which I am afraid to updatevto Win11
The Dell is a desktop with a very large screen...which is really what I needed.
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