As my dad has never had the best memory, even when he was younger, this is a topic that I’ve been curious to research, especially now that he’s in his 70s and showing the early signs of dementia. In particular, I wanted to see what science says about sites like Luminosity that guarantee your memory will improve (sadly, they shouldn’t be offering such a guarantee). So while there are no absolute methods that will certainly work, the tips I found will make forgetting the little things less likely.
Can you improve your memory as you age?
We all have skips in our memory from time to time — misplacing our keys, forgetting an event or appointment, or failing to remember the name of an acquaintance. But as we age, particularly as we reach and pass the age of 65, it is easy to wonder if such small lapses in our memory can be signs of something more serious, like Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia.
The good news is that most of us won’t develop such serious diseases; fewer than 1 in 5 people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s disease, for example. The bad news is that some memory loss is common as we age — the American Psychological Association says that both our “episodic memory,” which remembers the small things in our daily lives, as well as our long-term memory, which stretches back to childhood, will decline as we grow older.