A significant amount of memory loss occurs within the first few of hours after being exposed to new information.  If you want to recall what you learn there are some things you can do to help.

Learn something related to what you already know

Learning something with purpose or that has meaning to you and can be integrated with something you already know, is much more easily recalled than learning random or unconnected facts.  This is why we forget most of the useless facts learned in school.

Before and after sleeping

The twenty minutes immediately before you go to sleep and the twenty minutes immediately after you wake up are especially good times to learn something new.

Learn in chunks of about twenty minutes

Your Hippocampus needs time to consolidate what it has learned.  If you cram in too much information, the ability to consolidate it into long-term memory decreases.  After about twenty minutes and no longer than forty minutes, take a five minute break and do something completely different.  For example get up and walk around and let your brain consolidate what you have learned.

Learn elaborately encoded information

Simply stated this means the more parts of your brain involved in in learning something, the more easily it is recalled.  Think about an experience that involves sights, sounds, and touch.  Such an experience might produce a vivid memory whereas memorizing a list of words will not.  The multi-sense experience is much more elaborately encoded by your brain.  We are visual creatures and so visualizing anything you want to learn will help.

Repetition is key to long-term memory

Re-expose yourself to the information in deliberately spaced intervals.  There is no conclusive evidence on the best time intervals but there are clues.  After the first day, the review sessions can be significantly compressed.   Here is a possible plan that I have cobbled together from various sources:

First exposure
10 minutes – quick review
90 minutes – 2nd exposure
90 minutes – 3rd exposure
1 day – review
3 days – review
6 weeks – review
6 months – review
1 year – review

While there is no formula that is conclusive, repetition before the material has time to decay is critical.  There is even an interesting software program based upon this called SuperMemo.  I’ve never used it.

Some other helpful tips

• Consider putting what you have learned into a mind map.  I tried this with a novel once and I still remember a lot of that story.
• Discuss what you have learned with someone else.  Explaining something to another person is a fantastic memory enhancer.
• Be selective.  Selecting important information to learn and reviewing it periodically is better than spending the same amount of time drinking from a fire hose.  Less is more.
• If possible, expose yourself to the material in multiple ways. Read it, listen to it, and watch a video about it.  A paper book and an audio book are great compliments to one another.  Read it silently and then read it aloud.  Write summaries, draw pictures, visualize pictures, or draw a mind map.
• Learned information is recalled better in the same environment in which it was originally learned.  If you learn something in your recliner, you will recall it better in the same recliner than on the beach.  Something learned while you are sad is more easily recalled when you are sad.
• Preview the material.  Read the summary of a book or document, glance through the chapter headings, read the first and last paragraphs of each section, read the first sentence of paragraphs, skim, etc.  Try to get the main ideas before beginning.
• Review the same way you previewed.
• Fast rereads are great for reviews.  Since you are already familiar with the material you can read it with comprehension much faster on subsequent exposures.
• Highlight important points as you encounter them and then use those for review.
• Paraphrase in your mind as you learn.
• Visualize in your mind as you learn.
• Relate what you learn to your own real-life experiences.
• Concentrate intensely during learning sessions.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and join the conversation.

Get Free Updates to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or via a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you on board.

Some excellent sources for the material contained herein:

The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind

The Edge Effect: Achieve Total Health and Longevity with the Balanced Brain Advantage

The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions–Today

This is the second article in the series on how to balance your brain chemistry with food and supplements.  Please read the first article in the series:

Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Dopamine

Acetylcholine is important for memory and learning and is a neurotransmitter used throughout the body.  It controls muscle contraction for example.  Acetylcholine may be extremely important for long term memory.  It determines your brain speed.  If you have too little, your brain is going to slow down.  The most extreme case of this is Alzheimer’s.   You can think of acetylcholine as a lubricant for your brain and body.  Acetylcholine along with dopamine are the neurotransmitters that turn your brain on.  They allow it to work hard and fast.  A lack of either one can lead to memory and attention problems.

People with acetylcholine dominate natures are very sensory oriented.  They are creative, innovative, and open to new ideas.  Generally they are socially oriented.  Acetylcholine natures enjoy activities involving words, ideas, and communication.  Counselors, instructors, artists, writers, and actors are likely to have acetylcholine natures.

Acetylcholine deficiency can display as Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, dementia, dry mouth, dry skin, reading/writing disorders, speech problems, slow movement, mood swings, learning disorders, verbal memory problems, memory lapses, attention problems, difficulty concentrating, carelessness, and decreased creativity.  If you crave fatty foods or have perfectionist tendencies you may also benefit from more acetylcholine.

How to Increase Your Acetylcholine Levels

This one is a little tricky because the best foods for acetylcholine are fatty.  Avoid fatty red meats if you can.

• Egg yolk
• Beef liver
• Chicken liver
• Whole Egg
• Turkey liver
• Wheat germ
• Pork
• Lean ground beef
• Cod, salmon, or tilapia
• Shrimp
• Soy protein
• Peanut butter
• Oat bran
• Pine nuts
• Almonds
• Hazelnuts
• Macadamia nuts
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cucumber, zucchini, lettuce
• Skim milk
• Trimmed ham
• Low-fat cheese
• Low-fat yogurt

Supplements

Frankly the best way to increase your acetylcholine is through supplements.  There are some fantastic supplements available.  Take these 30 minutes before eating.

GPC choline – This is the best absorbed and most impressive form of choline to take.  It is more expensive than phosphatidylcholine, but you absorb so much more of it and it is already in the form that exists in your cell membranes so it is well worth it.  Take 500 mg to 2,000 mg daily broken up into 2 doses; one before breakfast and one before lunch.

Phosphatidylcholine – 500 mg to 2,000 mg daily in three doses.

Phosphatidylserine – This has a long history of research to back it up  Take 500 mg to 2,000 mg daily broken up into three doses.

The following supplements help preserve acetylcholine in your brain and body:

Acetyl-L-Carnitine – You are out of your mind IMHO if you don’t take this amino acid supplement.  It is extremely safe and has such fantastic potential that you should take it if there is any chance in hell that even a small fraction of it’s potential benefits work.  I will discuss it more in a future article.  Take 1,000 mg to 3,000 mg daily divided into three doses.  Combine it with R-Lipoic Acid for powerful synergistic effects.  Take 100 mg to 300 mg daily divided into three doses.

Manganese – This is a mineral that preserves acetylcholine.  Take 1 mg to 5 mg daily.

Huperizine-A – Take 200 mcg daily in three divided doses.  This is an herbal extract and is a proven acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.  This means it prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine.  This supplement borders on a drug, but it has proven benefits for example in Alzheimer’s patients.  I think it is very safe but make your own decision.

Get Free Updates to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or via a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you on board.

Ha ha!  This is not going to be what you were thinking.  Jonathan at Advanced Life Skills published an article called What is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping?.  Please check it out.  I would like to expand on the sleep topic with some other interesting and important information.

I used to think sleep was a waste of time and since I could function on a lot less than most people, I did.  Big mistake.  Please don’t make the same mistake.  Over many years of too little sleep, I have paid a big price and maybe even done permanent damage.

How Much Do You Need?

This varies from person to person but most people need between seven and nine hours.  Teenagers need more than any other age group except babies, typically 9 or more.  People who sleep eight hours score better on mental tests than people who sleep six.  I would go for the longer times if I were you.  Active people and especially those who exercise a lot need more deep sleep to repair their bodies.

Stages of Sleep

Sleep is broken up into REM and Non-REM (NREM) sleep.  NREM sleep consists of four stages:

Stage 1: This is the period between wakefulness and sleep.  Eyes are closed but most people think they are still awake and if woken will insist they hadn’t fallen asleep yet.  This stage lasts five to ten minutes.

Stage 2: This is a period of light sleep where heart rate and temperature slows in preparation for for deep sleep.

Stage 3 and Stage 4: These are the deep stages of sleep.  During these stages the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.  It is difficult to wake someone or awaken spontaneously out of these deep sleep stages.

REM: After a complete NREM cycle the body goes in to REM sleep.  The brain is very active in REM sleep and shows patterns similar to an awake brain.  Your major muscle groups are paralyzed during this stage and that is what prevents you from moving and acting out your dreams.  The first REM stage lasts about 10 minutes and each REM cycle through the rest of the night increases in length and the deep sleep stages decrease in length.

Men maintain erections through much of their REM sleep.  It’s not because we are having sex dreams.  Researchers do not fully understand REM sleep and dreaming.  However, they do know it is important to long-term memories and learning.

A complete sleep cycle of stage 1 through REM takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes.   After REM, you start over with stage 1.  This Cycle repeats itself throughout the night.

The decreasing length of deep NREM sleep and the increasing length of REM sleep as the night progresses has very important consequences.  The body emphasizes the most important stages first.  Since the deep stages are when the physical body is repairing itself, you will spend a lot more time in deep sleep early.  That means if you get too little sleep your body will complete the physical repair stages first before it works heavily on the memory and learning aspects of REM sleep.  So when you skimp on your sleep, you are impacting your brain more than your body.  That is why people who sleep longer have better mental performance.

Don’t Set Your Alarm Clock

Forcing yourself awake unnaturally is bad for you.  I know most people are going to say they won’t wake up without an alarm clock but that’s not true.  It is fairly easy to train yourself to wake up about when you want, but there is a very important consideration.  If you are awakened when you are in one of your deeper stages of sleep, you will suffer much of the day as a result.  In fact you will feel better and are better off by getting less sleep and waking up at the appropriate stage.  You want to wake up in the light stages and ideally at the end of a cycle.  This is when you will naturally wake up.

You can determine the length of your natural cycle by noting the time you go to sleep and then waking up naturally several nights.  Do this on the weekend if you must.  Adjust your go to bed and get up times around your cycle and try to get at least seven hours per night.  Eight is better.  I naturally wake up after about 5 hours and 45 minutes or about 7 hours.  I can sometimes sleep over 8 but not often.  I attribute this to a lack of strenuous physical activity.

If you must set an alarm, try to time it according to your natural cycle by using the data you learned during natural awakening experiments.  If you typically wake up after 7 1/2 hours then set your alarm to wake you up after 7 1/2 hours of sleep.  If you have to get up at a certain time, then adjust your going to bed time accordingly.

Waking Up Frequently

Many people who wake up frequently in the night think that they are not sleeping well.  This is not true if you go back to sleep.  During the light stages of sleep there is very little difference between wake and sleep.  There is very little negative impact of waking up during this time and then falling back to sleep.  I sleep very sound the first few hours and then wake up multiple times later in the night.  This is very normal for many people.  Especially middle aged and older men.  LOL!

Light and Dark

Your body’s circadian rhythm is regulated by several factors and one of the most important is light.  Another is activity.   The single best approach for clock setting for your body is to get bright light, preferably sunshine very early in the morning.  You also need to move your body.  If you get very early movement and sunshine you will have a very effectively mechanism to set your clock daily.  Exercise in the early morning sun will give you many other additional health benefits as well.

It is also critical to sleep in total darkness.  Light and darkness trigger the hormone cycle of melatonin which regulates sleep and wakefulness.  Even tiny amounts of light at night, such as nightlight or streetlight will suppress melatonin production and result in a lower quality of sleep.  Seal up the cracks that let light leak into your bedroom.

Body Temperature

As body temperature drops in the late afternoon and evening you will start getting tired.  If you have a problem with wanting to go to bed too early or getting sleepy in the evening, try exercising in the late afternoon or early evening.  This will raise your body temperature and delay the desire to sleep.

Sleep Pressure

The need to sleep is heavily driven by two factors. The amount sleep you got the night before and the length of time since you last slept.   Throughout the day the pressure rises and by late evening it will be high.  If you didn’t get enough sleep the night before, you will get tired earlier than normal.

Power Naps

Power naps work because they reduce sleep pressure.  If you think of sleep pressure as a graph line rising throughout the day, a power nap will create a dip in that in that line.  It buys you more time since it decreases the length of time since you last slept.

You need to wake up after 20 minutes or sleep an entire 90+ minute cycle for your power naps.  If you go past 20 minutes and don’t sleep a full cycle, you will wake up groggy.  You would have been better off to not have taken a nap at all.

The Bedroom and Bed Are For Sleep and Sex Only!

You are a creature of habit.  You need to train your brain that when the light goes out and your head hits the pillow, that it should go to sleep immediately.  This is a wonderful habit that can be learned fairly easily.  I was a terrible insomniac and I had to go through multiple cycles of reading and falling asleep each night.  I created a terrible habit that was very bad for my physical and mental well being.

The absolute worst thing you can do is stimulate your brain with the TV while you are in bed.  You really shouldn’t watch TV for an hour before bedtime (or quite frankly ever).

If you cannot go to sleep then get out of bed and do something to relax like yoga or meditation.  You can even do light reading.  When you feel tired again go back to bed.  Teaching your brain and body that bed is a place to toss and turn in restlessness will only make the problem worse.  If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, get up and do something that makes you sleepy.  Stay out of bed when you can’t sleep.

Brainwave Entrainment

Brainwave entrainment means stimulating the brain with some kind of periodic beat which causes your brainwaves to synchronize or fall into step with the frequency of the beats.  Your brainwaves have typical frequency patterns associated with various activities, both when you are awake and when you are asleep.  The highest frequencies are associated intense focus and concentration and the the lowest frequencies with deep sleep.

This stuff really works and can be proven scientifically by measuring brainwaves after an entrainment session.  I use this and I believe it has helped me a great deal.  The great thing about brainwave entrainment is that you actually train your brain to more easily slip into these states.  As a result, you usually don’t have to continue the sessions for a long period of time.

As it regards sleep, the various stages of sleep are associated with different brainwave frequencies.  Thus listening to brainwave entrainment audio as you sleep will result in better sleep.  These audios guide your through the various stages.  I first used entrainment techniques for sleep and I believe it made a huge difference.  If you are interested take this survey Optimal Sleep, and sign up for some free information.  You will have the opportunity to purchase a $58 program that was worth 100 times that to me.

There are two different types of beats I have used: binaural beats and isochronic tones.  I think the science is on the side of isochronic tones being more effective, but I have used both with good success.

Get Free Updates to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or via a reader in the top left sidebar. I would love to have you on board. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Here are some tips on how to remember what you read and learn better.  These are based upon current brain science.

20 Minute Sessions

Your hippocampus will fill up after about 20 minutes and needs a break to organize and store the information.  So every 20 minutes take a 5 minute break.  During your break, move your body and relax your mind.  You may be able to go up to 40 minutes in a session, but after that learning and recall go into the toilet.  If you stretch your session to 40 minutes, take a 10 minute break.

The 10 Minute Spike

Your recall improves during the first 10 minutes after reading something.  In other words, if you took a test on what you read immediately after 20 minutes of reading, your recall would be worse than if you waited 10 minutes and then took the same test.  Recall peaks around 10 minutes following the end of a learning or reading session.  You can make use of this fact by attempting to recall the information with a technique like recall trees which is described below.  So for example, you to read for 20 minutes, take a 10 minute break, and then create a recall tree or otherwise review the material.  Review the material after you attempt to recall from memory so you can fill in what you missed.  This process will help maximize your long-term recall ability.

Before You Go to Bed, As Soon As You Wake Up

The two very best times to learn something for subsequent recall are immediately before going to sleep and immediately after waking up.  These peak periods last 20 to 30 minutes.  A good approach is to spend 20 minutes learning right before bed, then wait 10 minutes and recall and review it.  Go to sleep immediately following the recall and review.  Alternatively you might just read something you want to remember for 30 minutes right before going to sleep.  Be sure you get 7 to 9 hours of sleep for maximum mental performance every day!  Sleep is absolutely key to the organization and consolidation of memory.

The Beginning and the End

You remember the beginning and the end of a learning session much better than the middle.  So bunch the most important facts at the beginning and the end of the session.  There is a significant dip in the recall of information from the middle of your learning session.

Learn to Understand Not to Remember

This is key.  When you are trying to learn something, focus on understanding and not remembering.  Understanding creates associations with existing knowledge and makes for much more powerful recall.  Learning to understand makes your brain wake up and get excited.  It becomes an active participant rather than a bored recipient.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Recall and review the information in the following intervals for maximum long-term recall:

• 10 minutes
• 24 hours
• 1 week
• 1 month
• 6 months

If you do this consistently, you will remember magnitudes more information than you would have otherwise remembered.

Use a Recall Tree

This is a powerful memory technique.  After you learn something or read something you want to remember, recall it organized in a recall tree with keywords.  Focus on keywords and not narration.  Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper and draw a series of branches off of this main line.  Expand each branch into the appropriate number of smaller branches, just like a branching tree.  You draw a new sub-branch for each idea that derives from the main branch.  You end up with a branching tree with each branch containing a key word or very short phrase written on it.   It’s very much like a mind map.  It’s an organized way of recalling and grouping the information.

Once you have done this from memory, review the information and fill in your recall tree with ideas or groupings that you missed during recall.  The recall tree will be a powerful method of quickly reviewing and recalling the information in your later repetitions.  Try to reproduce it from memory 24 hours later.

Recall and organization is far more powerful than just rote repetition.  Let’s say you have two hours to learn some written material.  If you spend 30 minutes reading it and 90 minutes recalling and filling in the gaps by reviewing, you will learn and recall far more than just 120 minutes of reading and rereading.

Create Associations With Existing Knowledge

This may be the most important one of all and it is closely tied with the learning to understand tip above.  If you can relate new information to something you already know, you will improve your ability to recall it by many magnitudes.  That existing knowledge is permanent and easily recalled.  If you associate new knowledge to it, the new knowledge is organized and recalled much easier.  You have a pre-existing path directly to it.  As just one illustration, try to come up with personal exmples of how something you are learning applies in your own life.  If you can think of an example where this happened to you or makes sense of some experience you have had, you will be creating an association with something you already know.  Always try to relate new information to existing knowledge that is already in an easy recall path.  You will end up with a memory on steroids!

Visualize and Imagine

Paint, in your mind, vivid pictures of what you are learning.  The more exaggerated you make them the better.  Use bright and deep colors.  Imagine texture and get all of your senses involved.  Try to touch, taste, smell, and hear in addition to seeing.  Create a mental movie that puts the information into a story if you can.  Your brain loves stories and works in pictures.  Humans are story tellers by nature and thus we have a natural ability to remember and understand information in story form.

Variety is Key

When you repeat, try to create variations on the angle you are taking to the information.  Repeating the exact same thing over and over is not the most optimum way to learn.  Your brain gets easily bored with repetition and will quickly shut down.  Further, when you take a slightly different angle, you are creating multiple paths and associations to the same concept.

You can study written text for example by reading it.  Then you can recall it and organize it into a recall tree or mind map.  Next you can think of multiple examples of how you can relate this to your personal experience.  The more and greater variety of examples you can come up with the better.  If you have no personal experience that can be applied, try to imagine how you might relate it to something in the future or how it applies to someone else that you know.

You can explain the material or teach it to someone else.   Teaching is an extremely powerful way to learn something.  You can draw a picture.  You can read it out loud.  This creates a vocal and auditory dimension to your learning experience.  You can write out key concepts by hand.  All of these techniques reinforce the material in slightly different ways.

The same thing applies to learning and remembering physical activity.  Think about bike riding.  If you learned to ride a bike on a circular track and that’s all you ever did, you would actually not be a very good bike rider on or off the track.  It is much better to ride your bike in as many varied environments and terrain as you can.  Strangely enough this will improve your ability to ride your bike around the track.  You brain creates many more connections and can draw on a lot more brain power to provide optimal performance on the track, if it has experience off the track in other environments.

Emotions Make Memories Better

Emotions, especially positive ones, release chemicals in your brain that make your memories stronger, easier to recall, and longer lasting.  Some negative emotions such as sadness also make strong memories.  Adrenaline associated with good or bad emotions strengthens memories.

To enhance you learning and memory, generate a positive emotional state just prior to learning something new.  Doug Bench calls this “Triggering a Thunderstorm” of emotion.  I love the way that sounds.  I suggest loving-kindness or mindful meditation.  Laughing is an excellent way to improve your brain function.  Do whatever you want to generate positive emotions.  The more intense and visual the better.

What do you think?  Leave a comment below. Get Free Updates to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or via a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you on board.