Why is my memory getting worse at such a young age?

Author: Chen Haibo, chief physician of Beijing Hospital

Reviewer: Hu Wenli, Chief Physician, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University

I look for my phone with my hands, and I look for my keys with my hands. I forget what I put down the moment I put it down.

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Have you ever had this experience? How come your memory is so bad at such a young age? Do you know the reason?

1. At what age does memory loss usually begin to occur?

In fact, memory loss is very common among middle-aged and elderly people. Younger people in their thirties and forties generally should not have obvious memory loss.

Of course, we say that people start to decline after the age of 25. They reach their most mature and peak state at around 25, and then they start to decline. During the decline, memory is often at a plateau, and does not begin to decline until the age of 50 or 60, or after the age of 60 or 70.

But generally speaking, in the early stages of this kind of memory damage, simply put, rote memory may decline, but associative memory and skillful memory will actually improve. Because his life experience has increased, he will use some logic to remember these things, so this kind of memory is often improved.

So many people do not feel that their memory has declined significantly despite their age, but there are indeed many people who feel that their memory has declined.

Why do people in their 30s and 40s suffer from memory loss?

If people in their thirties or forties experience memory loss, for most people, they will not have obvious brain lesions, and it may often be a functional memory loss.

For example, there may be a slight decline in brain function. What might the decline in brain function be related to?

First of all, it is related to emotions. Some people may have depression and anxiety, and some may have poor sleep. Of course, there are other reasons. If there is something wrong with the brain, it will cause memory loss, so we need to do some tests.

Generally speaking, if a patient complains of memory loss, the doctor will want to know whether his memory has really decreased, to what extent, and in what form. Because some people say that their memory has decreased, but when you really ask them, they actually have no memory loss, they just feel that their memory is not as good as before, which may not necessarily mean there is any problem.

Most people are subjective, especially those who have some emotional changes. They will become distracted. For example, you are telling me something, but while you are talking to me, my mind is thinking about other things, and I actually don’t hear what you are saying to me at all.

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So I felt that my memory was not good. It seemed that the sound was transmitted to my ears, but I didn't remember anything. When I recalled it, I couldn't remember it. In fact, this was caused by decreased attention, not really a bad memory.

Some people have real memory loss. Why do they show it? They will ask the same question repeatedly, such as what did we eat for lunch today? You tell them that we had braised pork for lunch today. After a while, they come back to ask you what we had for lunch today. After a while, they come back to ask you again, repeatedly asking what we had for lunch today.

In a case like this, if he asks the same question repeatedly in a short period of time, and after you tell him, he still asks the same question over and over again, this may really be a sign of memory loss.

In this case, we need to do some objective tests, including cognitive tests and some memory tests. We have some scales to determine whether he has memory loss. If there is indeed memory loss, we need to further investigate the cause, what exactly is the cause, there may be an organic problem.

3. Why does poor sleep lead to memory loss?

Because the sleep process helps us remember and store the new things we learned during the day in our memory, so if we don’t sleep well, our memory will be poor.

Of course, in addition to memory loss, typical symptoms of poor sleep include daytime drowsiness and lack of energy.

If you don’t sleep well at night, you will feel that you are not getting enough sleep. One of the reasons is that you are not getting enough sleep due to work. There are too many things to do during the day, and your brain is very excited at night, so you can’t fall asleep at all.

Some people may have this experience: they write something before going to bed at night and are very excited. After going to bed, their brains are not sleepy at all. They feel that they can continue to write and stay up late. This is a change in sleeping habits or poor sleep caused by work.

Some people drink a lot of coffee or tea at night, which prevents the brain from getting a good rest, causing difficulty falling asleep and poor sleep. Others have difficulty falling asleep due to depression or anxiety, which can also cause intermittent sleep or easy waking in the morning, leading to daytime sleepiness and lack of energy.