So, you’re starting to get back out there, perhaps running into old friends or heading out to favorite places from your pre-pandemic life. But suddenly, you forget someone’s name or can’t remember the address of that favorite place you like for brunch. Remember, as we previously posted in agebuzz, occasional forgetfulness is perfectly normal. In fact, according to a comprehensive article by noted geriatrician Dr. Leslie Kernisan, of Better Health While Aging, just as other parts of the body don’t work quite as well as they used to when you were younger, so, too, do your cognitive skills like thinking and memory slow down a bit and work a little less efficiently as you get older. There’s likely nothing seriously wrong, you just need to recognize it may take you a bit longer to code and form memories (and you may not always remember recent events) and a bit longer to retrieve them. As Dr. Kernisan advises, “As we get older, our mental functions become less nimble and flexible, and many aspects of our memory get a little worse.”

What can be done to fight back? Regarding the retrieval process, a recent post in Harvard Health offers several tips. First, you need to recognize that your brain “tags” events in your memory according to their emotional pull (like a wedding or birth) and according to their personal significance. Your peak “retrieval” capability happens during your 20s and 30s and after that, everyone has more difficulty remembering things, especially if it’s a memory you haven’t thought about for many years. In essence, you’ve signaled to your brain that it’s not an important memory any longer. But if you want to try to retrieve specific memories and coax them back into your consciousness, there are some tips to try: Tangible items like sounds, smells and touch can be used as cues to help you retrieve a memory. Perhaps you can find the perfume you wore on your wedding day or have a small piece of cloth that your baby was first wrapped in. Or, you may want to look at photos from an event, or contemporaneous newspapers from that time, to help stimulate your brain and recreate a feeling. Once recalled, you’re advised to write down these memories and then retain them by regularly revisiting them.

What about improving your current memory skills? Beyond the usual “healthy aging” advice of a healthy diet and exercise, you probably know that good sleep is critical to improving your memory. It’s clear that sleep allows your brain to prune out unneeded memories and clear space in your hippocampus for new memories when you wake up. Sleep can also strip away painful emotions attached to certain memories. However, be forewarned: The use of sleeping pills to sedate you and knock you out apparently gets in the way of retaining and forming new memories. You’re better off finding other ways to get the deep and restful sleep (at least 7 hours) necessary to build up your memory muscle. Alongside that sleep, you’re advised to build back up those social connections and foster your sense of curiosity that may have been dulled during the pandemic. What you want to do, in essence, is keep your brain’s neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to wire and rewire itself as it learns and expands cognition) active. The more neuroplasticity your brain has, the better your memory and cognition as you age. So how do you do that? Stay curious and try new adventures along with exposing yourself to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Finally, another new research study suggests you consider one other way to sharpen your memory: According to a new mouse study in Molecular Biology, intermittent fasting- even lowering your calorie intake by 10%- is associated with improvements in long-term memory. It seems that intermittent fasting can be an effective way to increase the generation of adult neurons and improve long-term memory retention. While this is only a study in mice, and further research is required, it may be a good study to put to memory as you look for ways to sharpen your retention abilities and build new memories going forward.