How to Overcome Short Term Memory Loss

1. Consult a doctor if your memory loss is chronic or interferes with your everyday life. Your doctor can help you identify the cause and eliminate serious conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, brain trauma and more.
2. Understand that information in short term memory is stored in the brain for only a few seconds (around 18). You can also bring information from long term memory into short term memory, such as when you recall a phone number.
3. Short term memory is where we process information that we are thinking about. Another word for it is 'Working Memory'. Information in short term memory is either committed to long term memory or it is lost forever.
4. The short term memory system is limited in the number of items that it can hold, usually between 5 and 9 items depending on the individual.
5. Repeat things you want to retain in your mind. Repetition can help "hold" things in your short term memory.
6. If you are a heavy user of drugs or alcohol cut back a bit on your consumption or quit.
7. Keep a journal of your daily activities that you preformed the day before or even the week before. That way if you can't seem to remember you can look back and read over it to help recall.
8. Go to sleep at a set time each night. Try to have 8 hours of sleep as this can help your short term memory.
9. If it's a word, use it in a sentence. A persons' name, call them by their name during the first meeting.
10. Saying what you're trying to remember out loud, involves another sense thus adding to your chances of retaining the thought.
11. If you are sad because of your short term memory loss, try watching a movie. These are good because you can practice remembering the characters names, and the plot. Then you can watch it a week or two months later and see how much you can remember. If you want to you can even watch a movie about short term memory loss like 50 First Dates.
12. To remember something for longer than 18 seconds you will need to commit it to long term memory. The best way to do this is to think about the meaning of what you have to remember. The more attention you pay to something in short term memory that you want to remember, the more likely you are to store it in long term memory.
13. It can help to imagine the memory system as a computer. Short term memory is RAM, where information is temporarily stored, and long term memory is the hard drive, where information is permanently stored but can't be processed.