When it comes to mental function, one area that needs to be working at its best in order to live a full life is memory. Whether it’s something as simple as forgetting where you put the keys or something more severe like marked cognitive memory loss, protecting your brain’s ability to remember things is important.

The importance of improving memory can have long-term impacts on your quality of life including helping you perform better at work, build stronger social connections, maintain healthy family relationships, and avoid depression. As such, it’s important to take steps to promote better memory.

Rosemary – more info | product

When sniffed in advance, Rosemary enables people to remember to do things. In a series of tests, Rosemary essential oil increased the chances of remembering to do things in the future, by 60-75 per cent compared with people who had not been exposed to the oil.

Peppermint – more info | product

Enhances memory and increases alertness. It helps you stay focused and alert without feeling sleepy and it also increases retention rates so you can soak up as much information from your study material during the examination period.

Clary Sage – more info | product

Good for mental balance and is a powerful aid for mental fatigue so it’s especially useful when you’re swamped with a lot of work and your brain feels fried. Combine Clary Sage with the other 2 oils to increase cognitive function and improve concentration.

Ylang Ylang - more info | product

In situation where stress is involved with burdened with heavy mental responsibilities, blend Ylang Ylang, with some citrus oil and Peppermint. It has shown that while peppermint amplified memory and concentration, ylang ylang significantly helped with calmness instead. Ylang ylang blends beautifully with citrus essential oils so if you’re feeling depressed about your grades and getting panic attacks at the same time, make a blend of 7 drops ylang ylang essential oil, 3 drops Lemon essential oil, 3 drops of Yuzu essential oils and 10 drops of Peppermint oil.

Learn new things. Memory strength is just like muscular strength. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Learning a new skill is an excellent way to strengthen your brain’s memory capacity. There are many activities to choose from, but most importantly, you’ll need to find something that forces you out of your comfort zone and commands your full attention.

Mnemonics devices have been tested since the 1960s as an effective strategy for students.

-Acronyms:They are basically abbreviations used a word to help you jog your memory. For example: CART can be carrots, apples, raspberries and tomatoes,

-Rhymes: If you need to remember a name, get creative. "Cindy loves carrots"

-Acrostics:These are life savers during exams, especially. Whenever you need to mug up a sentence, combine the initial letters and use as a memory cue.

Eating the right food plays a critical role in your memory. For instance, curry, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and walnuts contain antioxidants and other compounds that protect your brain health and may even stimulate the production of new brain cells. Increasing your animal-based omega-3 fat intake and reducing consumption of damaged omega-6 fats (think processed vegetable oils) in order to balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, is also important for brain health. 

Physical exercise.

Helps your brain stay sharp. It increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Exercise also enhances the effects of helpful brain chemicals and reduces stress hormones. Perhaps most importantly, exercise plays an important role in neuroplasticity by boosting growth factors and stimulating new neuronal connections.

Getting sufficient sleep through a regulated sleep routine.

The process of brain growth, or neuroplasticity, is believed to underlie your brain's capacity to control behavior, including learning and memory. Plasticity occurs when neurons are stimulated by events, or information, from the environment. However, sleep and sleep loss modify the expression of several genes and gene products that may be important for synaptic plasticity. Avoid intake of caffeine if it is affecting your sleep.

Avoid all screens for at least an hour before bed.

The blue light emitted by TVs, tablets, phones, and computers trigger wakefulness and suppress hormones such as melatonin that make you sleepy.

Stay organised.

Things are likely to be forgotten if they are in a mess. Categorise and organised things by locations, classification or even live by a to-do list, keeping them up to date and check off the items you've completed. Physically writing down new information actually helps reinforce memory enhancement.