An effortless way to improve your memory.
October 24, 2024 7:51 PM   Subscribe

A surprisingly potent technique can boost your short and long-term recall – and it appears to help everyone from students to Alzheimer’s patients. When trying to memorise new material, it’s easy to assume that the more work you put in, the better you will perform. Yet taking the occasional down time – to do literally nothing – may be exactly what you need. Just dim the lights, sit back, and enjoy 10-15 minutes of quiet contemplation, and you’ll find that your memory of the facts you have just learnt is far better than if you had attempted to use that moment more productively.

The remarkable memory-boosting benefits of undisturbed rest were first documented in 1900 by the German psychologist Georg Elias Muller and his student Alfons Pilzecker. In one of their many experiments on memory consolidation, Muller and Pilzecker first asked their participants to learn a list of meaningless syllables. Following a short study period, half the group were immediately given a second list to learn – while the rest were given a six-minute break before continuing.

When tested one-and-a-half-hours later, the two groups showed strikingly different patterns of recall. The participants given the break remembered nearly 50% of their list, compared to an average of 28% for the group who had been given no time to recharge their mental batteries. The finding suggested that our memory for new information is especially fragile just after it has first been encoded, making it more susceptible to interference from new information.

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This caught my eye, might be that it will catch yours also. I am closing on 70 years on the clock, ten years ago I began to notice that my memory was falling apart. It's gotten worse; I don't recognize ppl with whom I apparently had deep conversations, conversations that were important to both of us. Same thing has happened to many of my friends, also starting right at 60.

It's got me wondering if this method would help me.
posted by dancestoblue (13 comments total) 65 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've recently taken up the piano, and i've found when practicing in the evenings that i'm most productive if I play for 30 minutes, then just sit on the couch for 10 to 15 and then play for 10 or 15 more. After the little rest (granted doing some doom scrolling), I sit back at the piano and can play straight through the passage that was giving me trouble before. science!
posted by dis_integration at 8:17 PM on October 24 [7 favorites]


This feels remarkably similar to a productivity strategy called the Pomodoro technique. Basically, you divide your work into 25 minutes intervals (a “Pomodoro”) and then take a 5-minute break. After 4 Pomodoro, you extend the break to 15-30 minutes.

I was skeptical, but I adopted it while working from home during covid. It’s proven an absolute godsend for getting things done.
posted by zooropa at 9:03 PM on October 24 [12 favorites]


This is fascinating, and so encouraging.

I feel like I instinctively knew that this kind of resting could help with mental processing, but it's so cool to have it formally studied like this.

Despite knowing that rest periods like this would be beneficial, I am terrible about actually putting them into practice. I'm going to have to see if I can be more disciplined and actually take those rest periods.

Thank you so much for posting this, dancestoblue. I really appreciate getting to see this article and having the nudge to try to rest more regularly after learning things.
posted by kristi at 10:55 PM on October 24 [2 favorites]


In WWII there was great demand for signallers in the US Army so lots of squaddies were told off to learn Morse code. Because they were in the Army, they did 4 hours of Morse between reveille and dinner and 4 hours Morse between dinner and knocking off. Results were not so good. Somebody had the idea of halving the Morse-working day and found that competence in Morse could be achieved in half the elapsed time. If time was allowed to embed the learning, then learning was more efficient. Less is More - again!

Caitlin Moran, public commentator and mother in London, urges the abolition of school home-work for similar pragmatic and mental health reasons.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:28 PM on October 24 [3 favorites]


I remember reading that it's a good idea to take a break from studying the day before an exam, rather than cramming right up to the deadline. It's probably a similar principle?

dancestoblue, I think the kind of memory you're referring to doesn't fall into the category of memory that's used when memorising new material? This article explains some of the different types of memory although as usual there seems to be some controversy about how these are defined and categorised.

What you're talking about - for example, remembering if somebody has told you a story - sounds like, possibly, episodic memory? This article on typical changes in the brain as one ages has some helpful details. It also points out that memory loss associated with ageing isn't necessarily dementia, and it gives some practical steps you can take to improve things.
posted by Zumbador at 3:39 AM on October 25 [2 favorites]


Well, yeah. We are not machines. We are supposed to rest now and then. This trap of endless productivity and grind culture is bad for us. We do better in the long run if we take occasional breaks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:40 AM on October 25 [3 favorites]


i do nothing all day long but can't remember shit :(
posted by Jacqueline at 3:58 AM on October 25 [3 favorites]


I remember reading that it's a good idea to take a break from studying the day before an exam, rather than cramming right up to the deadline.

Funny thing, I always did best when I left it till the last minute. Whatever I slept on the night before the exam, I remembered really well. Does sleep count as rest in this context, or is that yet another different mechanism at play?

There are various things I would like to memorise, but my distraction-craving brain would struggle to do literally nothing even for as little as 10-15 minutes. Perhaps the trick is to do some studying first thing in the morning, then go for a walk, rather than using five minutes of study as a break from work as I've been tending to do.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:44 AM on October 25


Does sleep count as rest in this context, or is that yet another different mechanism at play?

I think we're still at a stage of knowing very little about this, but the article frames it as 'we knew that this happens with sleep, but now we're understanding it can also happen when you're awake'.

This feels remarkably similar to a productivity strategy called the Pomodoro technique. Basically, you divide your work into 25 minutes intervals (a “Pomodoro”) and then take a 5-minute break

Something the article says is that the breaks here are supposed to be total breaks - you can't be doing other things or even thinking in too focused a way about anything in particular. You really need to kind of just be staring into space, letting your mind wander but not start focusing on anything.
posted by trig at 7:09 AM on October 25 [1 favorite]


Yes, but, then I'd fall asleep
posted by sid at 9:06 AM on October 25


This trap of endless productivity and grind culture is bad for us.

Achievement is overrated.

Not bad, just overrated.
posted by flabdablet at 9:41 AM on October 25 [1 favorite]


I've long used a variant of this called Expanded Rehearsal where you increase the time between list studying and list recall. I didn't have to stare into space during the interval though. You can study other lists in the interval as long as they are a sufficiently different topic so they don't interfere. I also made a point of making studying the last attention requiring thing I did in a day so there was no interference in the way of overnight memory consolidation. So no TV or reading before bed.

Somewhat related when I was at university I developed eye strain and the eye doctor told me to study in the library at a table, not a cubicle, on the floor with the most girls so I'd look up and focus in the distance every now and then. Instant cure.
posted by srboisvert at 5:00 AM on October 28


Mod note: [Oh, hey! We didn't forget to add this to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 3:51 AM on October 29


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