The 40's and memory (1 Viewer)

[Doug B]

Just 5 years ago I would stay up until 2am and get up for work at 7.  No issues.  Now I start conking out at 9 and have to go to bed by 10:30. Sucks. 

Yep, this too. Except the "stay up until 2 a.m. and then head to work ready to go" thing was more like 15 years ago.

 

[mr. furley]

Yep. I identify with this a lot. I miss real down time.

just had the "how was your weekend" conversation with a buddy at work

standard responses: "busy"

but specifically what did we do?? nothing really came to top of mind immediately. 

as we chatted a bit more the details started to come out. it hit me - when people ask what i did over a weekend, the answer is always "uhhh, i don't really remember specifics" because i did 39 things that popped up unexpectedly that had to be taken care of right then.

plans are easier to recall after the fact. it's these unexpected projects that can't wait, which eat up my time, that come & go and are replaced by the next emergency that make the weekend a blur.

i went in to the long weekend with plans/ideas. didn't follow through on any except grilling out on Saturday night. the rest of the weekend was hopping from one thing to the next as circumstances demanded. 

what did i do this weekend? uhh... a lot?

 

[Doug B]

Crazy thing is as others have said,  I can remember music,  movies,  sports, whatever from decades ago no problem.   I'd happily jettison my knowledge of 80s hair band trivia to not forget whyI walked into the darn room.

Sports info from the mid 60s through the 90s ... locked in the noggin like a steel trap.

Since then  ...   I can remember that given teams have or have not won a title, say. But not what exact year or in what order.

 

[Brony]

Mine hasn't been too bad but I feel like such a dope if I meet someone new. I have to ask about 6 to 10 times before their name clicks. Didn't used to be like this. 

 

[KCitons]

I wonder how much using electronic devices all the time affects this. I know I've read several stories about how electronic device usage degrades our memory in certain ways.

Electronic pron has been degrading my mind since the early 90's

 

[Mad Cow]

One thing I notice too is that I really enjoy reading, but I'll read a book, and a month later I can barely remember much of it. It's really weird. Sort of the same thing with movies. Which is cool because I can see movies I know I like a second time and still enjoy them.

Oh man, this.  I have been doing Audible books when driving and occasionally on runs.  Hard to remember details of them.

Also, movies. Recently flew to Japan to pick up our daughter and it took me a while to remember all of the movies I watched on those flights.

 

[PIK95]

I wonder how much using electronic devices all the time affects this. I know I've read several stories about how electronic device usage degrades our memory in certain ways.

If its not the concussions for me it's this.

 

[PIK95]

Mine hasn't been too bad but I feel like such a dope if I meet someone new. I have to ask about 6 to 10 times before their name clicks. Didn't used to be like this. 

I can't believe I actually caught this lol.  I think if it was a different avatar I wouldn't have noticed.  Good one.

 

[Judge Smails]

55 and I've noticed it.  Scary to think about possible progression.  Is it normal or a sign of something worse to come?  I don't know.  At times I'm articulate and sharp as a tack, pulling up details and trivia on command.  At other times I struggle to put a name to a face, someone I know very well or should know very well.  It's like a victory when I finally recall what I was searching for.  Based on all the respondents here so far seems pretty normal.  One way to look at it is we have a lot more stored into RAM as we age and accumulate knowledge, so not surprising that's it's harder to index and recall all of that info on command.

 

[modogg]

Great ideas on how to mitigate this guys.  Keep em coming.

yeah would love to hear tips on how to curb this. I think for me the multiple hits to the head has me worried too because my memory has gone to hell for a few years.

One thing I learned recently was a special on Alzeimer's. They corrected the idea that keeping your brain active won't necessarily help a ton. What is the key is learning new things, which in turn causes your brain to create new neural pathways which helps to break down some of the blockers associated with Alzeimer's. Made sense to me

 

[Mad Cow]

I have looked into a couple of articles.  They recommend regular exercise as the top one.  Another recommended finding new ways to work your brain helps.  So if you are going to the store, do not make a list if it is for a few things, but come up with a way to remember it yourself and do that.  Which is great up to when you text the wife and say, "So we only needed A, B C and D right?"   I find myself telling myself how many items I have to get and then filling it in from there, etc.

 

[Mad Cow]

Here is one article

 

[gianmarco]

2027 thread: "The 50's and urinating"

I'm in my 50's now and I'm getting up to go to pee constantly throughout the night and it's just a little dribble. 

Good thing FBG has a thread archive or we'd never remember what we were like.

 

[Mad Cow]

2027 thread: "The 50's and urinating"

I'm in my 50's now and I'm getting up to go to pee constantly throughout the night and it's just a little dribble. 

Good thing FBG has a thread archive or we'd never remember what we were like.

And apparently it gets harder and harder to sleep.  Talking to a friend in his 50s last week said, "You think the memory thing is bad?  Just wanit another 10 years and you can't get to sleep anymore."

 

[El Floppo]

2027 thread: "The 50's and urinating"

I'm in my 50's now and I'm getting up to go to pee constantly throughout the night and it's just a little dribble. 

Good thing FBG has a thread archive or we'd never remember what we were like.

this is either deja vu, or I've forgotten if you've posted pretty much this same post already. 

 

[gianmarco]

this is either deja vu, or I've forgotten if you've posted pretty much this same post already. 

I did?

 

[mozzy84]

I honestly always just assumed it was all the weed I've smoked throughout my life.   you guys are making me feel a little better that its only partly self induced.

 

[General Malaise]

I just assumed mine was alcohol and pot related.  Actually relieved to read this thread today.  

 

[General Malaise]

I honestly always just assumed it was all the weed I've smoked throughout my life.   you guys are making me feel a little better that its only partly self induced.

 

[Zegras11]

And apparently it gets harder and harder to sleep.  Talking to a friend in his 50s last week said, "You think the memory thing is bad?  Just wanit another 10 years and you can't get to sleep anymore."

I'm 58 next month.  in the last month, I can't sleep more than six hours.  use to sleep 8 with ease. 

 

[Galileo]

Alzheimers sounds like a blessing.

No, and HELL NO!

 

[belljr]

The 40's and mammary

 

[DocHolliday]

50 is quickly approaching and it is great to read this thread.  I have been frustrated for the last few years with my memory.  It is strange.  My mind is sharp for some things but has really gone downhill on others.  Finding the right word or remembering names is the worst.  I can still remember faces insanely well though. 

 

[Spartans Rule]

Alzheimers sounds like a blessing.

My grandpa had Alzheimer's, and I think he genuinely enjoyed the early stages of it. He was a simple, carefree kind of guy who was happiest just sitting on a lawn chair with a beer in his hand, and my grandma was an accountant who kept meticulous track of everything so he didn't have to. For him, ignorance was bliss.

But the latter stages are just awful. He spent all day, every day looking confused and upset. He didn't recognize friends and family. Lifelong Cubs fan but he couldn't watch anymore because he couldn't remember how that guy got on 2nd base, much less who he was or how the team was doing. He couldn't even recall how to play the solitaire variations he had used to pass the time his whole life.

It's just sitting alone, confused and miserable, with no ability to grasp what the problems are, much less how you might change them, all day every day until you're lucky enough to die. If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I intend to buy a gun to speed along that process.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

My grandpa had Alzheimer's, and I think he genuinely enjoyed the early stages of it. He was a simple, carefree kind of guy who was happiest just sitting on a lawn chair with a beer in his hand, and my grandma was an accountant who kept meticulous track of everything so he didn't have to. For him, ignorance was bliss.

But the latter stages are just awful. He spent all day, every day looking confused and upset. He didn't recognize friends and family. Lifelong Cubs fan but he couldn't watch anymore because he couldn't remember how that guy got on 2nd base, much less who he was or how the team was doing. He couldn't even recall how to play the solitaire variations he had used to pass the time his whole life.

It's just sitting alone, confused and miserable, with no ability to grasp what the problems are, much less how you might change them, all day every day until you're lucky enough to die. If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I intend to buy a gun to speed along that process.

Hear that all the time - my father himself said it for decades.

Odds are, no you won't. 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

No, and HELL NO!

There's a reason I blocked that idiot. 

 

[Spartans Rule]

Hear that all the time - my father himself said it for decades.

Odds are, no you won't. 

You're probably right. Easy to say, harder to do. Especially if you have kids. I don't right now, but if that changed I definitely couldn't go through with it.

Hopefully I just don't get Alzheimer's.

 

[mr. furley]

the ##### of Alzheimer's is it seems to creep along so slowly, taking over your brain without you really realizing it.. when it finally becomes clear, it's much too late.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

You're probably right. Easy to say, harder to do. Especially if you have kids. I don't right now, but if that changed I definitely couldn't go through with it.

Hopefully I just don't get Alzheimer's.

It's just that it's so insidious that you're not thinking that way anymore when you're diagnosed, and it's already too late. It only goes one way.

 

[Mad Cow]

After my mom watched both of her parents go through with ALZ, she told us if she ever got to that point, to knock her over the head to knock her out and toss her into the pond.  She had no desire to live like that.  I know a lot of that was grief and emotion at the time, but it does demonstrate how hard it is for children to endure it as their parents go through it. 

 

[KCitons]

I'm 58 next month.  in the last month, I can't sleep more than six hours.  use to sleep 8 with ease. 

I'm the opposite. I want to sleep like a newborn baby. Eat, crap and sleep. 

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

I just assumed mine was alcohol and pot related.  Actually relieved to read this thread today.  

Literally the best news ive had all day.

 

[Christo]

49 and I've noticed it the last 4-5 years.

 

[DallasDMac]

54. Definitely cannot sleep eight hours any more. Wife and I both get frustrated by the inability to get good, regular sleep. Also, memory definitely slipping. I'm one of those "Why did I get up and walk in here?" Or walk upstairs to do something, do eight other things, never touch the one I went up there to do. My wife, god bless her, leaves sticky notes everywhere. "Do this, don't forget that, take this with you when you go here." I used to make fun of her for it. Now I regularly stop to read the stickies. It works. So yea fellas, you are just experiencing normal age related degradation.

p.s. It does make those rare moments of clarity feel really awesome though. Those days when your mind is just as sharp as it was 20 years ago. Feel like a rock star on those days.

 

[Judge Smails]

54. Definitely cannot sleep eight hours any more. Wife and I both get frustrated by the inability to get good, regular sleep. Also, memory definitely slipping. I'm one of those "Why did I get up and walk in here?" Or walk upstairs to do something, do eight other things, never touch the one I went up there to do. My wife, god bless her, leaves sticky notes everywhere. "Do this, don't forget that, take this with you when you go here." I used to make fun of her for it. Now I regularly stop to read the stickies. It works. So yea fellas, you are just experiencing normal age related degradation.

p.s. It does make those rare moments of clarity feel really awesome though. Those days when your mind is just as sharp as it was 20 years ago. Feel like a rock star on those days.

take any sleep aids? I do and sleep like a rock after previously having issues.  Not sure what the long term effects are but I'm just a different person after a great nights sleep. Personal/Professional life too affected when I don't get sleep

 

[Mad Cow]

take any sleep aids? I do and sleep like a rock after previously having issues.  Not sure what the long term effects are but I'm just a different person after a great nights sleep. Personal/Professional life too affected when I don't get sleep

That's what my friend said.  He's a mess without his sleep meds. 

 

[shuke]

I suck at names. There are kids that I've coached in youth sports, and I'll see them a few months later.  "Oh hey...you, how are you?"

I forget so much stuff that happens in TV shows from past episodes.  If I watch something without a "previously on" at the beginning I'm screwed.

I've read entire books that I couldn't tell you the first thing they were about.  Totally serious.

 

[Zegras11]

I suck at names.

Anyone else call their kids by their other kids names?   Or the dogs name?   I have.

 

[Zegras11]

I also you to be able to spell really well.  Now I suck.

 

[jhib]

It started for me in my early 20's.  I blame high school football.  I was puking from hits on a weekly basis it seemed.  

  I was at the field last week where we have multiple practices running at the same time and I'm in charge.  I needed to find this specific coach. I was scanning every field for him but so just couldn't find him. I was getting a bit frustrated and said to my buddy "where the **** is coach ****!"  They both started laughing as he was standing right next to me the whole time.  That seems to happen alot lately.

Edited to add I have great memories of details from when I was a kid in the 80's.  Weird. 

If it makes you feel any better, those memories of details in the 80s are probably pretty flawed, too. 

 

[gianmarco]

I suck at names. There are kids that I've coached in youth sports, and I'll see them a few months later.  "Oh hey...you, how are you?"

I forget so much stuff that happens in TV shows from past episodes.  If I watch something without a "previously on" at the beginning I'm screwed.

I've read entire books that I couldn't tell you the first thing they were about.  Totally serious.

I was going to say exactly this. Especially when starting a new season of a show that I haven't watched in months, I sometimes feel like I need to watch the last episode again just to remind myself. Yet I can remember line by line movies from when I was a kid.

And definitely the name thing.

And especially starting a new season of a show that I haven't watched in months, I wonder if I need to watch the last episode again just to catch up.

 

[RokNRole]

My grandpa had Alzheimer's, and I think he genuinely enjoyed the early stages of it. He was a simple, carefree kind of guy who was happiest just sitting on a lawn chair with a beer in his hand, and my grandma was an accountant who kept meticulous track of everything so he didn't have to. For him, ignorance was bliss.

But the latter stages are just awful. He spent all day, every day looking confused and upset. He didn't recognize friends and family. Lifelong Cubs fan but he couldn't watch anymore because he couldn't remember how that guy got on 2nd base, much less who he was or how the team was doing. He couldn't even recall how to play the solitaire variations he had used to pass the time his whole life.

It's just sitting alone, confused and miserable, with no ability to grasp what the problems are, much less how you might change them, all day every day until you're lucky enough to die. If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I intend to buy a gun to speed along that process.

So what's the downside?

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

My grandpa had Alzheimer's, and I think he genuinely enjoyed the early stages of it. He was a simple, carefree kind of guy who was happiest just sitting on a lawn chair with a beer in his hand, and my grandma was an accountant who kept meticulous track of everything so he didn't have to. For him, ignorance was bliss.

But the latter stages are just awful. He spent all day, every day looking confused and upset. He didn't recognize friends and family. Lifelong Cubs fan but he couldn't watch anymore because he couldn't remember how that guy got on 2nd base, much less who he was or how the team was doing. He couldn't even recall how to play the solitaire variations he had used to pass the time his whole life.

It's just sitting alone, confused and miserable, with no ability to grasp what the problems are, much less how you might change them, all day every day until you're lucky enough to die. If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I intend to buy a gun to speed along that process.

Hear that all the time - my father himself said it for decades.

Odds are, no you won't. 

The hell I won't.  I made that choice back when I was about 20, long before my mother or anyone else in my family had symptoms.  My mother spent her last ten years being confused pretty much all the time.  It really sucked.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

After my mom watched both of her parents go through with ALZ, she told us if she ever got to that point, to knock her over the head to knock her out and toss her into the pond.  She had no desire to live like that.  I know a lot of that was grief and emotion at the time, but it does demonstrate how hard it is for children to endure it as their parents go through it. 

If there had been a legal way to bump off my mom, I would have done it.  There should be a way to do this.  I knew she had Alzheimer's a couple of years before she was impaired.  Her ability to give informed, legal consent was intact.

I'm not sure dad would have gone for it.

 

[msommer]

If I ever get diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I intend to buy a gun to speed along that process.

"OK, here's the gun, now where did I put the bullets? Dammit, now I have to go back to the store"

.....

"Why am I here again?"

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

take any sleep aids? I do and sleep like a rock after previously having issues.  Not sure what the long term effects are but I'm just a different person after a great nights sleep. Personal/Professional life too affected when I don't get sleep

Alas, many of those sleep aids are linked to dementia risk.  I'm not doing that.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

So what's the downside?

Don't be an ###.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

The hell I won't.  I made that choice back when I was about 20, long before my mother or anyone else in my family had symptoms.  My mother spent her last ten years being confused pretty much all the time.  It really sucked.

Well, you may be one of the very few who does it.

I know that, with my father and others I've known who get this ####, by the time they are diagnosed they are already slipping to the point where "I think I'll go down into the woods with my gun and spare everyone some pain" isn't really in play anymore.

 

[belljr]

Don't be an ###.

Don't feed the troll.  This is why we gave him his own thread.

 

[NREC34]

Sometimes I will try to think of something for a few minutes. If it won't come to me after a little bit sometimes I will forget what it was I was even trying to think of. 

That is mega annoying.