how to memorise the

Last week we wrote about how sleep is an important tool for hifdh students. Whilst sleep involves doing nothing, exercising and being active is also a great tool for improving your memory. This is because regular exercise improves circulation and increases oxygen supply, including that of the brain and thus improves brain function. Oxygen circulation is critical to brain performance and in this, is another argument for giving up smoking as it heightens the risk of vascular disorders and constricts the arteries that deliver oxygen to the brain.

Scientists say that regular exercise enhances the effects of helpful brain chemicals and protects brain cells. It also reduces the risk of developing disorders that lead to memory loss and decreases the levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone that can damage the hippocampus if the stress is not relieved. Another negative aspect of stress is that it makes it more difficult to concentrate.

There are also a lot of mental activities you can do to stimulate and ‘exercise’ your brain. For example, taking part in intellectually stimulating games and activities such as chess, scrabble or solving a puzzle are ideal for improving memory as they challenge the brain. Reading is also another easy activity to stimulate your mind. When you read an interesting article or book, get into the habit of sharing that information with friends and family as this is an excellent way of training your memory. Mind you, this doesn’t include reading tabloid articles about stars or sports matches as these do not feed your brain with knowledge that benefits.

Most of us don’t have a good pattern of sleep – either we sleep at extremely late hours which results in sleeping for extremely long hours or we sleep very little due to wasting our time socialising on the internet or watching movies etc. Unfortunately, there are very few of us who sleep little due to being busied by ‘ibaadah (acts of worship) or seeking knowledge.

Sleep is very important for consolidating one’s memory. No matter how much you memorise, without proper sleep and rest, you will not remember anything. Scientists believe that sleep and memory are intricately connected and sleep deprivation can cause even a young person’s brain to act in a way which is connected to the aging process.

The sleep that is connected to your memory is the deep sleep and three steps have been developed in the connection of memory to sleep; consolidation, stabilization, and re-consolidation. For your memories to be stabilized, this research has shown that a period of six hours must pass. It also found that the younger the person, the more sleep they needed for proper optimal mental function. This is why we find young children from when they are born sleep for long hours. Matthew Walker, a professor at Harvard University, says about this;

“Sleep appears to play a key role in human development,” says Walker. “At 12 months of age, infants are in an almost constant state of motor skill learning, coordinating their limbs and digits in a variety of routines. They have an immense amount of new material to consolidate and, consequently, this intensive period of learning may demand a great deal of sleep.”

Several studies have been conducted amongst college students by asking them to memorise simple sequences or word lists and comparing the recall memory of students who slept and those who hadn’t. All studies revealed that subjects who had slept were able to remember what they had memorised more and made fewer mistakes in recalling the material.

Being deprived of sleep also affects your ability to learn (in this case memorise new) material because of the poor mental performance and lack of ability to concentrate. One thing that many sleep deprived people do to improve their memory is drink excessive amounts of caffeine. While this can slightly improve their memory, it is still not as good as people who are get the recommended amount of sleep.