Forgetful: what is normal, and what causes it?
Being forgetful is very common. Usually it comes with getting older, or with something that fills your head for a while: a busy time, stress, poor sleep or low mood. When that cause eases, remembering often gets better too.
Being forgetful is very common
A name you know perfectly well will not come. You walk into the kitchen and cannot remember why. Your glasses turn out to be on your head.
Everyone has this, and more often as they get older. The brain stores new information a little more slowly and needs more time to find something again. That is part of getting older, just as your eyes become less sharp.
What is normal?
Most people forget in these ways, and on their own they are no reason for concern:
- a name does not come at once, but does later
- you briefly forget why you walked into a room
- you sometimes misplace your keys, glasses or phone
- you use a list or your diary so as not to forget things
- you are more easily distracted when a lot is going on at once
- you have to search for a word now and then
If you recognise this, you still manage your daily affairs yourself, it is not getting worse and the people around you notice nothing unusual, it is usually getting older or a busy period.
What often causes forgetfulness
Forgetting is not always a matter of age. Often something else lies behind it, and many of those causes are temporary or can be dealt with.
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Stress and a busy life
When your head is full, it stores new information less well. What has not been stored properly cannot be recalled later. It feels like forgetting, but really it was never remembered.
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Poor sleep
During sleep the brain processes what you went through during the day. Sleep badly or too little, and you notice it the next day in your memory and concentration. Snoring with pauses in breathing can also disturb your sleep without you noticing. More in sleep and your brain.
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Low mood and worrying
When you feel low or worry a lot, you have less attention left for what is happening, and so you remember less. Read more in depressive symptoms and your brain.
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Medication
Some sleeping pills, sedatives and medicines for things like allergies or bladder problems can affect memory and concentration. Do not stop taking them yourself, but ask your GP or pharmacist whether they might play a part.
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Alcohol
Alcohol makes it harder to remember new things, the next day too. In the long run, heavy drinking affects the brain. See alcohol and your brain.
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Poor hearing
If you miss part of a conversation, you cannot remember that part either. Hearing often declines so gradually that you do not notice it yourself. See hearing loss and your brain.
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The menopause
Many women notice during the menopause that they are more forgetful and find it harder to concentrate. For most it gets better again afterwards.
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Physical causes
An underactive thyroid, a lack of vitamin B12 or anaemia can also make you forgetful. Your GP can check for these with a blood test.
What you can do yourself
- Give your keys, glasses and phone a fixed place.
- Put appointments in a diary and use the alarm on your phone as a reminder.
- Do one thing at a time. Repeat what someone says if you want to remember it.
- Get enough sleep, be active every day and see other people.
- Have your hearing tested if you notice you follow conversations less well.
Using a list or a reminder is not a sign that something is wrong. It makes room in your head for other things. You can read which lifestyle factors are linked to brain health in the long run in the fifteen lifestyle factors.
When is it more than ordinary forgetting?
Forgetting becomes a reason to pay attention when it happens more often than it used to, when it concerns things that always came naturally, or when the people around you notice it too. The difference between ordinary forgetfulness and cognitive decline is set out in forgetfulness or cognitive decline: what is the difference?.
Following your memory over time
Whether your memory is changing does not show on one bad day. What does tell you something is the same measurement repeated over a few months. One dip says little; a line that slowly drifts away says more.