Memory

[Banana62]

I find I have to be very alert when driving, even on very familiar old places?
Remembering names is becoming a problem...I sometimes get it later.
I am only 62

[ggreg]

Well, I think your sleep has a lot to do with this, is my first impression.  Since you have stopped taking your sleep aid, and yet still have the same problems as when you were taking it, then I would say you perhaps still have a basic sleep disorder.  You may simply be not getting enough deep sleep or REM.  This can be from a variety of reasons, one of which is snoring, where the airway gets obstructed somehow, and this will automatically wake up a person just a little bit, usually they don't even realize it, and they'll semi-wake sometimes countless times in a night, and as a result, your brain cannot completely rest.

If you haven't had a "sleep test" done yet, where they hook you up to a bunch of electrodes stuck to your head and let you sleep and record how deeply you sleep, if you wake up becuz of airway obstruction, and so forth.  If they find you sleep fine, then your memory problems may be associated with something entirely unrelated to sleep.  For example, let us say you have been dealing with a lot of pain from an old injury, or you are just generally so stressed out all day that you cannot focus on what's going on, or you've got some sort of oxygenation problem, or your blood cell count is off via disease or nutrition, then any one of these things can cause loss of focus.

So, if you ARE in pain and you've just put up with it a long time, a doctor might want to prescribe pain medicine like Lyrica, which is non-opiate and docs will usually give freely, I take it and it helps SO much, I have a tore-up back from a car wreck.  And let's say you ARE a nervous wreck pretty much all the time, to where you're a little jumpy, you feel rather anxious about all sorts of things, could be a family issue or some loss in your life, there are many sources of being nervous, even including a physical problem like your heart beats too fast from perhaps a thyroid problem, then a doctor will want to prescribe anti-anxiety medication to help you deal with life's stressors or even to slow the heartrate down until they can deal with a physical problem like the thyroid.

So, if that is the category you fall in, where you cannot focus on account of stress or some hormonal problem, you need to see your regular doctor and explain how you feel, and this is once you've eliminated any deep sleep problem, and let them do some investigations to get to the bottom of this.  But in the meantime, while you wait for a sleep test or to see a doc to figure out what might be doing this to your memory, let us say you know on your own that you don't sleep very well.  I can suggest a couple easy things you can do to try to clear this up:  One is to exercise to where you break a sweat at least three or four times weekly, this helps release tension and also helps a person sleep better.  Two is to make your sleeping room very comfortable... if your husband keeps you up, sleep in another room; if your bed is bumpy or hard, get a roll of "egg-crate" foam and put it out under the bottom sheet; if you feel hot or cold, do whatever it takes to make you comfortable; and lastly, some people find a sleep routine helps, like reading just before bed, or watching a little TV, or listening to a radio, this will help them sleep better.

Do let us know about any doc visits you go on, to get to the bottom of this, and let us know if anything like exercise or changing sleeping habits helps.  

[we3lsc37]

I am 47 year old female.I use to take Zolpidem(geberic Ambien) nightly for 2 1/2 years, I started noticing that I was forgetting things(when not on the drug), inability to retain information in class, forgetting what had just been discussed in a conversation, I have to always write things down to remember what I need to remember. I stopped taking the sleep aid almost a year ago, and I still have the same problem, so I am wondering if it is something else going on with my brain? And are there meds that can help?
Unless I re-read what I JUST WROTE I cannot tell you what I JUST WROTE.... HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine you I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that you need, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about your health concern.

If you just have problems with remembering names and rest of the memory is absolutely normal, I don’t think that it is a more worrying concern. Most of the people do not remember names because they do not stress on remembering them. Although you are in age of 60s and most common memory problems come with this elderly age as an Alzheimer’s disease, it is essential other possibilities of memory loss like hormonal imbalance, stress/depression, and vitamin deficiency need to be evaluated thoroughly. In this disease, normal day to day activities have been affected more than memory loss. Therefore, I would suggest consulting a doctor to rule out other possibilities first with the help of doctor. Hope this helps.

[ggreg]

Gosh, could be a variety of things going on.  Try taking a quality and extensive vitamin/mineral supplement, break it in half, and take that a couple times a week, helps the mind work a lot better.  Eating enough protein also helps thinking powers.  Sometimes docs will prescribe Aracept, which is for Alzheimers, but is apparently also used to help confused minds work a little better.  I'm confused from pain from an old back injury getting worse, so that's another simple sort of possibility.  

If it's not a dietary or confusion thing, then might be a problem with blood oxygenation, which can be caused by plaques in the blood vessels or a heart problem or a lung problem, and even smoking for long time can do this.  Being spaced out can also happen from various medicines you take, so check side effects of your meds.  Alzheimer's is a possibility, a doc can do a Q & A exam, as well as have you perform a few simple activities in the office, to help him determine if that's the case.  In the same sort of vein, if the brain has had an insult to it, like an as-yet observed bleed for example, it can cause neurological deficits.

Try the few simple things I talked about for a while, see if it helps; if not, of course visit your family doc and he can direct you to the right specialist after examining you and looking for what might be causing your memory not to work as well as it should.