Having trouble remembering the first name of your new client? How about continually forgetting little things like where you placed your keys, if you took the trash out, or that errand you promised your partner you’d run for them on the way home from work? If you are having difficulty with your memory lately, especially your short-term memory, it may be time to take a look at your sleep.

Are you having difficulties lately with insomnia, falling asleep and staying asleep for the appropriate amount of time at night? If so, don’t shrug it off saying your memory, “just isn’t what it used to be,” do yourself a favor take action to fix your sleeping problem so you can get the sleep you need.

You may not realize, but sleep is extremely important when it comes to your memory. Sleep is the most instrumental factor in your body’s ability to both store and recall information. Your brain stores its data in your memory bank while you are sleeping. While you are awake and active, your brain is extremely busy, literally running your body from reminding you to breathe and keeping your heart beating to moving your fingers so you can send a text. While all this is happening your brain is simultaneously thinking, processing, and active. It never rests. When you fall, asleep your brain shuts down its operation of many muscles as you enter into a temporary state of paralysis. During your non-REM sleep cycle, your brain makes its move, taking advantage of your temporary paralysis and lack of dreaming during this stage of sleep, and begins to store your memory data.

If you are delaying sleep, waking up over and over throughout the night, or simply not allowing yourself to sleep long enough to reach this sleep level, then your memory will suffer. Your brain won’t have enough time to store memory, or all the disruptions will jumble your memory, making it difficult to remember or causing you to remember incorrectly.

Make getting the quality sleep you need a priority to give your brain a chance to help you function at your highest level and see if your short-term memory problems resolve themselves. Be sure to check out some of our articles on ways to combat poor sleep if you are having difficulties falling asleep. Should you find that you still are having short-term memory problems and/or problems getting the quality sleep you need after trying out our tips, you may have a more serious sleeping problem. Get insights into your sleep issues with by taking our online sleep assessment that looks at over 30 types of sleep issues today!