What’s your memory like? I bet it’s nothing like the young lad from India who, more than four decades ago rattled off the series of numbers which reflected the value of Pi. A hushed audience listened to a Rajan Mahadevan counting 31,812 numbers, in order, when he was just 23, which took three hours to recite. The value of Pi, for those who are interested, is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

He discovered his ability to memorise numbers at the age of five during a party hosted by his family. During the party, Rajan wandered to a parking lot and committed the license plate numbers of every guest’s car for recitation later.

A 2023 research paper by Khaled Ghandour and Kaoru Inokuchi, and published by Neuroscience Research, has now shown that memories (or neuronal activities) which are formed during awake periods are often reactivated again during sleep, in a process called consolidation. 

The research offers a growing consensus that sleep is more of an active process than initially thought. Sleep has been associated with various functions such as memory updating, future imaginations of possible familiar scenarios, decision making and planning by replaying past memories. Much like a filing system.

Sleep patterns may also boost insightful thoughts, creative thinking and problem solving by forming new associations and connections that were not present in awake states. The sleep activities have been directly associated with many ‘Eureka’ or ‘Aha’ moments without the need for artificial intelligence.

There are many ways we can help our brain to store memories. If you’ve ever stopped off for curry on the way home from a great night out, chances are you have eaten turmeric. One of the most fetching culinary spices, turmeric has an intense golden hue. The major ingredient in Indian curries, turmeric is the component responsible for curry’s dizzying colour but is now being looked at closely in boosting memory.

It contains the plant chemical curcumin, which has a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent which may help to inhibit the formation of beta-amyloid plaques – thought to be a significant factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss.

Although the absorption of curcumin in the gut is poor, once in the blood it passes readily into the brain. Things that enhance absorption include cooking turmeric in oil (as is the case in Indian cooking), or by heating a cup of full-fat milk, adding a teaspoon of turmeric and a half teaspoon of pepper, and drink in the morning and evening.

The ginkgo tree is, remarkably, a living fossil dating from the early Jurassic era of dinosaurs – 250 million years ago – but while dinosaurs no longer roam the earth, the ginkgo has not changed.

Ginkgo, ‘Ginkgo biloba’ is one of the most widely used and studied herbal products, and in Germany and China, it is the most commonly prescribed herbal medication. Its active ingredients, flavonol and flavone glycosides, ginkgolides and bilobalideare sought after to help to slow down the progression of memory loss.

If you are lucky enough to have a gingko tree growing near you, there are plenty on Waiheke, you have the makings of your own medicinal herbal cuppa.

When ginkgo trees shed their leaves each year it is sometimes known as ‘ginkgo rain’ as they all fall at roughly the same time, sometimes within two to three hours. These leaves can be collected used to make your own circulatory boosting, memory enriching tea.

Simply collect five whole, fresh ginkgo leaves and place them in the bottom of a coffee mug. Pour over boiling water and allow to steep for ten minutes. Take the leaves out of the cup with a spoon and enjoy with either honey or lemon.

And, if you catch a ginkgo leaf as its falling to the ground, you will, supposedly, have good luck for the rest of the year.

Diet and lifestyle also play an important part in unlocking the memory vault. Memory exercises such as crossword puzzles and brain teasers have been shown to improve cognition and memory over a relatively short period of time.

Just like muscular strength, our brain’s ability to remember increases with mental exercise and good diet along with more innovative scientific breakthroughs. Of course, getting forty winks each night will help with making your memory filing system top notch.