
I have promblem with my memory - hajiatep
I have a problem with memory, sometimes 3 or 4 days, I lost a quarter of the memory, and it makes it hard for me to learn programming, is there anyone who has experienced something like me?
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Blakestr
Make sure you get sleep tested for sleep apnea. (see a pulmonologist.) Don't
worry if you don't mean the typical patient criteria. I didn't. (I wasn't
overweight, didn't really snore, etc.)

It's a largely undiagnosed problem because most people just "adapt" and it's
not until you get to be in your 40's or 50's that your heart starts to show
signs of problems. IF you have sleep apnea, you are missing out on a lot of
REM sleep, where your repair hormones are released and also, long-term memory
assimilation occurs.

The first night I used my machine correctly, I woke up 4 hours before my
normal wakeup time, thinking I overslept. I went back to bed again and woke up
normally and for the first time in year, realized my EYES didn't hurt. Went
and did like 16 hours of straight work after that.

Long-term effects? I'm pretty sure my functioning IQ went up 10 points thought
that's obviously a subjective sample size of 1. Bottom-line though, I just
seem to figure things out quicker and have a lot more energy.

I hope this is your problem because it's a real easy fix. Just go to bed.

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ta0987
That is awesome. CPAP did fuck all for me. And they won't let me have the
surgery. FML. OP, get tested, it could be life-changing.

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Blakestr
There is a sleep/cpap technician who has a youtube channel. Try it again,
seriously, change something but don't just accept it as "FML".

[https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLankyLefty27](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLankyLefty27)
that's his Youtube Channel

Have enough patience/motivation to experiment until it works. You'll know when
it does. You might need a different mask, a refit, switch from nose to full-
face, something.

My problem was I'm slightly claustrobic - and wearing the full mask reminded
me of my mask I wear at the Fire Department. There I can always mentally power
through it and focus - but with the CPAP, you literally can't focus while you
are TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP. I ripped the damn thing off my first night.

I watched that Youtuber's videos and found one of the tips about relaxing and
used it on the 2nd night and have never looked back. I'm talking "from my cold
dead hands" will you take my cpap away.

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ta0987
I appreciate the encouragement, but I flew out to Stanford on my own dime and
they gave me a pressure over 20. (22 maybe? I can't remember.) They told me
'this still isn't high enough but if we set it any higher the pressure itself
wakes you up so that's as good at you're gonna get'. I've tried plenty of
masks.

~~~
Blakestr
Crap, that sucks. Unless you can pull a Vader and perhaps have a room with
negative pressure it seems like the surgery is your best bet.

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keiferski
Try using Anki or another Spaced Repetition (SRS) program. Anki specifically
has been life-changing for me.

\- [https://apps.ankiweb.net](https://apps.ankiweb.net)

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition)

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eb0la
Write down stuff with _paper_.

Seriously, when you write down stuff you read/hear you're making your brain
process the same information several times (reading/hearing, understanding,
rephrasing, converting that info to letters, hand movement to write that
letters, understandig).

This helps retention a lot, plus you'll have notes that you can refer later.

Don't use a computer to keep notes: keyboard punching needs far less neurons
than handwriting and retention is less effective.

I think there is some research about that, btw.

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stockkid
You are actually not alone.

You need to revisit new information because we forget things exponentially
unless we remind ourselves. In psychology, such pattern is shown by the
forgetting curve [0].

Similar to you, I was concerned once that I was forgetting a lot of new
information about programming. Therefore I wrote an open source software to
automate spaced repetition with minimal friction while coding [1]. Basically,
you write down new information as you come across it, and you get a weekly
digest email.

Everyday, try to write information down on a piece of paper or on your
machine. The act of writing down the information in your own words alone could
help you retain memory. The retention could be all the more improved when you
continually revisit what you have written down. This habit has worked well in
my case for the last 2-3 years. Hope it could work for you too.

\- [0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve)

\- [1] [https://github.com/dnote/dnote](https://github.com/dnote/dnote)

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muzani
Programming doesn't really need that much memory. The average brain can juggle
around 3-7 pieces of information at a time. The trick is to keep it around 3.

Make heavy use of todo lists, probably plaintext. Often when you're
programming something, a lot of tiny issues crop up that wreak havoc with your
short term memory. It's sort of like doing calculus, you just have to learn to
write more steps, instead of trying to skip a few steps ahead.

Keep as few tabs open at a time as possible. Ideally, around 4 or so.

One function should do only one thing. Memorize the shortcut for jumping to a
function by name. If it's too hard to understand what a function is doing,
split it into more.

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ak39
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep in between major concepts. Sleep
consolidates memory.

Also, revisit already learned stuff again 3 to 4 days later. Multiple spaced
repetition makes the concepts stick.

Also, don’t be pressured by others’ performance. It’s your pace and your
schedules. Don’t believe those book covers either ... you cannot learn
programming in “24 hours” or even “21 days”.

Shit is hard for everyone. Oh ya, did I mention getting enough sleep? Min 8
hours a day.

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nvusuvu
Make sure you have ruled out medical reasons for the memory loss. Healthy
diet, adequate sleep and exercise support memory development and preservation.

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LeonB
maybe get a carbon monoxide detector.

and as others said, get good sleep.

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zenuxwashere
I dont think so.. it can be just your drama or dorama in my country said

