Why am I so forgetful? The common causes, when it is more than forgetting and what a scan measures

Why am I so forgetful, and how normal is that?

In this article you read what lies behind the question ‘why am I so forgetful’: why you may forget more than you used to, which everyday causes are known, when forgetting is a reason to see your GP, and what a scan can and cannot tell you. That matters, because behind most forgetfulness lies an ordinary cause, and if you know the known causes, you look at your own days calmly rather than with worry. BioProfile’s brain fog scan gives you a picture of how much you notice lapses in memory and concentration today, as self-insight. The scan is not a diagnosis. Nor does the scan point to a cause. Finding a cause is work for a doctor.

In the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, 20.5 per cent of 1,525 people aged 55 to 64 said they had memory complaints. Of the 526 people who had no complaints at the start, 15.4 per cent had new complaints three years later.⁠¹ Across 16 studies from 15 countries, covering 39,387 people aged 60 and over whose memory and thinking were normal on tests, about one in four said their memory or thinking had declined.⁠⁵ The share varied widely between the studies, from 6.1 to 52.7 per cent, and was higher among people with less education and in poorer countries.⁠⁵

In short, feeling forgetful is common, especially from middle age onwards. On its own, it says little about what is going on.

The Dutch study found one more thing. People whose work often placed heavy demands on their thinking reported memory complaints about twice as often. The authors suggest that demanding work draws attention to every small slip, rather than these people having a worse memory.⁠¹ A busy job can make you feel forgetful simply because you notice every miss.

The common causes

Thuisarts, the public website of Dutch GPs, gives these reasons why you might forget things more easily: getting older, stress and upsetting events, feeling low or having depression, some medicines such as sleeping pills and antidepressants, and alcohol and drugs.⁠² All of these are common, and a few of them can come together in the same month.

Of all the causes, sleep has been measured most often. A review of 76 reports covering 2,543 adults looked at one night or more without sleep. Lack of sleep before learning clearly harmed how well something was remembered. Lack of sleep after learning harmed memory less, and the difference was smaller once people had slept again.⁠³ In daily life, this means a short night makes it harder to store what happens the next day, such as where you put your keys or what was said in a meeting.

A low mood plays a part too. On tests, people with depression scored moderately lower on memory, attention and planning than people without depression. Once the depressive symptoms had eased, the difference in memory was so small that the studies could no longer show it with certainty, while attention and planning still scored lower.⁠⁶ So forgetting things during a low period is a known part of depression, and the difference in memory was smaller once the symptoms had eased.

Which vitamin deficiency can play a part

A vitamin B12 deficiency is the one mentioned most often. The Voedingscentrum lists memory loss among the effects of a B12 deficiency on the nerves, along with problems with coordination, tingling and muscle weakness. Vegans can develop a deficiency more easily, and so can older people, because the stomach makes less acid over the years. Symptoms usually only appear after months or years, because the body keeps a store of B12.⁠⁷ For adults, the advice is 2.8 micrograms a day.⁠⁷ If you eat no animal products, or you are older and notice tingling as well as forgetting, talk to your GP about it.

When forgetting is more than forgetting

Many people who forget things think of dementia. A review of 28 studies followed 29,723 older adults for an average of 4.8 years. Of those with memory complaints, just over 2 per cent a year developed dementia. That group developed dementia about twice as often as people without complaints.⁠⁴ A larger review of 46 studies with more than 74,000 people gave a similar picture. People who felt their memory or thinking had declined had a chance of later dementia that was close to twice as high, and a clearly higher chance of mild cognitive impairment.⁠⁸

For you, this means memory complaints deserve attention, because they come with a higher chance of later problems. Even so, in each single year the great majority of older adults with complaints did not develop dementia.⁠⁴ You can read more about the causes of forgetting in forgetfulness: causes and what a scan measures.

When to see your GP

Thuisarts advises you to contact your GP on a weekday in any of these cases:⁠²

• you think your memory is getting worse quickly
• the symptoms get in the way of the ordinary things you do in a day
• the symptoms keep getting worse and things are no longer the way they used to be
• you think you have more memory problems than other people
• you suspect dementia

What a brain fog scan measures

The brain fog scan asks how you experience your memory and concentration right now. The result is a score that shows how much of these lapses you notice, and the score gives you a starting point. A questionnaire cannot tell whether forgetting comes from short nights, a low mood, a medicine or a vitamin deficiency, because all of these can give the same answers. That is why the scan is self-insight. The scan is not a diagnosis. You can read more about brain fog in Brain fog: what it is and where it comes from.

What you can do yourself

Start with the causes you can see in your own week. Look at your sleep before days when you need to remember things, because missing sleep before learning does the most harm.⁠³ Notice how much alcohol you drink. If you take sleeping pills or medicines for depression, ask your GP whether they could play a part.⁠² Repeat the scan after two weeks. You then have two scores to compare instead of a vague feeling.

In summary

In this article you read that feeling forgetful from middle age onwards is very common.⁠^1,5 The usual causes are everyday ones: getting older, stress, a low mood, some medicines, alcohol and drugs, and sleeping too little.⁠^2,3 A vitamin B12 deficiency can also play a part.⁠⁷ People with memory complaints have a higher chance of dementia later on, but in any given year most older people with complaints did not develop dementia.⁠^4,8 See your GP if the signs listed by Thuisarts apply. The brain fog scan gives you a starting point, as self-insight.