Stress, fatigue, mental disorders, brain damage, and aging can cause memory lapses. Stress hormones like cortisol can affect neurotransmitters, while lack of rest impairs brain function. Menopause and Alzheimer’s disease can also cause memory lapses.
Seemingly little things, like stress and fatigue, can sometimes cause temporary memory lapses. Some mental disorders and brain damage can also cause memory lapses. Memory lapses are also considered a normal part of the aging process. These can be caused by a normal aging process, such as menopause, or by a more serious disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Stressful situations cause a person’s brain to release certain stress hormones, including cortisol. This hormone, along with adrenaline, is required for a person’s fight-or-flight response to function properly. Cortisol, however, can also cause problems with neurotransmitters in the brain that are needed to recall certain information. High cortisol levels, due to prolonged stress, can cause memory lapses in some individuals.
The body, including the brain, needs rest to function properly. Most people rest when they sleep at night. If a person doesn’t get enough rest, their brain typically won’t function properly. Along with the inability to concentrate, a person may also experience memory lapses due to this impaired brain function.
Some mental disorders can also cause memory lapses in some people. Anxiety disorders, for example, can cause continuously high levels of cortisol, which can impact memory. Depression can also cause concentration and memory problems in some people.
Brain damage may also be responsible for causing memory lapses. Damage to any area of the brain responsible for retrieving memories could cause a person to forget certain events or details, and this is sometimes referred to as amnesia. It can happen as a result of a head injury or illness and can be temporary or permanent.
Strokes often cause some sort of brain damage, for example. A stroke occurs when a blocked artery or blood vessel restricts blood flow to certain parts of the brain. As a result, small portions of the brain cells in that area die. If an area of the brain that controls memory is affected, this will often cause memory lapses.
People typically will have more memory lapses as they get older. In women, this can be caused by menopause. During menopause, estrogen levels in the body begin to decline. Because this hormone is needed to recall certain parts of memory, especially words and names, a woman will often have temporary memory lapses.
Alzheimer’s disease occurs in some older people and is commonly associated with memory lapses. During the initial stages of this disease, a patient may forget little things for a short time, such as where she has put her car keys. As the disease progresses, you will start forgetting more and more things, such as people’s names or faces. He may start telling the same stories, not realizing he’s told them before. In the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease, he will forget about daily toilet habits.
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