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Amnesia in youths: Untimely sleep, junk food & mobile phones named culprits
Erratic sleep, junk food, and mobile addiction are causing memory loss in youths aged 15-30, with rising counseling cases for amnesia noted.
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Erratic sleep habits disturbing the circadian rhythm, excessive consumption of junk food, besides mobile phone addiction are some of the main causes leading to more and more youths in the 15 to 30 age bracket experiencing memory loss ranging from forgetting everyday things to inability in learning academic tasks.
The Moti Lal Nehru (Colvin) Divisional Hospital’s Psychiatry department is witnessing a concerning trend: Every month an average 35 to 40 individuals in the 15 to 30 years age group arrive for counseling with symptoms of amnesia.
According to Dr Rakesh Paswan, a neuro-psychiatrist at the hospital, cases of memory loss—once typically associated with older adults—are now increasingly affecting the younger population.
According to the expert, most youths complaining forgetfulness and inability to retain what they had learnt in academics besides stress and depression was largely due to disrespecting the circadian rhythm or biological clock, excessive consumption of junk food and mobile phone addiction.
“Every human body secretes melatonin and corticosteroid hormones. Melatonin is produced during dark hours, with onset time of 10pm, which regulates the body’s sleep-wake cycle and offers protection against brain cell breakdown. This hormone, whose secretion commences around 10pm everyday, helps enhance memory of a person.
“Similarly, the other hormone, corticosteroid, also helps enhance memory consolidation, particularly when released during morning hours between 6 am to 7am, after an eight hour relaxing sleep between 10 pm and 6am,” he said.
Both the hormones work effectively in enhancing memory of a person in conditions of smooth circadian rhythm, i.e., timely sleep between 10pm and 6am, ensuring newly acquired, labile memories being transformed into more stable, long-lasting forms in the brain.
In case a person fails to follow a timely sleep cycle, formulated by nature, the twin hormones fail to give effective results.
According to the neuro-psychiatrist, another cause for increasing memory loss in youths was excessive consumption of junk food having unhealthy fats and sugars casting negative impact on memory and cognitive functions.
“Excessive consumption of junk food, especially during teenage years, can lead to long-lasting memory impairments. Processed foods having unhealthy fat restrict blood flow to the brain, thereby affecting cognitive performance, including memory. Such youths experience both lack of short term memory as-well-as long term memory consolidation,” he added.
The third most common cause found in such youths having memory issues was excessive screen time exposure. According to Dr Paswan, nearly three-fourth of youths having memory issues who had arrived for counselling at the hospital confessed to mobile phone addiction. “Excessive exposure to screens, especially before going to bed, between 10 pm and 6am, disrupted sleep patterns. This affected the effective role of melatonin and corticosteroid hormones in enhancing memory. Since deep sleep is crucial for consolidating memories, poor sleep quality negatively impacts memory health,” he said.
According to data, between April to June, of the 450 patients who underwent psychiatric counselling, 120 were young adults exhibiting signs of amnesia. On an average, out of 150 cases of dementia and other neuro degenerative disorders received every month, —around 40—were patients below the age of 35 years of age experiencing memory loss.
