...BUT FORGETTING CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU

IN 2019 scientists discovered a group of brain cells which have the sole job of helping the brain to forget.

These ‘forgetting neurons’ are most active at night during sleep when the brain is reorganising itself and preparing to take on new information the next day. This ability to ‘consciously forget’ is a clever survival mechanism to prevent us from being overwhelmed. If you recalled everything that came into your brain, it would seize up and your ability to think creatively and imagine would diminish. Yes, you might be able to recite long lists and cite elegiac love poems, but you’d struggle to grasp abstract concepts and even to recognise faces.

This discovery about the merits of forgetting shows just how important it is to get a good night’s sleep.