A friend of ours has a terrible time remembering what day of the week it is. She’s well into her 80s and I think she worries she may be getting dementia or something like that. Well, of course I got to thinking about that and did some extensive research.
I actually found a lot of research that indicates that losing track of what day it is becomes more frequent as you get older. Actually I don’t find that surprising at all. I often find myself trying to remember what day it is. One article that I read suggested that the days of the week is a set of temporal markers that don’t really have any inherent meaning on their on. We usually recall the correct day of the week because it follows the same pattern every week. A change, like a long weekend, can easily mess up the days of the week for you simply because the pattern is temporarily disrupted.
I think we’ve all experienced brain fog and can’t remember what day it is. It might be because you’re tired, or especially busy, a holiday week, the general hustle and bustle of life, or maybe even boredom. One study found that people were quicker to identify the correct day of the week as Monday, as well as Friday through Sunday. When you think about it, there’s usually nothing particularly significant about Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to look forward to. Retired people usually don’t have a strict schedule like they did during their working years, so that makes it harder to distinguish the days — every day can be a weekend for them.
Sometimes I think there should only be three days — yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But I guess I’d probably get them messed up sometimes too.
Someone said you go through growing pains earlier in life, and later in life there’s growing forgetfulness.
We got our friend a clock that spells out the day of the week in big letters so she can keep her days straight. Sometimes I think I should get one, although I know tomorrow is Sunday. Wait, is it? I think I better call Anne to be sure….
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