More memory power

The most common plea for healing I hear comes from people who aredesperate to beat insomnia. Here are some of my top tips, arranged by star sign.

Another fun and failsafe way to remember ten things is called the Memory Peg system: you create ten images that never change for the numbers one to ten, and involve those images in everything you have to memorise.
For instance, my symbol for ‘1’ is Nelson’s Column; you might want to think of a tall candle, or a signpost … something 1-shaped.
My ‘2’ is a swan, with its 2-shaped neck; you could also use a pairof eyes, or Churchill’s victory-V. The ‘3’ could be a violin, or bra-cups, or the three-headed dog from Harry Potter.
My ‘4’ is a horse (four legs, obviously). A five-legged UFO, a cricketer hitting a six, seven dolphins leaping, a spider (eight legs), a policeman (999) and Laurel and Hardy complete the list.(Stan’s thin, Ollie’s round: side by side they look like a ’10’!)
These images are pegs, to hang your memories on. Suppose you have to remember the nine planets of the solar system: your ‘1’ mightbe a candle, and Mercury is the first planet, so conjure an image ofliquid mercury shining as it drips from the flame to the candle-holder.
Venus is a goddess of love astride a swan, Earth is two blueplanets filling a lacy bra, the horse is eating a Mars bar, UFOs are buzzing round giant Jupiter, the cricketer is sitting on an urn(Sat-urn), my long nose is fixed on a dolphin’s face (Uri-nose … Uranus – get it?), King Neptune has spiders in his white hair andbeard, and the police are rushing to arrest Mickey Mouse’s dog, Pluto.
That might all seem eccentric, but you’ll never forget it