Doctor explains the scientific reason we experience déjà vu
16 March 2021, 12:49
An NHS doctor has revealed why we might sometimes get the feeling of déjà vu.
If you’ve ever had déjà vu, you’ll know it can be a very odd feeling.
The French phrase literally translates as ‘already seen’ and it’s the sensation that you have lived through the present situation before.
But while déjà vu can feel like you are getting a premonition of the future, now an NHS doctor has explained what’s really going on.
Dr Karan Raj took to TikTok with a video that reveals the science, saying it simply comes down to ‘sloppy admin by your brain’.
In a clip titled ‘This is why you get dejavu’, he told his followers: "What is déjà vu? It's basically a glitch in your brain.
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"It's when a new short term memory gets accidentally stored in the long term memory.
“So it feels like it's happened before because our brain is telling us it's an old memory. It's just sloppy admin by your brain."
Unsurprisingly, the video has now racked up a whopping 143.5k likes, with hundreds of people rushing to comment with their own experiences.
"Me thinking I could predict the future,” joked one person, while another said: “Yes yes that happens to me omg!”
A third wrote: “Sometimes I feel like I have had the same conversations with my friends when we are having the conversation.”
While a fourth said: "That's why I feel like I can time travel" and a fifth asked: "Is it just me that gets deja vu where you also know what's coming next, then spend the rest of the day thinking you're psychic?"
Dr Karan Raj is also on hand to give medical advice, and recently told his followers why they should never drink coffee first thing in the morning.
In another video, he told his followers: “As soon as you wake up there’s a spike in a hormone called cortisol which is essential in regulating our body clock.
“When Cortisol is high we feel more awake, when you wake up cortisol levels are at their peak and your body is naturally caffeinating itself.
“If you consume caffeine when cortisol is already high you’re not getting the full benefits of coffee, the whole point of this cortisol peak is to give you a boost, you don’t need caffeine at this time.”
He added: “If you drink coffee when cortisol is already high then it can push even higher, it’s going to throw off your body clock affecting sleep, energy and mood.”
Instead, he advises having coffee during dips in cortisol which are between 10am-12pm and 2pm-5pm.
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