Vu, Déjà

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Déjà vu is a relatively common sensation whereby a person believes they have previously experienced a certain event or snippet of happenstance, such as finding a courgette in their sock drawer, sharing a box of termites with a pangolin or emerging from a manhole cover to hit their head on the underside of a lorry carrying fairground equipment.

The incidence of déjà vu tends to increase with age, and although any feeling of familiarity is usually false, for a significant proportion of pensioners, it can be a rational reaction to events such as being patronised, ignored, expected to be wise or waking up in a state of panic during Supermarket Sweep.

Among pensioners living in care homes, almost 67% experience the related sensation of déjeuner vu, in which they believe they are eating the same lunch as they did the day before, and in the vast majority of cases, this is factually correct.

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