Thread: losing my memories

I hope what you're suggesting isn't true. Honestly, it does seem my daily memory has been terrible lately. I've noticed it in the last couple weeks or so, and I started writing down my dreams about a month ago. I don't see any reason this should happen, though. If anything, it seems the opposite should occur. Hopefully it's a coincidence.

Write it down in the morning and be done with it.
I have not experienced this, been at it for 20-30 days. I'm still pretty smart and I don't feel that i've lost any memory. I'm pretty alert and 'on the ball' in lessons too. So..maybe it's an anomaly or just a pure negative placebo?

Well..... i AM forgeting the dates more often..... but maybe a coincidence?????? lol

If it's true, I guess it could be explained by the fact that we have more to remember. Before we only had to remember what went on during the 16 hours. (I know this isn't true but something like it might be.) Let's suppose our minds dispose of all of our memories but 1 hours worth per 24 hour period. Not continuous 1 hour periods, but maybe important fragments then end up adding to about an hour. When we try to remember our dreams too, a good portion of that 1-hour allotted memory slot is taken up by much of the dream, so we don't remember as much about waking life.

I got that from nowhere, with no basis at all. I still think it's unlikely that it's true. It probably is just a coincidence.

The human mind likes to find evidence that supports what it's thinking, even if it's not really there. I know my Mum went through a period where she'd heard of people her age losing their memory and started seeing it happen to herself. After a while she realised that this wasn't actually happening and she was just paying extra attention to normal pieces of memory loss.

Hopefully the same is just happening to you; perhaps you had the thought that your memory may worsen before any of the symptoms appeared, and once the idea was established you started finding evidence to support it. I'm sure you'll be fine and it'll pass quickly!

It sounds like you're just putting more attention and focus on dreams, which will affect your attentions elsewhere, therefore affecting your memory of the things you usually pay attention to.

It will pass I'm sure, just gotta find some balance.

Ya except I started lucid dreaming about a year and a half ago and that's around the time I noticed my memory was getting worse and it hasn't gotten any better in that time. Although around the same time I was going through a pretty hard time and it was as if I was intentionally blocking out memories and trying to not remember certain things so that probably had an impact on my memory as well.. So I started lucid dreaming and it was almost as if my dream memories were beginning to replace my real ones.. Like I would be thinking about a memory and realize it was from a dream and not real life..

Not saying it isn't true, but I simply don't see how this would be possible (in that the memory loss is something attributed to lucid dreaming).

Are you writing down your dreams or just remembering them?
I have been recording my dreams for years, and lucid dreaming for about a year and a half. I haven't noticed my memory being any worse.

Originally Posted by * Diamond Eyes *

Ya except I started lucid dreaming about a year and a half ago and that's around the time I noticed my memory was getting worse and it hasn't gotten any better in that time. Although around the same time I was going through a pretty hard time and it was as if I was intentionally blocking out memories and trying to not remember certain things so that probably had an impact on my memory as well.. So I started lucid dreaming and it was almost as if my dream memories were beginning to replace my real ones.. Like I would be thinking about a memory and realize it was from a dream and not real life..

Alright, well, if you're really that concerned about lucid dreaming affecting your memory so badly, maybe you should take a break from it for awhile, and see if your memory improves again.

Stephan Laberge studies suggest the opposite, that lucid dreaming is suppose to make you more aware and have better memory because your practicing memory techniques when you keep a dream journal. So i think your memory loss is a product of something else.

A while ago I had a perfect memory, I remembered every detail of waking life and dreams (without even trying). But since I started strongly following dreamviews and trying to have lucid dreams, I can only remember the setting in my dreams an nothing else, and my waking life memory is being disobedient too.

Originally Posted by MIIISTERNEUGIT

A while ago I had a perfect memory, I remembered every detail of waking life and dreams (without even trying). But since I started strongly following dreamviews and trying to have lucid dreams, I can only remember the setting in my dreams an nothing else, and my waking life memory is being disobedient too.

Again, this makes no sense to me.
The mental capacity of the human brain is not some finite cache that depletes itself over the course of a few years. I would go so far as to say that, if you are 30 years old, there is no feasible amount of 'dream memories' that you can have, that will make you start to lose waking life memories. People who are 90 years old can still remember slivers from their pasts as children. Does anyone here honestly believe that they have enough dream recall that it rivals the total amount of mental capacity that it takes for someone that old to remember their childhood?

Like I said, I just don't see how that is possible.

Weird, I think that it's just a coincident. But who knows. My memory hasn't been affected.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Again, this makes no sense to me.
The mental capacity of the human brain is not some finite cache that depletes itself over the course of a few years. I would go so far as to say that, if you are 30 years old, there is no feasible amount of 'dream memories' that you can have, that will make you start to lose waking life memories. People who are 90 years old can still remember slivers from their pasts as children. Does anyone here honestly believe that they have enough dream recall that it rivals the total amount of mental capacity that it takes for someone that old to remember their childhood?

Like I said, I just don't see how that is possible.

I agree.

Riverboy, how do you know that the human mind likes to find evidence to support what its thinking even if its not really there?
Where did you get this information from? Im just curious because thoughts have to come from somewhere right, there has to be some sort of basis for what were thinking.. so to me it seems like it would be the other way around..
Insideout, I was writing my dreams down when I first started lucid dreaming, but havent for a while,..
Im not saying that lucid dreaming is what caused me to not have as good of a memory.. but that is around the time when I noticed it, so I thought it might have something to do with it..

I never said that my brain is degrading itself. It is kindly like when you are very drunk, you only remember glimpses, just not as extreme. But I have been feeling sick/crappy for the last few weeks, so that is probably most of it.

Originally Posted by MIIISTERNEUGIT

I never said that my brain is degrading itself. It is kindly like when you are very drunk, you only remember glimpses, just as extreme. But I have been feeling sick/crappy for the last few weeks, so that is probably most of it.

Ok. It's just that the way you were saying this made it seem like there was some logical connection between your paying more attention to your dreams and your fuzzy memory. Unless this is something proven to be true (or even shown to be a most-probable), then I would hate to see newcomers to this site getting the impression that "focusing on dreams = waking life memory loss." Feel me? That is basically the vibe that this entire thread gives off, so if someone is going to equate dreaming with their waking world memory loss, I would simply expect to see some pretty substantial detail as to why.