Thread: Memory impaired in the verge of sleep?

Good observations ! Yeah, if you try to remember your previous thought it becomes really weird ! Do we fall asleep because our memory shuts down and we lose temporarily our mental frameworks ?

Actually, I had a very different experience recently. During the day I tried to remember the name of a song I really liked. It had a rather exotic name though and I couldn´t remember. At night, at the verge of sleep I recalled how I tried to remember the name earlier. But this time I could remember the name within seconds. I felt like I was in a state of mind where my memories were a lot more “within reach” than usual.

A name heard long ago becomes part of the long term memory though. Perhaps for some people the transition state between waking and sleeping may not be beneficial to the short term memory.

I think that memory in general begins to operate in an altered manner during sleep onset, just as it typically does during dreams. Conscious access to waking-life memory during dreams normally seems to be filtered and “filled in” by the dreaming part of the mind, so that everything we think we recall is fabricated. It often appears as though we have poor cognition and judgment during dreams, but in reality, it may just be that we aren't able to remember that our current situation isn't actually the case or is inconsistent with our experiences, and we're just applying the best reasoning we can with the limited (or false) information we're able to access.

I've noticed that something similar seems to happen just as I start to fall asleep, and I regularly find myself unconsciously having thoughts and placing myself in scenarios which are very similar to dreams, even mistaking them for reality (even though they're still only occurring in my mind at this point).

It seems that our dreaming mechanism, on the other hand, has pretty unfettered access to memory, and makes associations easily. I've often been surprised to have things show up in dreams, or in my verge-of-sleep dreamlets, that I had consciously forgotten or did not even know I knew (e.g., something I had seen but never paid attention to and had no conscious memory of).

Originally Posted by Travis E.

I've noticed that something similar seems to happen just as I start to fall asleep, and I regularly find myself unconsciously having thoughts and placing myself in scenarios which are very similar to dreams, even mistaking them for reality (even though they're still only occurring in my mind at this point).

^

Rarely I get to this point though.

Personally I use this to let my mind wander and slow down in order for it to quiet down enough to allow me to sleep. A meditation of sorts.

I think what you describe is part of the hypnagogic state. Part of my WILD technique is to count incrementally with each breath. I can always tell how close to sleep I am by when I start losing track of the numbers. It's like I can feel my conscious awareness beginning to shut down, and it takes real effort to continue to focus on the numbers and keep counting in order. Sometimes I actually can't remember what number I'm on and have to guess, or start over. As the mind gets closer to sleep, irrational thought patterns also start to emerge. It's hard to notice them unless you're trying hard to maintain an element of conscious perception, so if you're experiencing this, it means you're doing a good job paying attention!