Thread: Long Term Memory Question

I am just going to assume that the long term memory doesn't shut down.

If that isn't the case, then maybe you have thought about that memory from time ago, and brought it back into play. I don't know. Just a guess.

You do have access to your long term memory in dreams. I used to have a recurring theme in some dreams, for example, that was caused by an incident that occurred when I was only three. I also sometimes dream of people that I was at school with (even though that was decades ago. I think we need to distinguish between conscious and unconscious memory. If you have a lucid dream, then because you are conscious during it, it goes into your conscious memory and so you remember it CLEARLY for ever and a day afterwards (hence the term LUCID dream, lucid meaning clear, of course). However, because you're not conscious during ordinary dreams, the memory of those doesn't go into your conscious memory and you forget them (unless you continue to consciously think about the dream as soon as you wake up).