Background: I settled for bed the other night with a yoga nidra recording playing. As I continued to relax an idea floated to the surface. It wasn’t just any idea, it was an insight, something worth noting, something worth blogging about! It was so good I told myself, “don’t get out of bed, you’ll remember it tomorrow.” So I repeated it one last time to myself, and smiling, continued the yoga nidra.
Yes, you can guess the rest. I woke up the next mornin recalling I’d had a geat idea but the idea itself was nowhere to be found. So for two days now I’ve given my subconscious the mission to find and retrieve it, but no word yet…
Observations: I’ve noted on multiple occasions that memories in the waking state, are non-existent or challenging to recall in the dream state. When we can remember waking memories in dreams, this indicates greater lucidity and is a solid technique for triggering lucid dreams. And dream memories, e.g. dreams themselves, have a slippery quality. How often have you woken up from a dream only to have the details evaporate in seconds. Finally, I have also been aware of recalling previous dreams from within a dream; the memory seemed readily accessible.
Hypothesis: These experiences suggest to me that memories are stored in different spaces in the mind based on the mental state when the initial impression/thought/experience occurred. Waking in waking memory bank, dream in dream m.b. , deep in deep … And more specifically, maybe it works in terms of brain wave states: alpha, beta, theta, delta.
Hence, to get that idea back, I should try getting back into alpha (relaxed, reflecting). What are your experiences with memory retrieval in different states?