Question: @James where are dreams and memories stored in the brain and how?

James Munro answered on 13 Mar 2019:

Hey Hannah!

Brilliant question, and this is one of my favourite questions about Psychology. Unfortunately, it is really hard to answer as there is so much we just don’t know. But I’ll try my best 🙂

Think about how memories work. You can probably remember a good summer holiday, or your first kiss or what you did at lunch time today. When you thnik about the memory you are “recalling” it and making a picture out of it in your mind, like an episode of TV. The images in your mind match up with any sounds or smells you remember, and things happen from start to finish. This is amazing, because your eyes, ears, nose and sense of time are all processed in completely different parts of the brain and they all work differently. Your memory somehow matches up light, sound, chemicals in the air and the brain’s concept of time to make a memory.

You will forget much more in your life than you will remember. Sometimes you will forget someone you know for years only to remember them in great detail 20 years since you last thought of them. Same for music or tastes. So your brain is storing these memories somehow, where your mind doesn’t necessarily know how to find when it needs it. I forget people’s names all the time…

Dreams are sort of similar. When you are asleep your brain is repairing and making new connections. So it sends electrical and chemical signals around that your mind tries to make sense of. Since your brain is used to putting together all of the different parts for memory – it tries to do the same for your dreams so you remember your dreams as if they actually happened.

Memory is one of the most complex and mysterious parts of psychology – and I’m glad you are as curious as I am! We need great minds to help work it all out!