Weird little memory windows: it's not just me, right?
October 26, 2022 12:31 PM Subscribe
About once or twice a day, a memory completely unrelated to what I'm doing at the time vividly presents itself in my mind. It's mildly distracting, sometimes kind of nice, but I know from asking around that not everyone gets this, and I've only really noticed it in the last few years. Does anyone else get this? Or have any cool explanations for it?!
The memories can be anything from walking along a specific section of a footpath near a house where I used to live, to playing a particular moment in a computer game, to eating something specific in a particular place. They're not related to what I'm doing, where I am or what time of day or year it is.
Since I've noticed it happening, I've described it to my partner as like having a little window open to another time for a moment. Windows are usually to something inconsequential - not to something terribly exciting or traumatic.
I'm in my 30s, don't use any kind of mind altering substances, and relatively healthy. I'm awaiting assessment for ADHD but am otherwise neurotypical.
I don't really know what I'm expecting to hear to be honest, but I'm compelled to ask this here because I've never had a bad response to even my weirdest askmes. All flavours of response welcome.
The memories can be anything from walking along a specific section of a footpath near a house where I used to live, to playing a particular moment in a computer game, to eating something specific in a particular place. They're not related to what I'm doing, where I am or what time of day or year it is.
Since I've noticed it happening, I've described it to my partner as like having a little window open to another time for a moment. Windows are usually to something inconsequential - not to something terribly exciting or traumatic.
I'm in my 30s, don't use any kind of mind altering substances, and relatively healthy. I'm awaiting assessment for ADHD but am otherwise neurotypical.
I don't really know what I'm expecting to hear to be honest, but I'm compelled to ask this here because I've never had a bad response to even my weirdest askmes. All flavours of response welcome.
I experience this a lot. I haven't researched it at all but my casual theory is that something in my immediate environment is triggering a memory even if I can't identify the trigger right away (or ever). One example is I'll be driving and turn a corner and suddenly feel/see myself turning a different corner in a different city I lived in 15 years ago--the action and something in the scene transports me for a moment. It's just as you describe it, like having a little window open to another time.
It's happened throughout my life but more frequently as I've gotten older (I'm 40, fwiw).
posted by adastra at 12:42 PM on October 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
It's happened throughout my life but more frequently as I've gotten older (I'm 40, fwiw).
posted by adastra at 12:42 PM on October 26, 2022 [8 favorites]
Mike Birbiglia asks many of his podcast guests if they have recurring memories that are isolated in this way. Many do. I do too! You have lots of company.
posted by happy_cat at 12:53 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by happy_cat at 12:53 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
I haven't researched it at all but my casual theory is that something in my immediate environment is triggering a memory even if I can't identify the trigger right away (or ever)
This happens to me, too, and this has always been my assumption. My memory is extremely sensory, especially visual and aural, and getting these glimpses really can be a multimedia experience, for lack of a better way to put it. Sometimes it can feel a bit like presque vu -- if only I could figure out why these situations rhyme, surely there's some insight to be gleaned -- but mostly it's just as you describe: a little window into the past.
I don't use psychedelics, but I do sometimes use cannabis, and everything definitely rhymes more when I'm a little bit high and more open to mind-wandering.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:54 PM on October 26, 2022 [4 favorites]
This happens to me, too, and this has always been my assumption. My memory is extremely sensory, especially visual and aural, and getting these glimpses really can be a multimedia experience, for lack of a better way to put it. Sometimes it can feel a bit like presque vu -- if only I could figure out why these situations rhyme, surely there's some insight to be gleaned -- but mostly it's just as you describe: a little window into the past.
I don't use psychedelics, but I do sometimes use cannabis, and everything definitely rhymes more when I'm a little bit high and more open to mind-wandering.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:54 PM on October 26, 2022 [4 favorites]
Not only memories but a lot of your mind's thought and chatter is triggered by things around you.
Recently I kept getting a certain random song in my head when I entered my kitchen. Later I figured that I was subconsciously reading a title on a box that was similar to the lyrics of the song. So when I saw it even subconsciously, my mind would make the jump to that song.
If you start to notice how the mind works, you'll see things like this. The mind is an processor of experience and it constantly draws from the past to interpret the present and future...unless you train it to stop doing that...which you should.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:07 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Recently I kept getting a certain random song in my head when I entered my kitchen. Later I figured that I was subconsciously reading a title on a box that was similar to the lyrics of the song. So when I saw it even subconsciously, my mind would make the jump to that song.
If you start to notice how the mind works, you'll see things like this. The mind is an processor of experience and it constantly draws from the past to interpret the present and future...unless you train it to stop doing that...which you should.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:07 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
buddhist-ish: nostalgia and fantasy are illusory thoughts and feelings that spontaneously (and via stimulus) arise; they should be gently let go of in favor of the present moment. a reframing of liquidwolf's concept.
posted by j_curiouser at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by j_curiouser at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes, this happens to me frequently (also in my 30s etc). You described it really well!
posted by Corduroy at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Corduroy at 1:23 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I get visual images/memories of particular locations that attach themselves to certain tasks and always pop up when I’m doing them, even when there’s no obvious reason for the connection.
When I do duolingo, I see/remember a certain road junction in my city from a certain angle (I’ve obvs definitely never done duolingo while driving through this junction! In fact I rarely see it from the angle I picture it while doing duolingo). When I do video or sound editing at work, I picture a particular view within a flat I used to live in (the view from the kitchen into the hallway). When I used to edit audio in a job I had about 20 years ago, I always saw a street/junction in a different city from the one I lived in (coincidentally, the city I live in once more now, and also lived in about 30 years ago).
It’s only now I type this out I realise that they’re all tasks that involve listening and audio concentration, and they’re all kind of liminal or junction-like spaces - the meeting of several roads or rooms.
I have no idea what any of this means at all.
posted by penguin pie at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
When I do duolingo, I see/remember a certain road junction in my city from a certain angle (I’ve obvs definitely never done duolingo while driving through this junction! In fact I rarely see it from the angle I picture it while doing duolingo). When I do video or sound editing at work, I picture a particular view within a flat I used to live in (the view from the kitchen into the hallway). When I used to edit audio in a job I had about 20 years ago, I always saw a street/junction in a different city from the one I lived in (coincidentally, the city I live in once more now, and also lived in about 30 years ago).
It’s only now I type this out I realise that they’re all tasks that involve listening and audio concentration, and they’re all kind of liminal or junction-like spaces - the meeting of several roads or rooms.
I have no idea what any of this means at all.
posted by penguin pie at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I propose that neuroplasticity may be involved. You had a mundane vivid memory, your brain was like "oh this is pleasant, let's do it again" and you did it again, and then again, and then you had a new pathway in your brain. And maybe some other part of your brain was like "sure, but I'm cutting you off after 1-2/day so it doesn't become a major distraction"
posted by aniola at 1:41 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by aniola at 1:41 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
All the time, constantly, ever since I was very young. I've mentioned it at least once on metafilter.
The earliest instance of this was probably when I was approximately kindergarten age. My family had watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind that night, and right when the spaceship door opens there's a real nasty looking alien that comes out first. Not the cute little squart guys, the spidery one. Scared the shit out of me. That night when I was trying to fall asleep, it's all I could think of. Kept trying to clear my mind or think of other things and no matter what that spindly freak was there. To this day--and I'm nearly 37--I still see that alien when I'm trying to clear my head. Meditation? Lol forget about it, hope you like that alien. (It ceased to be scary a long time ago, now it's just something that's always there.)
Usually the triggers are situational, like I'll be doing an action and the thought will appear. Sometimes they're strictly locational. The Veronica Mars/dishwashing thing in my linked comment above hasn't happened since I moved a couple years ago, that apparently was strictly tied to that apartment sink and didn't translate to my new place. I don't know. It's USUALLY something from a piece of media--a scene or image or maybe a specific sentence from a movie or book, for instance. Or a couple of notes from a piece of music. There are a few things though that trigger saying a nonsense string of words--if I can't say it out loud then I need to write it down a few times or my brain kind of gets stuck on it.
The closest thing I've seen to describe my experience of this is descriptions of "pure O" OCD, except gratefully for me this is entirely exempt from anxiety. Like you, none of this is exciting or traumatic, it's just a very strong association that my brain demands of me. As long as I acknowledge it, it moves along.
posted by phunniemee at 1:45 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
The earliest instance of this was probably when I was approximately kindergarten age. My family had watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind that night, and right when the spaceship door opens there's a real nasty looking alien that comes out first. Not the cute little squart guys, the spidery one. Scared the shit out of me. That night when I was trying to fall asleep, it's all I could think of. Kept trying to clear my mind or think of other things and no matter what that spindly freak was there. To this day--and I'm nearly 37--I still see that alien when I'm trying to clear my head. Meditation? Lol forget about it, hope you like that alien. (It ceased to be scary a long time ago, now it's just something that's always there.)
Usually the triggers are situational, like I'll be doing an action and the thought will appear. Sometimes they're strictly locational. The Veronica Mars/dishwashing thing in my linked comment above hasn't happened since I moved a couple years ago, that apparently was strictly tied to that apartment sink and didn't translate to my new place. I don't know. It's USUALLY something from a piece of media--a scene or image or maybe a specific sentence from a movie or book, for instance. Or a couple of notes from a piece of music. There are a few things though that trigger saying a nonsense string of words--if I can't say it out loud then I need to write it down a few times or my brain kind of gets stuck on it.
The closest thing I've seen to describe my experience of this is descriptions of "pure O" OCD, except gratefully for me this is entirely exempt from anxiety. Like you, none of this is exciting or traumatic, it's just a very strong association that my brain demands of me. As long as I acknowledge it, it moves along.
posted by phunniemee at 1:45 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Absolutely. It’s interesting to see the different themes others have around theirs; my memories are primarily from places I traveled either for work or fun. I assume that’s because they were novel enough to break through my everyday memories and they also help confirm for me the concept that experiences can provide a lot more value than objects (usually).
posted by hellogoodbye at 2:34 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by hellogoodbye at 2:34 PM on October 26, 2022
All the time, and it’s exactly as you describe, except that they’re often from stressful times of my life. They’re like memory confetti, tiny little snippets floating randomly down until one crosses my field of vision and then it’s gone.
posted by HotToddy at 3:30 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by HotToddy at 3:30 PM on October 26, 2022
Yeah, this happens to me a lot. As often as once or twice a day? I'm not sure. Could be. It doesn't seem particularly weird or remarkable to me, just a normal part of life, so maybe it happens multiple times a day and I don't think much of it. Sometimes I do really notice it, though. Like a week or so ago I was making cookies and talking to my son and I suddenly thought of I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew for no apparent reason.
I imagine there is some connection between my current circumstances and the memory that pops up but often I don't know what it is. I think I've noticed this more as I've gotten older but I guess it makes sense that as the stockpile of stored memories gets bigger and bigger there would be more situations where something comes up that reminds me of one of them.
posted by Redstart at 5:04 PM on October 26, 2022
I imagine there is some connection between my current circumstances and the memory that pops up but often I don't know what it is. I think I've noticed this more as I've gotten older but I guess it makes sense that as the stockpile of stored memories gets bigger and bigger there would be more situations where something comes up that reminds me of one of them.
posted by Redstart at 5:04 PM on October 26, 2022
Best answer: Ok, I had no idea that some people don’t/can’t do this. I have vivid memories all of the time. I don’t know if I would say every day, but many times per week. I have been told that I have a very good memory though, so maybe there’s just a lot of stuff floating around up there. My mother always told me when she’d ask a question of me as a child that I would tell her that “I need to flip to that picture in my mind.” And that’s kind of what these memories are like, except that I can feel(?) then instead of just “see” them. Thanks for asking this question!
posted by sara is disenchanted at 5:33 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by sara is disenchanted at 5:33 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
"All my life I've been visited by unexpected flashes of memory unrelated to anything taking place at the moment."
posted by Rash at 6:11 PM on October 26, 2022
- -- Roger Ebert
posted by Rash at 6:11 PM on October 26, 2022
Yes. My brain will just show me a scene, somewhere I’ve been, rarely much emotional content. So it’s like here, have a picture of this street corner. Thanks.
posted by zadcat at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by zadcat at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2022
Best answer: Yeah, it happens to me too. Probably more on the order of once or twice a month.
Vaguely related, I sometimes have random words pop in my head that have nothing to do with what I'm doing or thinking.
And then there are things that I dreamed that end up happening. It's always like just a single instant in time, like just whatever is in my field of view while a certain thought goes through my mind or whatever. When I had the dreams I knew they were things that were going to happen and I would wonder how I would possibly get to that time and place. And then when they do happen I think "ah, here's one of those moments." They're never useful. They seem to happen more during intense periods of my life, but the moments are never otherwise relevant to the intense period. I'll start getting deja vus and wonder what's about to happen.
My brain is pretty random.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 8:38 PM on October 26, 2022
Vaguely related, I sometimes have random words pop in my head that have nothing to do with what I'm doing or thinking.
And then there are things that I dreamed that end up happening. It's always like just a single instant in time, like just whatever is in my field of view while a certain thought goes through my mind or whatever. When I had the dreams I knew they were things that were going to happen and I would wonder how I would possibly get to that time and place. And then when they do happen I think "ah, here's one of those moments." They're never useful. They seem to happen more during intense periods of my life, but the moments are never otherwise relevant to the intense period. I'll start getting deja vus and wonder what's about to happen.
My brain is pretty random.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 8:38 PM on October 26, 2022
Best answer: I get deja vu about getting deja vu and then a strong recollection of a specific time that I maybe experienced deja vu, probably 15 years ago or more. It's a strange telescopic effect.
Possibly even weirder: I used to get little floating windows onto something like dreams when I was maybe 3-4 years old. I can only vaguely remember the experience but my parents say I reported them as "air dreams", little scenes briefly floating around my field of vision, I think sort of around the edges. The only image I have associated with these is an image of an empty room (probably my bedroom at the time, but empty of furniture). I don't know if that was one of my air dreams or not but the image is strongly associated!
posted by BungaDunga at 9:03 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Possibly even weirder: I used to get little floating windows onto something like dreams when I was maybe 3-4 years old. I can only vaguely remember the experience but my parents say I reported them as "air dreams", little scenes briefly floating around my field of vision, I think sort of around the edges. The only image I have associated with these is an image of an empty room (probably my bedroom at the time, but empty of furniture). I don't know if that was one of my air dreams or not but the image is strongly associated!
posted by BungaDunga at 9:03 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes!! I almost asked about this a few times. I have started getting these really intensely since mid 2020, I assumed it was not-leaving-the-house related. For me it is mostly ALSO navigational, places I used to bike past, especially tricky lights or corners. I wondered if it was my brain, like, putting the old "autopilot" stuff into long term storage but no clue if that's actuslly how brains work.
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:49 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:49 PM on October 26, 2022
I didn't used to have this,
but since I've been at home since 2020 to avoid COVID
I've found it happening more and more often.
I assumed it was my brain saying "you're not stimulating your brain with new environments, so have some memories of past environments instead"
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:41 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
but since I've been at home since 2020 to avoid COVID
I've found it happening more and more often.
I assumed it was my brain saying "you're not stimulating your brain with new environments, so have some memories of past environments instead"
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:41 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
The random memories I get are mostly neutral memories.
Sometimes the random memories are pleasant or stressful, but that's much less common.
A typical random memory might be "a vivid image of a phone at my old house, plugged into the wall, sitting in a plastic crate so that my cat couldn't chew the phone cord"
or "a vivid image of the loungeroom where I lived in 2010"
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:53 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sometimes the random memories are pleasant or stressful, but that's much less common.
A typical random memory might be "a vivid image of a phone at my old house, plugged into the wall, sitting in a plastic crate so that my cat couldn't chew the phone cord"
or "a vivid image of the loungeroom where I lived in 2010"
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:53 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
...This is almost never NOT happening to me, and it didn't occur to me that this was unusual.
I also virtually always have music playing in my head, and tend to have layered thoughts, in which one part of my brain is thinking about/engaged with one issue, and another part is thinking about a different issue. I usually work on multiple documents at a time because of this; as I type one sentence, I might be composing another for something entirely different.
I have diagnosed ADHD, for what it's worth.
posted by desert outpost at 12:14 AM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also virtually always have music playing in my head, and tend to have layered thoughts, in which one part of my brain is thinking about/engaged with one issue, and another part is thinking about a different issue. I usually work on multiple documents at a time because of this; as I type one sentence, I might be composing another for something entirely different.
I have diagnosed ADHD, for what it's worth.
posted by desert outpost at 12:14 AM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think this would come under unsolicited autobiographical memories. Mine aren't strongly visual, but I get a huge number of them; some days it's almost a continual stream.
Like desert outpost, I also have music playing in my head almost all the time.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:59 AM on October 27, 2022
Like desert outpost, I also have music playing in my head almost all the time.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:59 AM on October 27, 2022
my experience is a lot like desert outpost, I am almost entirely unable to focus on reading or writing without listening to music at the same time and I currently have three active word docs I'm swapping between on top of this comment.
I get memory flashes connecting music to some activity, in either direction. Like I'll listen to a song and have a vivid immersive memory of folding laundry because at some point I folded laundry while listening to that . Often not a recent memory, like from years back based on where I was. Yesterday I was making a sandwich and had a vivid audio memory of a song I hadn't though of in probably months that at some point had listened to while making the same kind of sandwich.
posted by buildmyworld at 8:07 AM on October 27, 2022
I get memory flashes connecting music to some activity, in either direction. Like I'll listen to a song and have a vivid immersive memory of folding laundry because at some point I folded laundry while listening to that . Often not a recent memory, like from years back based on where I was. Yesterday I was making a sandwich and had a vivid audio memory of a song I hadn't though of in probably months that at some point had listened to while making the same kind of sandwich.
posted by buildmyworld at 8:07 AM on October 27, 2022
They say it's specific smells, fragrances & odors which trigger the most intense memories.
posted by Rash at 3:44 PM on October 27, 2022
posted by Rash at 3:44 PM on October 27, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks to everyone who answered! AskMe has made me feel, once again, like I've found my people.
For the record, although I appreciate all the people suggesting that something, however subtle, in my environment is triggering these windows, the fact that I'm certain that that is not happening is one of the reasons I started to wonder if it was weird.
It was really nice reading all these replies but I've marked some as best which really helped me frame it.
Also... DrumsInTheDeep, sometimes I get a 'window' which hasn't happened yet, and wonder if it will!
posted by greenish at 11:54 AM on October 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
For the record, although I appreciate all the people suggesting that something, however subtle, in my environment is triggering these windows, the fact that I'm certain that that is not happening is one of the reasons I started to wonder if it was weird.
It was really nice reading all these replies but I've marked some as best which really helped me frame it.
Also... DrumsInTheDeep, sometimes I get a 'window' which hasn't happened yet, and wonder if it will!
posted by greenish at 11:54 AM on October 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
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I'm glad they're mostly enjoyable for you, that sounds nice.
posted by mhoye at 12:39 PM on October 26, 2022 [4 favorites]