Hacker News Reader

Comment by HeatrayEnjoyer | Hacker News Reader

I have almost no <20 memories and I'm barely 40.

That's weird to me. I'm in my mid thirties and I feel the bulk of my memories are in the 13-23 range and everything's been a quick blur since then.

In fact when I started a dream diary for a personal experiment, I'm in highschool in most of them - literally, as the dreams take place in the building.

Learning lucid dreaming as well?

Not exactly but close!

I went through the lucid dreaming rabbit hole when I was 17, I recently found the diary from back then and was curious to see how different the dreams are now.

I am slightly older and I don't really remember very much from around when I started work after graduating. It's kind of sad that works consume a lot of my time but I have no memory to show for it.

I find this really interesting. I left school 20 years ago, I've lived a wildly varied life and been all around the world on adventures outside of general tourism, with highs and lows tied to locations I am beyond familiar with, yet far too many of my dreams are in that damn school.

Same - I'm 43 and I have very few memories of my childhood. My 20s are pretty much a blur now too.

That seems very extreme. I remember my entire childhood from about 4 years old on.

No, what you said sounds extremely extreme. Remembering a lot of stuff since ~4? For me, that feels inconceivable!

Myself, I remember maybe one or two things per year from 4+ onwards if I focus; flashes of images. This gradually ramps up after ~12yo, and I can actually say I remember some events from around 16+ well enough to describe them and place in rich context. Properly detailed memory? That starts for me somewhere after 20. I'm 36.

I agree with the other poster. You are definitely on the extreme side here. Good for you, really, I would love to have your superpower, but you are not the norm.

Sure, I may be toward the other end of the extreme. It's certainly not eidetic memory, I just have tons of memories from all years of my life >=4. But I do think "basically no memories before 20" is close to the other extreme.

Same here, I have a few but a lot of holes. Can't think of my day to day teen years at all.

Hmm, I don't know. You can't really list your memories, but when something comes up, they appear.

It will be back later, when you’ve left behind more than you can anticipate ahead. Just give it time.

Maybe trauma blocked memories?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com