“At Night, Your Brain Takes Out All Your Old Thoughts So You Have Room For New Ones”

Kina asked me to tell her a secret yesterday, explaining that its security was guaranteed by the fact that our dreams wash out all the memories of the day before by the time we wake up. I’m not sure whether this is a great idea or a horrible idea, but it reminds me of one of the ways I coped during the tedium and crisis of the early pandemic: I would wake up each day and pretend that I was a brand-new soul, assigned to David’s body while he slept. I would have all David’s memories and the physiological responses to whatever had happened to him the day before, but I could see the problems of his life from a bit of a distance, knowing that I had just one day to try to make them better—and no particular stake in the matter. This worked surprisingly well, if not for the disposal of unpleasant memories and thoughts, then at least for helping to dissipate their emotional trauma. I like the image of my brain taking out the trauma trash every night, making a tidy little nook to hold the wonder and frustration of a new day.

I didn’t tell Kina the secret, by the way. She’s horrible at keeping them.

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