Memory, 2

Consolidation occurs during sleep. Some information in short-term memory, deemed by the brain to be irrelevant based on what it knows about you and your interests, is purged while you sleep. If the brain believes the information is important—based on what you tell it and its tracking of your individual history, it will move the information into long-term memory. This is assuming that the brain gets sufficient sleep. If sleep is cut, some of the consolidation of important information may not occur. Some information that was loaded from experiences that were painful or abusive as in Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs involving mental, physical or sexual trauma–-especially if it occurred prior to the easy use of language—may be buried so deeply in the brain’s subconscious, they may be recalled only as pictures that the individual can draw, or feelings or sensations, as in memories of a difficult gestational or birth. Some deeply buried memories may be recalled only with the help of a skilled therapist, when and if the brain believes that the individual will be able to handle them.