This meant learning to use “new” technologies like smart phones, but most challenging of all, it meant coming to terms with the fact that she had a 10-year-old son. In fact, she says her last memory was of going to sleep as a teenager in the bunk bed she used to share with her sister, and of thinking about her upcoming French exam.Įight weeks later her memories returned, but before they did, Jacobs says she had to negotiate the 21st Century world as her 15-year-old self. It’s as if the memories of drug abuse, bankruptcy and homelessness had been wiped from her mind.

One morning in 2008, Naomi Jacobs, then 32, woke up with no recollection of her previous 17 years.