Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 31719424)

Okay, I received the following message when attempting an automatic update to WordPress 3.2 (from 3.1.3) through the dashboard:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 31719424) (tried to allocate 2111437 bytes) in /homepages/31/d313374364/htdocs/thinkjapan/wp-includes/class-http.php on line 1420

But I'm not understanding exactly what it means or how to solve it. Can anyone with more php experience enlighten me?

I appreciate the help!

This error has to do with PHP running out of memory to work with.

Try one of the following solutions (only one) to increase the amount of memory that PHP is allowed to access:

1. Increase the memory limit setting in php.ini e.g. (memory_limit = 64M . Many hosts may not allow this.

2. Increase the memory limit via .htaccess e.g. (php_value memory_limit 64M). Many hosts may not allow this.

3. Increase the memory limit via wp-config.php e.g. (define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64MB')

If 64MB isn't enough, try 128.

If you're not sure how to do this, call your hosting provider's support and explain the situation and that you need some help to increase the memory limit for WordPress - they will understand what you need.