Humans spend a third of their lives sleeping. Dreaming takes up a large chunk of that sleep. For many people, dreaming can be an escape from reality. You may look forward to going to sleep just to get the fulfillment of a new world.
Whether it’s a pleasant dream or a nightmare, some people can easily remember their dreams from even years ago. For others, dreams may not be so easy to recall. Forgetting dreams is a common occurrence for many people. What matters is the reason behind forgetting your dreams. Not being able to recall dreams can be as simple as them not being memorable, or as serious as a sleep disorder.
First, there are some things you should know about dreams and what they do for the human brain.
Does everyone dream while sleeping?
You have probably heard someone say they don’t have dreams. Nothing but a blank page shows up for them when they try to visualize or recall their sleep adventures. Well, not having dreams at all isn’t true. According to neuroscientists, everyone dreams. Dream recall can vary from person to person and consists of different effects.
There is a thin line between not dreaming at all and not being able to recall them. According to apoll done by CBS, 4 out of 10 adults under 30 say that they can remember their dreams the majority of the time. That is less than half of the young adults in the U.S. Younger people have better memory function than older adults, which is why forgetting dreams may scare some people. On the flip side, just over a third of Americans over the age of 30 say they can remember their dreams.
Dreaming happens when you are getting a good night’s sleep. Getting quality sleep is an important part of each day. Sleep is tied to your emotional, physical, and mental health. Studies also say thatdreaming can help improve long-term memory, problem-solving, and processing the information you receive throughout the day. This is why dreaming is an essential function of the brain.
How do dreams occur?
Sleep experts still don’t know many things about dreaming— like how exactly it occurs or what it means to have certain dreams. What is known about dreaming is that it occurs during REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep. This sleep stage happens in multiple cycles throughout your sleep. The brain is most active during REM sleep. In fact, scientists say that brain activity is so high during REM sleep that it is almost as active as when you are awake. REM sleep and dreaming can occur within the first 90 minutes of sleeping and one hour before waking up in the morning.
When else do dreams occur?
While dreaming is known to occur during REM sleep, it is also possible for it to happen at another stage of sleep, called non-REM, or NREM, sleep. NREM sleep is when you are at the deepest part of your sleep. Dreaming can occur during NREM in a phase called slow-wave sleep. This can last for up to 90 minutes.
Some people may be able to dream during naps. This depends on how long of a nap you are taking and the type of sleep cycles that occur as you are napping. Generally, it takes up to 45 minutes for the body to enter REM sleep. If you are having dreams during naps, it could mean that you are lacking proper sleep at night. For shorter power naps—maybe 20 minutes—dreams should not occur. Sleep deprivation may be the cause if it does occur during this short time.
Why You Forget Your Dreams
Light sleepers can remember dreams easier than heavier sleepers. Scientists discovered that the brain reacts to sounds while sleeping. This creates activity in the temporoparietal junction (where the brain processes information). When these sounds register, they can wake dreamers up, but they aren’t always disturbances.
Dreamers are usually prone to waking up in the middle of the night. As a dreamer, waking up in the middle of the night is important because that is what helps you remember dreams. If you are awake briefly— about 2 minutes will do— this can help your brain encode dreams so that you can remember them when you are fully awake.
There are many other reasons why you may be forgetting your dreams:
Lack of quality sleep
Sleep problems like sleep deprivation or insomnia may make it difficult to recall dreams in the morning. Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep. If the quality of sleep you’re receiving is not good or you haven’t been getting enough sleep, you may never reach this stage.
Different things may cause you to have bad-quality sleep. If this is the case for you, try to take time to assess the different things that may be a part of your daily habits.
Gender
Many studies have shown thatwomen are more likely to remember dreams than men. Scientists are not completely sure exactly what the tie is between gender and dream recall. This could be because women have better short-term memory. This could be because the female brain is exposed to more hormones that have effects on brain structure and function.
Remembering your dreams may also be dependent on how seriously you take dreams. Women tend to have more emotional connections with their dreams and they take them more seriously. The self-conscious will to remember can also affect how well you recall your dreams.
Poor mental well-being
Your mental well-being can negatively affect a lot of things within the body. Anxiety, depression, PTSD, and more can all cause you to lose out on sleep and affect your brain’s ability to receive and process things. Focusing on important tasks throughout your day when you are awake becomes more difficult when your mental well-being isn’t at its best. If your body is having difficulty processing things during a state of wakefulness, it could also be more difficult to accomplish when you are partially asleep.
Sleep disorders
Sleep disorders affect the quality and amount of sleep that you get. Anything that can affect the quality of your sleep can likely affect your dream recall. Sleep disorders like sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and more may have extreme effects and make it more difficult to have high dream recall. People who have high anxiety and negative thoughts right before bed may find it more difficult to remember dreams as well. This is because the brain is actively working by trying to process those thoughts, and the dreams become less of a focus.
Certain medications
Some sleep medicine or antidepressants may affect dream recall as well. While these things are usually used to help you get better rest, sleep medicine can affect your REM cycles throughout the night.
Personality
Remembering your dreams also depends on your personality traits. Multiplestudies have been done that connect recalling dreams to more creative people. This is because they have a higher functionality when it comes to different areas of the brain. In one study done with 55 healthy participants, researchers found that low dream recallers scored poorly on creativity tests in comparison to high dream recallers.
Not memorable
Not all dreams are going to be dreams that have meaning and correlate directly to your life or the lives of those around you. Think of dreams as just visuals playing in your head. Anything that the brain sees as unnecessary won’t be remembered. Forgettable things will be forgotten, and that isn’t a cause for concern.
One type of dream that researchers saw had high recall was nightmares. Nightmares may be easier for many to remember because they leave a mark on you due to fear.
How to Start Remembering Your Dreams
Sometimes, remembering your dreams may only take a little bit of change in daily habits. Not everyone has a deeper health condition that keeps them from recalling their dreams. Most people are able to see a difference after doing the following:
- Write them down. Try using a sleep diary or dream journal to take note of all your dreams. Keeping this journal by your nightstand is helpful because you don’t have to go far to find something to jot down your visuals before they fade.
- Avoid alcohol. Drinking alcohol before bed may be your way to wind down after a long day. While it can be enticing, alcohol can cause sleep problems, leading to poor sleep quality. Many of these things are a chain effect of different habits that can make remembering dreams and even long-term memory more difficult.
- Create a good sleep routine. A sleep routine is things you do before bed that help your mind and body prepare for rest and fall asleep at night. This could be things like taking a warm bath, meditating, playing soothing sounds, and more. This will improve your sleep quality, which converts to getting more REM sleep.
Use an alarm clock.
Using alarm clocks may also help you remember your dreams. Although researchers don’t completely know how it works, waking up at certain times of your sleep can help you remember your dreams more in the morning.
Hitting the snooze button and sleeping for an additional 10 minutes may also help you have more vivid dreams that you can remember easily when you wake up. While this may be beneficial for memory encoding, researchers say it may not be good because it doesn’t lead to restorative sleep.
Meditation
If you want to remember dreams, the first adjustment you should make needs to improve your sleep quality. Practicing meditation can help you sleep better. Meditation relaxes the mind and body from the stress that you face throughout the day. When you wake up in the morning, you will feel more refreshed.
The BetterSleep app has many meditations to choose from. Along with meditations, you can use soothing sounds that relax your mind and help you feel refreshed when you start your morning. Try the app today to learn more and start getting better rest.
