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Why do we remember only some of our dreams

This WordPress post discusses why people are able to recall only a small portion of their dreams. Dreams are always happening while we sleep, but the degree of recall differs significantly from person to person, and even from dream to dream. To understand why some dreams are remembered and some are forgotten, the post examines the process of dream formation and explores the various factors that could influence how easily a dream can be recalled. These factors include the dream's content, its emotional intensity, the amount of time spent in a particular stage of sleep, and the ability of the person to recall their dream. With a better understanding of why we remember some dreams and forget others, we can start to manage and control our dreams better.

The content of the article



At night, the subconscious mind plays scenes from life, mixing them with old experiences, fears or secret desires. Some people are obsessed with the interpretation of night visions, while others do not attach importance to them. Sometimes we dream of pleasant colorful stories, sometimes incoherent and incomprehensible. One night we woke up in a sweat from a realistic nightmare. There are periods when for weeks nothing is dreamed of, or is instantly forgotten. What really happens at night with the human brain, and why we do not remember dreams?

Phases and Loops

What happens to the body during sleep

A person’s sleep is cyclical, alternating between deep and superficial periods, also called slow and fast. Brain activity is intermittent in different cycles. In the superficial, it continues to work as if awake, in the deep, it is restored.

A quarter of the rest time is taken up by the fast phases, which elongate during the night. The longest period occurs in the morning. The most vivid dreams come during fast cycles, during which the activity of the brain and the movement of the eyeballs are preserved. If awakening falls on a deep period, people forget the dreams of the surface phase.

It is often remembered that which is closely connected with reality, continues and complements it. Sometimes this is a full story, sometimes incoherent passages. It has been proven that different types of dreams come in different phases..

Regardless of whether a person dreams of something realistic or strange, long memorable stories are characteristic of fast periods. Dreaming images are less event-based and more affect feelings and experiences..

If a sleeping person realizes that he is sleeping, this indicates increased brain activity, increased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex and posterior temporoparietal associative areas.

Activities after waking up

The dream content is not remembered because in the morning the brain is concentrated on other things. We are busy planning the day, listening to music, making phone calls, flipping through the news feed in gadgets. Even the brightest dreaming events quickly disappear under the influence of the morning routine.

Defective rest

With constant lack of sleep, the brain tries to make up for periods of rest. This leads to lengthening of some phases to the detriment of others. Morning shallow sleep is often sacrificed, for which long intense dreams are associated.

Features of the psyche

Sleep in numbers

In rare cases, a person does not remember dreams, because he does not dream. Then we are talking about neurological or mental problems. With a complete lack of dreams and constant nightmares, you will have to work to improve the quality of sleep.

To prove that a person is constantly dreaming is a difficult task. If dreams are not remembered, this does not mean that they are not. Disturbances of phases, sleepless sleep, awakening in a deep period affect memories.

Sometimes dreaming at night is not associated with vivid emotions or a clear plot, but the brain always maintains a certain level of activity. The human psyche is selective and inclined to seize unusual and exciting moments. It filters the rest, saving energy. Therefore, the usual everyday things are immediately forgotten, deleted from memory.

Dreams have not yet been studied. There are cases of scientific discoveries and creative ideas that have come to sleep at night. Perhaps, forgetting what we dreamed, we are losing something important. There is an opinion that the psyche at night processes emotions and experiences, filtering out the excess. People forget dreams because the brain protects them from unnecessary information. This does not mean that memory cannot be trained. They work on it, improving the quality of sleep and concentrating in the morning on what they saw at night.

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Comments: 1
  1. Antonio Jonson

    “Why do we remember only some of our dreams? Is it selective memory or is there a scientific explanation behind it? I’m curious to understand what factors contribute to dream recall and why certain dreams seem to stick with us while others fade away. Any insights or theories on this intriguing phenomenon?”

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