Why do we Sometimes Remember our Dreams Vividly and Other Times Not at All?

Scientists, psychologists and other medical experts have been trying to understand the dream process for decades. While they have made significant progress in recent years the mysterious world of dreams still fascinates us. One of the driving forces behind the study of dreams is the belief that they mean something and have a definite purpose in our lives.

One of the theories that has long been associated with dreams is that they help us to maintain our mental stability, perhaps by organizing our thoughts as we sleep. Others have proposed that the activity in our brains has two levels, one that occurs when we are awake and one when we are asleep. In this theory, our sleep activity is more complex and goes further toward understanding life and the world around us. Psychologist/researcher Carl Jung believed that this division was even dramatic than proposed in the theories of other scientists.

Whatever the purpose of dreams, one part of this process still puzzles scientists and laymen alike. We seem to remember some dreams clearly, while others are “fuzzy” or not remembered at all. One theory suggested that we remember dreams because they help us solve problems that occur in our waking hours. In early studies, scientists tried to find out if the dreams we remember have a practical purpose while those we don’t remember are not as valuable to us.

Early theories tried to find out if dreams that occur during REM sleep were remembered more often than dreams at other times. But the results didn’t make a solid connection in this area. One study showed that young people only remembered about 25 percent of dreams that occurred during REM sleep. Personality testing wasn’t able to establish a group of people who were more likely to remember dreams. Those who recall their dreams more often and more clearly don’t seem to be much different than those who don’t remember dreams as often.

Research into the world of dreams has recently focused on whether we can improve our dream memory. Some individuals have begun to develop techniques that may help us remember details of dreams that we might otherwise forget. In these studies, there is some evidence that “important” dreams are more likely to be remembered. Results also show that some people are able to hold onto details of dreams because they review them immediately upon waking up.

Results of one study show that people who believe their dreams are important are more likely to recall them clearly. If you believe that the details of dreams may be useful to you, it is more likely that you will remember them. Conscious effort to organize the dreams may be crucial to keeping them in our waking memory. In a similar way, dreams that involve trauma or high levels of anxiety may remain with us.

Of course, it’s possible that some people are different in chemical ways that cause their brain to hold onto images and actions that occur during sleep. In other words, some people may be “wired” differently and remember dreams without special effort.