But first, we should probably set the record straight: Pretty much everyone dreams. In fact, dreaming may help foster problem solving, memory consolidation and emotional regulation.
But not everyone remembers their dreams. And, forgetting dreams is considered completely normal in terms of overall brain health and functioning. As a general rule, memories of our dreams quickly fade. When we wake up, Vallat says memory encoding is especially fragile. The harsh blare of an alarm clock is often enough to distract us, preventing fleeting memories of dreams from ever being recorded to our long-term memory. But for some reason, some of us are better than others at holding onto dreams.
And while science still has a long way to go in understanding dream recall, it seems that brain differences, individual characteristics and aspects related to the dreams themselves all play a role. For instance, there are some personality differences between dreamers and nondreamers. Vallat pointed to work by pioneering dream researcher Michael Schredl, who has used personality testing methods such as the Big Five framework to understand how traits such as neuroticism or openness impact dream recall.
The idea is that some aspects of our waking lives may influence some aspects of our dream lives. Vallat says personality differences between dreamers and nondreamers may also be shaped by brain differences. We use this brain region when thinking about ourselves or others in the past or future, but also while daydreaming or dreaming during sleep. In the brains of dreamers, their default mode networks are typically more active and connected during both waking and sleeping hours, Vallat said.
This extra connectivity and activation may help dreamers remember their dreams. But it also may make dreamers more prone to flights of fancy in general.
In other words, the same people who report a rich dream life may also spend their days with their heads in the clouds. It may not come as a surprise, then, that dreamers are also more prone to waking up at night, and have longer periods of wakefulness, as another study by Vallat found in This wakefulness is another must-have component of memory formation. And brief periods of awakenings — around two minutes — is enough time for dreams to be encoded into long term memory, the paper explained.
When it comes to intellectual gymnastics, grey matter drives performance. Gray matter makes up about half of our brains, with white matter making up the other half. That being said, people can have dreams or dream-like experiences during non-REM sleep. Although sleep researchers, neurologists, and psychologists have posited numerous theories about the function or functions of sleep, the scientific community has yet to establish a consolidated interpretation of dreams.
Some scientific evidence suggests that the brain regions that process emotions during consciousness are also active during REM sleep. In fact, a lack of REM sleep for as long as 2 weeks has little to no effect on behavior. Although we may not remember every dream in vivid detail, some dream experiences are so vivid that people remember them several years later. Learn more about the potential causes of vivid dreams here.
The reasons that we dream and the function or functions of dreams remain unclear. However, we do know that everyone dreams and that most people can recall at least some dream elements. Vivid or disturbing dreams may be easier to recall than dreams that mimic the events of everyday life. Using alcohol or other substances, experiencing stress, and experiencing sleep deprivation can all lead to overactive or vivid dreams in some people.
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This region toward the back of the brain, called the temporo-parietal junction TPJ , may help people pay more attention to external stimuli. In turn, this may promote something called instrasleep wakefulness.
Perrine Ruby told the International Business Times. More recently, in , researchers discovered that high dream recall is also linked to higher activity toward the front of the brain. The pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain that deals with abstract thinking, so it makes sense that it has been linked to dream recall and lucid dreaming being aware that one is dreaming , Barrett says. This decrease in alpha waves is likely preceded by an increase in brain activity upon hearing their names.
Essentially, people with greater dream recall tend to experience activity in more regions of their brain in response to sounds. According to Barrett, there may be an evolutionary explanation for this.
Think of the all the dangers our prehistoric ancestors had to deal with, and it's clear that this response is important for survival.
So what can you do to help you remember your dreams?
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