Remembering Some Dreams and Not Others

[Anna Blanksch]

How come some mornings we wake up and don't remember our dreams but other mornings we remember multiple dreams? The past five days I have woken up and remembered my dreams and I'm wondering if I should get a dream catcher... :) Thanks for your help!

 

[Abhilash H N]

I don't know any specific explanation, but I'll tell how I understood it.
We have three states of Consciousness the first one is Consciousness itself which comes into effect when we are awake. The second one is unconsciousness which will be alive when we are asleep.
But the third one is strange. It is subconsciousness and it takes over whenever one starts to dream. It is very powerful, capable of manipulating our thoughts, or even sum them up to give an arbitrary thought/feeling.
When go to sleep and still thinking about something then you are trying to go to unconsciousness state but not leaving the consciousness state. Which automatically leads you to subconsciousness state. Now here you can imagine things and mould them. Sometimes the subconsciousness itself gives you dreams that might come true (you know sometimes when you go to a place/enter a situation, you feel that you have come across it? Actully you have came across it, in one of your subconsciousness states. So sometimes with the help of subconsciousness you can actully predict things!)
There is one movie by chistophor Nolon, it is Inception. A nice movie.

 

[Astronuc]

How come some mornings we wake up and don't remember our dreams but other mornings we remember multiple dreams? The past five days I have woken up and remembered my dreams and I'm wondering if I should get a dream catcher... :) Thanks for your help!

I think it has to do with the sleep cycle and what happens immediately after a dream, or it may have to do with the depth of sleep around the dream. Most mornings, I don't remember dreaming or even if I dreamt. Some mornings, I'll wake up after the dream, and I'll have vivid memories.

I think we would need a sleep specialist or neuroscientist to explain why some dreams are remembers and others not.

 

[jim hardy]

I don't know why they are so elusive, perhaps it has to do with the various parts of the brain - cerebrum thalamus et al. Richard Restak's book "The Brain" goes into that.

Carl Jung's book "Man and his Symbols" speaks to his use of dreams in his psychology practice.
Jung has become the poster boy for a lot of "New Age" stuff much of which borders on silly,
but I found the first half of his book fascinating. The second half was written by somebody else and I didn't get much from it.

You might try starting a dream logbook. Keep it by your bedside and scribble something in it every time you wake up from a dream. It is important to do it immediately on awakening for most of them do disappear quickly for some reason.
Then look for repeating themes in them. Talk them over with somebody close.

old jim

 

[zoobyshoe]

I think to remember a dream, you have to wake up before it's over. If you don't, you're unlikely to be aware of having dreamt at all.

Also, it has to have been so emotionally vivid that you review it right after waking up. If you don't you may remember you had a dream, but the content will slip away very quickly.

 

[Anna Blanksch]

There is one movie by chistophor Nolon, it is Inception. A nice movie.

Dreams are so interesting! I've been told I need to see Inception. I'll get on it!

You might try starting a dream logbook. Keep it by your bedside and scribble something in it every time you wake up from a dream. It is important to do it immediately on awakening for most of them do disappear quickly for some reason.
Then look for repeating themes in them. Talk them over with somebody close.

old jim

Keeping a dream logbook sounds like a great idea. I've tried to do it in the past but putting off writing a dream down for even an hour afterwards is tough-- it's crazy how quickly our memories of dreams fades! Is this because the dream isn't an actual, physical thing that has happened? We don't have our 5 senses activated to help us remember it better?

 

[leroyjenkens]

I heard that you always dream, whether you remember it or not. But I've also heard of some drugs that will make you not dream. I've never dreamt when I've been unconscious during surgeries. If it was a matter of waking up at the right time, you'd think I would have woken up at the right time at least once. Of course I've only been put to sleep like 5 times.

 

[I_am_learning]

I often remember dreams when I over-sleep. Maybe, It is because when I am over-sleeping, my mind has already got its required share of rest and is now almost awake. We are better at remembering things that happen at wake-up and semi-wake-up state than while deep asleep. The sort of dreams I am talking about is in the borderline between actual dreams and daydreaming. But that's not a complete explanation since sometimes I even remember pure night-time dreams (when I am not oversleeping).

 

[B. Elliott]

A book I once read mentioned that after waking, you only have approximately five minutes of dream recall before most of it is forgotten.

With that said, if you come out of your dream state and into a higher level of sleep for an appreciable amount of time before actually waking, any dreams you may have had are then lost. Even though you may have had a number of dreams, you won't remember having any at all.