Living in a World of Dreams

Dreams have always been a mystery. There are people who don't dream at all, those who do dream but don't remember their dreams, and those who dream and can remember what they dreamt about.

Women Recall Dreams More Than Men

Even though studies have shown that women recall dreams more often than men this can change with each individual. It all depends on how deeply people believe in dreams and how often they dream. Those who are interested and have partners can keep journals about their dreams and what they recall about them. With these journals, you can also compare how often you dream. There are those who have dreamt they have been interacting with their partners and then wake up and realize that both have been sleeping soundly.

Age Is a Factor

It seems that as a person gets older it can get harder to recall the dreams we've had. I am in my 60s and throughout my life even now when I dream and my dream is significant to me in some way I will remember that dream. If I dream something but do not recall what I have dreamt then that dream was not of significance to me. There is one specific dream that I dreamt while I was still at university and it was so graphic and explicit that I wrote it down and even without looking to see what it was that I wrote down I still can remember this dream in vivid detail.

Psychology-Minded

Some people are more psychology-minded and it is easy for them to have greater recall of their dreams. Others like to stay focused on reality and don't have much recall.

I suppose this could be true because I do a lot of analyzing of things before I tend to believe them and how it might affect me. My late husband told me to think hard before I fell asleep if I wanted to dream about someone specifically. It was years ago but I was thinking back on the past and I started thinking about my dad. I missed him a lot and lost him when I was just ten years old. I went to sleep with a psychologically muddled brain you could say and that night I dreamt I was standing on top of a staircase, no lighting just candlelight, and people carrying my dad’s coffin down the stairs when suddenly they shifted it and he fell out of the coffin. After this disturbing dream, I could not get back to sleep and remembered that after my dad died back in 1967 he was cremated so his ashes were in an urn when he was buried and there was no coffin. This is the oddest thing but I still remember.

Some are more psychology-minded and it is easy for them to have greater recall of their dreams. Others like to stay focused on reality and don't have much recall.

People tend to dream every 90 minutes during REM or rapid eye movement sleep cycle and these get longer throughout the night so you might find yourself doing the most dreaming in the early morning hours or just before you wake up. If you don't sleep much then you deprive yourself of having dreams. Once I get into bed I close my eyes and try to calm myself and relax from the long day. Once I feel myself drifting into sleep the amount of time I dream can change. I have dreamt all night long, I have woken up having a dream interrupted and gone back to sleep and returning to the same dream so I guess it also depends on the individual.

I think I enjoy the most vivid dreams I have like wandering about somewhere vaguely aware of who I am with and where I am and it is like visiting with old friends and doing different things all through my dream. I do remember some of the things we did and where we were but the actual dream fades from my memory with time.

Active Brain

Not to get too technical but there are parts of the brain that are associated with dreaming. The region toward the back of the brain known as temporo-parietal function can help people pay more attention to external stimuli and can promote what is called instrasleep wakefulness.

This explains why those who recall their dreams are more reactive to environmental stimuli and awaken more during sleep. They are able to encode their dreams in memory. It might not quite explain how I can sometimes wake up from a dream and then return to sleep and just continue dreaming the same dream but then it is rather interesting. For me, the dream sort of lingers on my mind and after I can once again fall asleep I just step right back into that dream and continue with what I was doing before I woke up.

Another region of the brain the medial pre-frontal cortex/MPFC can also promote mental imagery and/or memory encoding of dreams. Simply put high dream recall is linked to higher activity toward the front of the brain. The pre-fontal cortex is the part of the brain dealing with abstract thinking so dream recall is highter as well as lucid dreaming or being aware that one is dreaming.

To Remember Your Dreams

Before going to sleep get your mind prepared for dreaming by thinking that you are going to have a dream. You might even consider what you want to have the dream about or who you want to see in your dream. Keep these thoughts in your mind as you drift off to sleep.

After you wake up lie still and concentrate on what you dreamt about, What you might recall seeing and doing while you were sleeping. Once something comes to mind jot down what you remember to see if you can make a full recall of your dream. Remember that dreams are short-term memories and can just as quickly fade away so it takes time for recall. Think about how you are feeling and what brought about those feelings it could bring back the dream you had.