Dreams are still the great frontier of sleep science, one reason being that dream research is hard to conduct or measure. Our resident sleep medicine specialist feels that it's likely fine if you remember your dreams … or you forget them. It's not a good or bad thing, so don't get too invested or worried either way.
Dreaming is believed to help foster problem-solving, memory consolidation, and emotional regulation. But it is a myth that remembering your dreams is a sign of sound sleep. We dream four to five times a night, but not everyone remembers their dreams because ... they've slept through them.
Belicki (3) found in the laboratory that wakening people up in the REM sleep phase reveals that about 80% of them remember dreams, but in clinical practice young adults remember dreams upon awakening once or twice a week.
Women are more likely to report remembering their dreams than men, but there is a larger difference by age. Four in 10 adults under 30 say they remember their dreams at least most of the time. Americans over 30 are less likely to report remembering their dreams: more than a third say they rarely or never remember them.
Vallat and a research team found that people who frequently remember dreams have more white matter in a region of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex, which is linked with processing information about ourselves. Their findings support the idea that brain connectivity is somehow important in dream recall.
“Dreams are often about identity, because we're figuring out who we are and what we need, and the beliefs and perspectives we hold,” says Wallace. “If you feel unfulfilled, undervalued or not the person you want to be in waking life, your dreams will often reflect that.
If you dream about someone, it is much more likely a reflection of your own thoughts and subconscious feelings instead of an indication of how they are feeling or thinking about you. Dreams can provide insights into relationships and help you better understand your feelings.
So, why do my dreams sometimes feel so incredibly real? It comes down to how intensely stimulated parts of the brain become during REM sleep. Coupled with the powerful emotions we're experiencing within them at the same time – creating an illusion that feels more life-like than reality itself!
At this time there is little scientific evidence suggesting that dreams can predict the future. Some research suggests that certain types of dreams may help predict the onset of illness or mental decline in the dream, however.
Experts aren't sure, but there's evidence that suggests dreaming plays a role in supporting brain functions that occur while we're awake, such as processing thoughts, memories, and emotions. So, is dreaming a sign of good sleep? Researchers believe it either reflects or contributes to healthy sleep.
It is said that five minutes after the end of a dream, we have forgotten 50 percent of the dream's content. Ten minutes later, we've forgotten 90 percent of its content. Why is that? We don't forget our daily actions that quickly.
According to a poll done by CBS, 4 out of 10 adults under 30 say that they can remember their dreams the majority of the time. That is less than half of the young adults in the U.S. Younger people have better memory function than older adults, which is why forgetting dreams may scare some people.
Overall, researchers and study participants agreed that black and white dreams were the norm, and rare cases of coloured dreams were dubbed 'Technicolor' dreams (Calef, 1954, Hall, 1951), highlighting their perceived artificiality. This tendency to report black and white dreams suddenly disappeared in the 1960's.
One of the most common reasons people dream about someone is because they miss that person. It's human nature to feel a sense of well-being when we're with someone we care about. In other words, if you dream about someone often, and think it means they miss you, it may be because you're the one missing them.
Torres-Mackie, "That significance could be positive, negative, or a mix of the two, but it means your mind holds them "in mind" even when you are asleep." So if you're dreaming about your crush, it means that you've spent a significant amount of time thinking about them while awake.
Unresolved Feelings About Your Ex
If you still have feelings for your ex, they may appear in your dreams because dreams can replicate reality. However, your real-world feelings toward your ex do not necessarily have to be romantic ones. You may also experience frustration, anger, sadness, or jealousy.
Most experts believe that lucid dreams are the rarest type of dreams. While dreaming, you are conscious that you are dreaming but you keep on dreaming. According to researchers, 55 percent of people experience these types of dreams at least one time in their life.
Such feats of dream manipulation may not seem possible to the same extent in our real lives, but they are not altogether absent. In fact, a number of people are able to experience something called lucid dreaming, and some of them are even able to control certain elements of their nightly dreams.
Dreaming about falling tends to signify a loss of control over an important situation. “It also indicates fear, terror, and anxiety that comes out of losing grip over significant things,” says Dr. Nereida Gonzalez-Berrios, M.D., a certified psychiatrist. The feeling of falling may represent a sense of helplessness.
Why Do Dreams Seem to Last So Long? Study authors have proposed several theories to explain why dreams often seem longer than they really are. One theory is that brain activity might be slower in REM sleep compared with waking life because the brain is at a lower temperature.
Many people who are stressed, sleep-deprived, and fatigued experience dream flashbacks and dream-like states while awake. Regarding anxiety, anxiety-caused hyperstimulation can stress the body so much that it becomes fatigued, which can also create symptoms of dream flashbacks and dream-like states of consciousness.
Alan Eiser, a psychologist and a clinical lecturer at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, says dreams can be “highly meaningful,” because they “deal with the sort of personal conflicts and emotional struggles that people are experiencing in their daily lives.”
Research confirms as much. A 2021 study showed that as much as 53.5 percent of dreams were traced to a past memory, and nearly 50 percent were connected to multiple past experiences. “Our dreams are not precisely memories, but memories can sometimes inspire them,” says Hall.