Why do we forget our dreams?

**Joseph Chance** (0:00)
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**Joseph Chance** (1:01)
Why do we forget our dreams?
Thanks for asking.
On average, we remember just one dream per week, and around 5 percent of us never remember any, but in reality, we all dream. It's just that some of us never have any recollection of doing so. So, why is it then that certain dreams stay with us, while others fade away immediately? It's important to be aware that over the course of a night, we go through various phases of slow sleep, including deep sleep and REM sleep, which is short for rapid eye movement sleep. A new cycle begins around every 90 minutes, and it's during our REM sleep cycle that we have most of our dreams. Phases gradually get longer during the night, meaning we have our longest dreams in the morning. What actually happens to our bodies during REM sleep? Our eyes move around underneath the pupils, our body temperature rises, our heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure also increase. When we move from REM sleep to slow sleep, dreams can disappear from our memory in as little as 10 minutes. The exception is when you wake up right in the middle of a dream, in which case you tend to remember it.
The explanation behind it is actually very simple. Our brain simply can't remember everything. It has to clear things out by selecting information that it considers most important. And most of the time, what we dream about simply isn't consequential enough. It's the hippocampus zone of the brain which consolidates our memories, and it's very active during the night. Why don't we all remember the same proportion of our dreams, then? Those who remember their dreams the most tend to recall as many as five per week. While at the other end of the scale, some people can only remember two per month, it seems that those who remember their dreams most often have more mini wakeups during the night, adding up to around 15 minutes per day, compared to five minutes for those who don't dream very often. They're more sensitive to noise and other external stimuli. That goes some way to explaining why they remember more dreams. But do they actually have more dreams overall, including those they forget? Researchers say it's plausible, but there's no way of knowing for now.
Is there anything we can do to better remember our dreams?
One way is to not rush your morning wakeup ritual. Stay still in bed, keep your eyes closed, and try to remember what was happening in your dream. Keep a pencil and notepad within arm's reach, and note down everything you can before the memory fades. Likewise, it seems that taking longer to go to sleep at night may be conducive to remembering dreams. Our minds start to wander during a phase known as hypnagogia. It's a state in between wakefulness and sleep. There you have it.
Now you know why we forget our dreams. In under three minutes, we answer your questions, and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts, and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know it for sure.