Why don’t we remember our dreams?
That’s often the first question people have.
Or they tell me they don’t dream.
Actually, everyone dreams. They just don’t remember them.
So back to why?
The short answer is that we’re all sleep deprived.
Dream Recall depends on getting enough sleep to begin with. Each REM cycle you get in a night is longer than the previous one. If you get a longer and complete REM cycle before gently waking up, that is the most conducive state for Dream Recall.
And who gets that?
Alarms go off, kids jump in the bed, spouses snore or make noise.
So the most basic reason is that we aren’t getting enough sleep and not waking up naturally.
Other things that can inhibit dream recall:
- Having been told as a kid that dreams were ”just a dream.” It sounds comforting to be told this about a scary dream as a kid, but what it does is tell us to ignore these messages.
- Drinking caffeine and alcohol regularly
- Stress or anxieties that affect our sleep
Can you change your dream recall? Absolutely. Here are five things you can do:
- Talk about dreaming with friends and family.
- Ask your kids what they dream about. Kids dream a lot more than we realize and would love to tell you about them. Ask them how they felt in their dream and show authentic enthusiasm for their dreams.
- Get more sleep
- Keep a dream journal. When you wake up, even if you don’t recall your dream, take just 5 minutes to write down how you feel or any thoughts you had in the night or upon waking.
- Tell your subconscious before you fall asleep that you’d like to recall your dream.
I don’t recall my dreams every night, even though I do all of the above. Well, actually, I don’t get enough sleep most nights.
And while I wake up knowing I had a cool, long dream, it can quickly dissipate as I’m thinking of writing it down. Often, I end up with just a handful of things to look up in the dream dictionary.
But those are usually the important things I need to know.
Image by Esther Carabasa from Pixabay
