I wake up after a dream, and can describe it in great detail to someone. But within an hour of being awake, I can't remember a darn thing. Why is that?
2006-07-12 02:42:54 · 9 answers · asked by Diesel Weasel 7 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
I think it is because it is a new memory created by the brain from old ones, but it is not attached to anything experiential other than the dream. Once I kept a journal of my dreams, thinking I would be able to receive some self-awareness after a while. What I found that surprised me was that after a while, when I would read the dreams I had written, it seemed so foreign to me that it was as if I were reading someone else's dreams, not mine.
2006-07-12 02:49:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's a matter of how the brain works. We have short term memory and we have long term memory. Think of the brain as a computer. During the day you observe, learn, smell, hear, and think. You are inputting all this data into the computer. When you go to sleep at night your brain does some "behind the scenes" processing. Perhaps you did something you are secretly worried about. The silent part of your mind considers this and it sends you images. Maybe you are getting ready to move jobs or towns and you are a little apprehensive, so you dream you are driving and you pass a stop sign and you try to stop and you can't. Your brain is telling you - "hey, maybe you are afraid you aren't in control of your life."
This is all happening in areas of the brain that aren't quite as active when you are awake (basically). When you wake up, the dominant part of your brain wakes up too. This pushes aside that silent part, and with it, the images from the dreams.
Some people believe you can increase your dream retention by just spending some time thinking about it when you wake up and telling yourself you want to remember. Not sure I believe that, but if you keep a journal by your bed, when you wake up, jot down the details of your memory.
2006-07-12 09:52:58 · answer #2 · answered by rashenbo 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Memory is not like just a big box into which things are dumped. It's a far more active process. We make sense of events and then store them in the form that we've made sense of. This "memory consolidation" takes time and it takes an active, working brain. When you're just waking up, you typically are only half awake, and your ability to fully make sense of what you're trying to remember simply isn't up to speed yet.
You can sort of observe this process if you ever see an event that occurs very quickly in front of you. For example, if you've ever witnessed a car accident you may have noticed that after the accident it still takes you a few moments to make sense of what you saw. Until you have done that, you don't have anything to put into your memory. If you were distracted by some other attention-requiring task during those few moments, you'd never have a good memory of the accident.
2006-07-12 14:15:24 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's like a PC's memory. See, there's the ROM card and there's the RAM card. Some things stay for life in the brain and some are forgotten. Now, if you want to remember your dreams, you can write them down when you wake up.
2006-07-12 10:09:31 · answer #4 · answered by therifleman 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dreams are a demention of our memories and underlying emotions and feelings, thus they arent real and we cant remember them because what we try to remember is only what really happened. If you have a dream over and over you may come to think its actually real.
2006-07-12 09:54:35 · answer #5 · answered by Kevin M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because... dreams are seen when youre eyess are closed... when your Status is offline.... you haven't expereinced... or Felt in normal Spent that moment so.... they don't last... long.... memories... lasts Forever... Dream is such a gift wheere everything is possible.. a new World... but full of imaginations... only that doesn't exists in real... enjoy dreaming... - - - because it quickly... says you Good Bye!
2006-07-12 09:56:13 · answer #6 · answered by Umax 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's some effect of the brain,that it's not real thing you saw(happened) so when the bran process is over it's deleted.
I think.
2006-07-12 09:46:28 · answer #7 · answered by nokia_3315i 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
CAUSE YOUR MIND FOCUS SHIFTS TO IMPORTANT THINGS
KEEP A JOURNAL WEN U READ IT BACK AFTER A WEEK U WILL BE SUPRIZED WITH THE THINGS U FORGOT
2006-07-12 09:50:00 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's just the way it is.
2006-07-12 09:47:59 · answer #9 · answered by LarryGuy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋