why is it so hard to remember dreams?

Answer 1

The reason why we have a hard time remembering dreams is related to the reason why we have a hard time noticing that we are dreaming. Have you ever wondered about this? Why - despite all the weird stuff that happens in dreams, (like flying, falling, breathing underwater, being pregnant, living in a mountain…) we don’t immediately notice we’re dreaming? The reason is because we aren’t very reflective in dreams -it’s hard for us to “see the big picture.” This is why most dreams are not lucid, and also explains our poor memory.

Everyone has difficulty remembering dreams now and then - it’s completely normal. Nevertheless, I have three tips that I guarantee will get your “dreamboat” rolling again.

1) Before you go to sleep at night, write in a dream journal about what you would like to dream about, or draw a picture of a place you would like to visit.

2) When you go to sleep, remind yourself to think about your dreams the second you wake up. This step is very important, because if we are distracted, odds are we won’t remember anything.

3) Consider investing in one of those alarm clocks that has a snooze button on it. Set it for about an hour earlier than when you really want to get up, and then let the fun begin. The alarm will go off every ten or fifteen minutes, and each time it does, it will wake you up from a new dream. (We dream a lot in the mornings).

If you do all three of these dream tricks - I guarantee your dreamboat will be operating at full speed. You will remember your dreams at least 5 days a week. Write back next week and tell us what you’ve been dreaming about!

Answer 2

Because if we did we would be confusing dreams with reality and it would severely lower our survival fitness.

Think of it this way ... we have a mind that integrates what it sees happening in the world into its neurological programming and what it has learned in the past from the world. This integrative mind never really sleeps, it is the programmer or re-programmer inside you that continously makes sense of the world for you, it continually rebuilds your reality and integrates new experiences. It is what makes us more than just a computer.

While you are asleep your senses and muscles shut down, and this integrative mind has only nonsense to make sense of, sounds that it hears, sensations, heat, cold, feelings that you have left over from the day and it continually constructs a story to make that appear logical to you, or in you, that is what a dream is and why you can sometimes infer how people think by listening to their dreams.

If you remembered the things that happened ... or didn't really happen in dreams, it would integrate that false dream reality into your personality and you might thing you could fly for example, and jump off a cliff for fun. That is an extreme example of what I mean ... so your body turns way down the memory during dreams to prevent that ... in other words what impresses thing that happen to your in waking life into memories is suppressed when you dream. But sometimes a dream is so dramatic that you remember it ... that is the interesting question ... why do we remember some dreams ... maybe they resonate with other waking realities that we have enough to make them rememberable?

Answer 3

Because it happens in your subconsciousness. Dreams are basically images, memories and thoughts that randomly surface up while we are sleeping. Our subconsciousness gather that up into a story, no matter how weird or strange it may seem to us when we wake up. But when you do wake up our consciousness takes over and since the stories/dreams feature so little in the vast amount of things that the human brain sees and thinks in a short amount of time, unless you are thinking about it constantly without break it gets buried beneath more important things.

If you don't want to forget some dreams, keep a notebook by you bedside table and write down notes on the dreams you had that night.

Answer 4

We can't remember because our mind is only half awake. So it does not register when you do remeber you must have been just about to wake up. Also did you know that if you eat a certain food just before you go to bed you will dream of it? It's the same for people.
Hope I could help!

Answer 5

If find it is quite easy to remember my dreams. As you go to sleep, repeat over and over, the following phrase about 20 times: TONIGHT I DREAM, AND I REMEMBER MY DREAM. This is giving your subconscience two instructions; to dream, and then remember it. Sleep with a pad and pen beside you and be ready to write down the details as you awaken. Try it, it does work.

Answer 6

Because usually your brain is just recycling events, films you've seen, information taken in. If you could remember all that your sleep wouldn't be very restful! I think the dreams that we remember usually have something our brain or soul is trying to tell us about a person, situation or feeling we have.

Answer 7

that is so cool as there is a saying that you shouldn't share your bad dreams with someone only the good ones and now I see it has a brain based reason,thanks for that.
If someone wakes you up in a research sleep lab when you are having the REM(rapid eye movement=dreaming) you are supposed to be able to remember at that time.

Answer 8

We all forget dreams 10 minutes after waking up. We suffer from dream amnesia

Answer 9

Because the 'dream data' is stored in a temporary section of the brain. It is only when you verbalise it that it is stored in a more permanent section. That is why you shouldn't get small children to tell you about their bad dreams.

Answer 10

because they are occurances of another time and place. If your mind travels the void into oblivion to battle dragons and play the spoons, then can you be blamed for not remembering????