Why do I go long periods without dreaming?

Question

and then other times I dream every night for weeks on end? I actually woke up the other night from a dream and was saying the words out loud... LOL!

Answer 1

When you remember dreams, it usually means that your sleep was light, so you remeber more easily. This could be becasue of stress, or just noises in the background that make you more conscious. If you do not remember your dreams, maybe you are more tired or in more deep sleep

Answer 2

Research seems to suggest that every time we enter REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, we're dreaming. Evidence for this comes from studies in which people are observed while asleep and then awakened once they're in a REM state. Almost invariably, they report that they were dreaming.

Even if we assume this is true, though, there's still a question as to why so many people don't REMEMBER their dreams. Unfortunately there hasn't been any conclusive research to answer that question.

Dr. Stephen LaBerge (see sources below) did his Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford on lucid dreaming (i.e. dreams in which you know you're dreaming while you're asleep). He suggests that dreams are actually the result of the mind putting together relatively random elements of one's memories and ideas and then making them partially coherent as a complete world. If you watch your mind as you fall asleep, for instance, you'll notice various ideas and images (called hypnagogic imagery) appearing and vanishing fairly randomly. When you're asleep your mind may grab and hold onto one of those images and then build an entire experience around it. That experience is the dream.

According to this idea, one possible reason people forget their dreams upon awakening is because once you're awake, you're getting conscious stimulus from the physical world around you. That drowns out the imagined world you had experienced while asleep. This seems to be confirmed at least in part by two facts:

(1) If you make a conscious effort to remember your dreams, you'll get good at remembering them after a while. I used to go months without remembering dreams, but now that I keep a daily dream journal I remember at least one dream every night.

(2) If you move after you wake up but before trying to remember your dream, it's vastly more difficult to recall the dream. The memory of the dream will tend to evaporate.

That said, there may well be elements of brain chemistry involved in this that haven't yet been sufficiently explored. Some people have intensely vivid dreams every night and recall them perfectly and always have. Many others have to put effort into dream recall on a daily basis to remember the slightest flicker. No one currently knows why.

Answer 3

well, actually you dream every single time you sleep but for some reason we never remember all of our dreams. it is normal. if you wanna remember your dreams every night try keeping a journal by your bed. every morning as soon as you awake write down anything you could remember from dreaming. at night before you go to sleep read your past 5 entries. this will help.

Answer 4

Someone once told me that when you don't remember your dreams,that you need that sleep without interruptions...and when you do remember that they might need interpreted..Just a thought for you...I learned that winter months while we're in the Yang cycle we have more time to reflect therefor dreams come more. Then when we start into the yang cycle (summer)the dreams are not as intense..Because we are busier and are using more energy ......

Answer 5

Make that remembering your dreams. we have 3 to 6 a night. They come with REM sleep cycles.

Answer 6

We have many dreams a night but we don't always remember that we dreamed...

Answer 7

When you are not aware of any dreaming, it means you were too deep in sleep. That's not good rest. You need to sleep before you get so tired, assuming you do not take sleeping aids.