• Question: Why can't you remember your dreams?

    Asked by bealeewh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Stuart Mourton

      Stuart Mourton answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I guess because the occur in our sub-concious, so we don’t create strong neural pathways and therefore memories of the images we create. I seem to remember reading that we have a number of dreams each night, usually lasting a fairly short period of time, the majority of our sleep is dreamless. Seem to remember that being the case!

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      There are two types of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid REM (NREM) sleep. You probably spend 20% or so of your sleep time in REM and the rest in NREM but this happens like a rollercoaster – we start in NREM, then up to REM, and back to NREM etc: in an 8 hour sleep you will go through about 4 of 5 of these cycles.

      Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep, and during this stage your eyes will move back and forth rapidly (but stay closed). So you are probably dreaming 4 or 5 times during the night although most people forget up to 95% of their dreams.

      We are more likely to remember our dream if we wake up during or just after REM sleep. Waking up during NREM sleep makes it much less likely that we will remember our dreams (althought some people still can). Perhaps most of the time your alarm clock goes off during NREM phase?

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