Why Do We Forget Our Dreams?

In the middle of a good night’s sleep, you dream of beautiful things. But sometimes, it would be of terrible things and tragic events. And when you wake up, you find yourself remembering only glimpses of what you have dreamed of….

This scenario is common to everyone. We wake up, forgetting most of our dreams but knowing we have dreamed about this and that and more. No matter how much we push our brain cells, they can only revive small clips of those dreams. So why do we mostly forget our dreams? Is this common?




According to Scientific American (as cited by care2.com), we have five dreams each night on average, totaling 1,825 dreams per year. Of these figure, we forget most of them. For Mark Balgrove, professor of psychology at Swansea University, people differ in their ability to remember dreams. However, if we translate them from short-term to long term memory immediately upon walking, chances are we can really put these dreams to better perspective. In other words, let us try to consolidate the things we remember right after waking up, may be by writing them down, to make sense of these dreams. Accordingly, half of our dreams are forgotten within five minutes of walking, and within ten minutes, 90% is gone.

Rest the rest of "Why Do We Forget Our Dreams?".


Image courtesy of Josephine Wall.