Why Do We Only Remember Some Dreams and Not Others?
By Theresa M. and Charlotte M.
Dreams
What is a dream?
A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. (google)
A succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep. (dictionary.com)
Perhaps some synonyms?
- castle in the air, chimera, daydream, delusion, fancy, fantasy, hallucination, head trip, idea, image, imagination, impression, incubus, mental picture,nightmare, pie in the sky, pipe dream, rainbow, reverie, specter, speculation, thought, trance, vagary, wraith (dictionary.com)
The Sleep Cycle
-Stage 1: light sleep, muscle relaxation, body preparing for a deep slumber
- Stage 2- drop in body temp, deeper sleep, immune system repairs damage during day
- Stage 3- Even Deeper sleep, extremely low matabolism
- Stage 4- completely asleep, dreaming starts, eyes flutter, awakened during this stage, more likely to remember dreams, mind more active, heart rate goes up
-these stages repeat during the night, resulting in dreams
Why Do We Forget Our Dreams?
-The forgetting of dreams may be attributed to neurochemical (the effects of chemicals on brain) conditions that occur in REM (stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle) sleep.
-May have to do with the absence of the hormone norepinephrine in the cerebral cortex (keeps in thoughts and memories) of the brain
- Studies are saying that it's because our brain isn't fully focused on our sleep, causing it to overlap with our thoughts, making some dreams go unremembered.
Why do We Only Remember Some?
- We forget up to 95% of our dreams.
- an average person has about 5 dreams each night
- lose about 1/2 of our dream memories within the first few mins. of waking up.
-one theory is that the brain blocks out certain scenes that we can't comprehend emotionally or mentally
- All depends on which state we are in during the sleep cycle= we wake up right after deep sleep, we'll have a better chance of remembering dreams
Bibliography