Do you remember your dreams?

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I've heard that if one remembers their dreams that they are not really sleeping well and that we all dream every night... but do not always remember them.

Now, I wish I could provide a reference for this but I cannot as I don't remember where I heard this from... so it remains my anecdotal addition to the thread.

Since being on xPAP I do not recall any dreams but know I am sleeping better than pre-xPAP as per how I am feeling.

packitin wrote:According to this article, its good to remember your dreams. I usually don't. I just remember that I have dreamed something, but if I try to remember what it was, it escapes me, unless it was one of those "Freudian" dreams, if you know what I mean.
If you remember details, that means that your "cortico-hippocampal circuitry" is working well, if I interpret this correctly.
Well, at least now, when my friends ask me why I have this malady, I have something to respond with - I can tell them my "cortico-hippocampal" connection is misfiring. I suppose its like a miss in a car engine.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/140418.php

The article to me stated the research explained a possible logical reason we do not often remember our dreams.

Re: Do you remember your dreams?

Sometimes. But what really aggravates me is when I remember other people's dreams.

Bunkit, it may be that those dreams are the only ones that wake you up, and that's why you remember them instead of the somewhat more emotionally neutral ones. Just a thought.

Dreaming can be part of a coping process in dealing with a loss. And it can be a tricky business figuring out how to work our way through the pain while keeping the treasured memories near to us. But I wish you success at it.

jeff

We remember dreams when we wake up during them. Therefore, if we do not remember our dreams it means our sleep cycle, including REM sleep, has been uninterupted. Pre-Cpap the dreams I remembered were bizarre, fragmented and frenetic. Now they are boring by comparison, when I remember then. I take this to mean that I am getting more and better REM sleep now.

My condolences Bunkit. This too shall pass.

It is common to remember dreams, and it does not mean you are sleeping poorly. In a normal sleep cycle, we go from stage 5 (REM) to the awake state after REM. The sleep cycle starts over at us awake and back then back into stage 1, transitional sleep. Each time we go through the cycle, REM becomes longer. Since the last REM cycle is usually the longest, and we wake after to get up in the morning. You can easily remember dreams, though not everyone does remember dreams.

Also, there are medications that people take that cause vivid dreams. This can also be the reason that people wake up remembering a crazy dream.

Just be glad you are in REM long enough to have dreams and you aren't waking up every minute or so with apnea. CPAP works.

Ted, RPSGT

I pretty much fall in the category of knowing I'm dreaming, but don't remember. Occasionally I do. One thing I know for sure, if you want to remember them, write them down when you do remember one. I did this while in college keeping a journal. One night I remember documenting four distinct dreams about different things. It works.

Oh yes. I have very bizarre and vivid dreams. They usually follow the pattern of something in my waking life, especially if it's something I'm stressed about. Often times I will not remember them when I first wake up, but I'll see or hear something during the day and will suddenly be reminded of what I dreamed. Other times I'm aware of them and aware of coming up out of sleep. The CPAP has been nice because my dreams seem to end naturally rather than abruptly, and they go on seemingly forever now. Although I've noticed time is strange in dreams. There have been times I've fallen asleep and had a really long dream that seemed to last for hours but when I wake up I'm surprised to see only 10 or 15 minutes have gone by. That's usually during the day, though. At night I think more time does go by. I also have dreams where I'm awake and it seems so real, just dreams of being in my dark bedroom in my bed, that when I get up in the morning I think I haven't slept at all. I only know they are dreams because I can float above the bed or there are shadowy creatures in the room or disembodied voices...etc. Yeah that's probably sleep hallucinations, but I think that counts as dreams doesn't it? I dunno. Yeah, lots of weirdness with dreams here.

I had a dream Jennifer was sleeping next to me, but when I woke up, it was only Angelina. Doh!

Jason S. wrote:I had a dream Jennifer was sleeping next to me, but when I woke up, it was only Angelina. Doh!

I think that's because we tend to remember the nightmares like that more vividly.

LinkC wrote:

Jason S. wrote:I had a dream Jennifer was sleeping next to me, but when I woke up, it was only Angelina. Doh!

I think that's because we tend to remember the nightmares like that more vividly.

Nope. I don't think I've remembered 10 dreams in my entire 66 years. I don't remember ever having a nightmare.

Probably the closest I've come to remembering a dream have been a few times I dreamed the phone was ringing, finally woke up and realized it really was ringing - usually NOT soon enough to answer it before the calling party hung up.

And then there were 3 times when I was pregnant, full term, and just waiting for the "urge" to get to the hospital for delivery when I dreamed I had to piddle - bad! and then the feeling of piddling - only to wake up to piddling the bed!!! Yech!!

(See what you men missed out on??)

Slinky wrote: . . . the bed!!! Yech!! . . . See what you men missed out on??. . . .

I won't get into the male version of that.

Slinky wrote: . . . I don't think I've remembered 10 dreams in my entire 66 years . . .

I have heard that if you can train yourself to make the first thought through your head in the morning 'What did I dream last night?' you have a better chance of remembering your dreams. Of course, that would mean our first thought could no longer be 'What are my numbers from last night?'

jeff

Someone told me that you only remember the last dream you had just before you woke up. And, if you wake up twice or three times, you could remember each dream. But you should write them down immediately upon awakening, because something in the brain could make you forget it very quickly. Don't know the truths in that.