Why Do I Rarely Dream? Options

Why do I rarely dream? Most often, everytime I woke up I rarely recall having any dream at all, and I can almost say with certainty that 90% of my sleep during my lifetime is without a dream, or without any memory recall of it. Is there a reason? Or am I just having normal sleep like everyone elses? I don't recall having any dreams in my sleep for like almost a year. I am not complaining, and I enjoyed my dreamless sleep, but I am curious to why...

As far as I am aware there is no known naturally occuring cause for this. But statistically (I think less than 3%) of people just don't dream. They have normally occuring REM cycles like everybody else. But they don't experience the same hallucinations that come along with that. Other possible causes for not dreaming at all can include head injuries, chronic drug use and brain surgury (esp if you've had a tumor removed).

It sounds like to me you do have dreams its just over the years you've gotten good at not remembering them (which about 60% of people just don't remember most of their dreams, but they still have them). And while I do think dreams can be a useful tool for understanding the mind, individual psychology and getting the bottom of mental troubles, I don't think they are essential. So if you're happy not remembering them its not like you're cutting off an arm or leg or something.

You do not remember your dreams because you do not choose to remember them. Simply making a choice to remember them brings almost instant results. Sounds a little over simple but it is. Put a notebook by your bed for the purpose of recording your dreams, then right before going to sleep tell yourself that you will wake up with full recall and memory of your dreams. You may wake up with just an image or five seconds of one dream, that is ok just write it down anyway. Or if you truly don't remember anything, then write down "I chose not to remember", it will get easier very quickly. In just a week you will remember long stretches of dreams. Try it and see.

Thanks, that explains it. I woke up this morning with a memory of my dream, which right now, about 7 hours later - oddly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I can't seemed to remember what was the dream!

Most people lose amost all memory of their dreams if they don't try to remember them within the first ten minutes of waking up. So after 7 hours? Yeah that memory has pretty much been obliterated (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Greetings,

Do you wake up during your sleep? One possibility is that every time you reach the Alpha frequencies, you may pass through them rather fast and stay for a longer time in lower freqs, where you sleep more deeply.

A technique which you could try if you want is to set an alarm clock, first to ring 3 hours after you fall to sleep and then every 1.5-2hrs. When you wake up, if you can, try and stay awake for a few moments (from 20 seconds up to 1-2 minutes may do the trick). This is suggested actually to people who want to also practice lucid dreaming, because by this way the Alpha freqs cycle, where consciousness is more feasible, is considered to take longer time for completion before moving in deeper states.

Just like the other members have said, most ppl either choose not to remember or they forget instantly the moment they wake up or within a very short time....too short to even extract the memories.
However, from a medical point of view, it could very likely be related to stress and exhaustion.
You're the site owner, you read and moderate many things on it, you need to validate new members and make sure they're not nasty spammers(XD), you need to take care of your own life as well, you may have afamily~(*sweats~*), you may be also having problems at work~~~~ and so on ...and so on~~~
I can keep going....but that might have a negative effect >.^ and i won't be making my point very well if I ramble

My point is. All these events and pressures that you choose to, or inevitably put on yourself~~~ they ALL contribute to your physical and eventually mental exhaustion.... I bet you often have days when you just want to lie down and do absolutely nothing except maybe surf the net on your favourite subject of interest >.^ You're just a very busy man who is packing a lot into your life^^
I certainly like that. But like i said, it does make you mentally exhausted and stressed.
Thus, it shows up in your sleep and you sometimes really just don't dream ANYTHING at all~~~ Thus, this is another possibility why you never remember your dreams....because your brain was really busy trying to rest ^^ ^^

Just another suggestion you might like to look into~~~ and do look after your health Kinjo-sama >.^

This post has been edited by Esoterigma: May 27 2008, 05:01 AM

Do you wake up during your sleep? One possibility is that every time you reach the Alpha frequencies, you may pass through them rather fast and stay for a longer time in lower freqs, where you sleep more deeply.

No, I very rarely wake up during my sleep (I always have a very deep sleep) I'd probably will still be asleep even if the house is on fire (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I noted that if I wanted to have/remember my dream, I would only have a partial recall of the dream - if any, usually within or less than 5 minutes after I wakes up. If I just go to bed without making any mental note to remember my dream, I'd very rarely recall anything at all.

May it also be problems with my brain, or memory in general? I do note a long term memory problem with myself, for example activities I did with old friends 5 - 10+ years ago where he can recall it lucidly, and I have NO recollection of it whatsoever. It happens quite a lot, probably one fitfh of the times.

As far as I know dreams are closely linked to memory. However the physical process that causes people to have dreams is not affected by your memory, or lack thereof. Dreaming and memory formation and processing, while related are still two different things. If you want to remember your dreams and cannot, even though you do what you can to recall them, then the cause could be from brain damage (including brain surgery), exposure to drugs (sleep aids especially. Some varieties seem to provoke vivid dreams while others seem to supress them) or certain toxins. More than like you've simply practiced not paying attention to your dreams for years and you are good at that behavior. And as vagrant dreamer pointed out if you do experience longer delta cycles that would also account for a lack of memory with your dreams. The normal sleep cycle of normal people is about 90 minutes long and divided into five different stages (some even argue a 6th).

But no two people are exactly the same and some people will experience longer stages then others. I'd argue (not that I'm right) people who experience longer beta and theta stages (the 2nd and 3rd) would experience more dreams since they are more aware during those cycles. The same would be true for people who experience longer REM stages too since that stage is the time where people experience the most intense and realistic dreams.

In fact the reason you may not be having many dreams that you can easily recall is due to a lack of REM and really that should have been my first guess when you first asked this question. And actually a lack of REM can be a sign of health problems, as well as a cause for them too.

It happens quite a lot, probably one fitfh of the times.

And actually now that I've read this, I think you have no major recall problems at all. People normally have dozens, even hundreds of dreams in a night spanning all the stages of the sleep cycle. You'll naturally only remember a fraction of them. Some last only a few seconds while others can last for up to 20 minutes and may vary in degree and intensity. But you don't remember most because the only stage of your sleep cycle where you readily remember dreams is during REM. Especially during the delta stage, you're practially comatose, very heavy sleep where it is very hard to wake you up. Still though if you really remember only 1 out of 5 of your dreams then thats probably pretty normal.

I consider myself an avid dreamer but I still only really recall in detail 1-3 dreams a night, sometimes more and sometimes none at all. Again the majority of the population do not remember their dreams and after the first ten minutes after waking up you lose about 90% of the memory of the dreams you had the previous night - unless you recall them as soon as you wake.

This post has been edited by Acid09: May 27 2008, 09:19 PM