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 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