Why We Forget Our Dreams Upon Waking Up, Science Has the Answer

Not everyone experiences sleep and dreams the same way. Why do most of us forget our dreams, while others remember them in vivid detail?

You might wake up with the feeling of having lived through an extraordinary adventure in your sleep, sometimes strange or unpleasant. With such wonderful scenarios, you may wonder what your dream reveals about your subconscious… But sometimes you remember nothing at all, as if you hadn't dreamed a single second. Yet, everyone dreams, every night.

If you're someone who rarely remembers their dreams, don't worry! It's perfectly normal, and you're far from alone. Most of our dreams are quite mundane. So much so that certain neurons, MCH neurons, which produce the melanin concentrating hormone involved in regulating sleep and appetite, located in the hypothalamus, help "sort out" all the information we accumulate, including dreams. This is the conclusion of a study published in September 2019.

These neurons, which are particularly active during REM sleep (a phase lasting a few minutes that repeats every 90 minutes and during which we dream), can distinguish important information for the psyche from less essential details. The important information is stored in our unconscious mind, while the less important details are simply erased from memory.

The same goes for dreams. If these neurons deem a dream unimportant, they don't transfer it to memory storage and instead erase it. But don't worry if you can't recall your dreams! This doesn't mean they're insignificant; it just means that the neurons responsible for sorting during REM sleep prioritize memories from the previous day over dreams, according to researchers. If you had a particular interesting or engaging day, you can expect not to remember your dreams that night. 

What you need to retain is that there are two factors that help us remember dreams in detail: they need to happen toward the end of sleep, when REM phases are longer, and be interesting enough to make it to your memory.

If you want to try and remember all of your dreams, then you can keep a notebook and pen on your bedside table to note down your nighttime adventures as soon as you wake up, while they're still fresh in your mind.