“Beep! Beep! Beep!” That’s the all too familiar sound of your alarm clock yanking you from a night’s sleep. On this particular morning you remember bits and pieces of a strange dream you were having just before the alarm went off. You remember it as if it happened in reality. But why is it that we do not remember every dream? That is the question currently being studied by researchers in France. The researchers believe that those who can recall their dreams are waking in the night just long enough for the dream to store (Kim, 2014). Perhaps, the answer lies in how long-term memory is structured.
According to Goldstein (2011), long-term memory is “both an archive that we can refer to when we want to remember events from the past, and a wealth of background information that we are constantly consulting as we use working memory to make contact with what is happening at a particular moment” (p. 151). It can be said then, that while we are dreaming, our long-term memory is using our collective knowledge to place meaning behind any words being spoken, any visual we “see”, familiar faces, etc. This idea is further supported in that “the sleeping brain cannot store new information into long-term memory — for instance, if presented with new vocabulary words to learn while asleep, you will wake up completely unaware of what you heard” (Kim, 2014).
So, why is long-term memory responsible for remember dreams and not short-term memory? Firstly, we understand that short-term memory lasts mere seconds, so this would only apply for those who wake right after the dream, within the short-term memory time-frame. Even so, the memory of the dream would fade quickly after wake (if not before). But for those who can recall their dreams in great detail days or even months later, let’s think about primacy effect. Primacy effect allows enough time to pass for stimuli to be better remembered (Goldstein, 2011).
At the same time, the French believe that dreamers are waking several times in a night, for long enough to store their dreams into long-term memory. If we all do this process, why can’t we all remember our dreams? “A study by Jacqueline Sachs (1967) demonstrated the importance of meaning in LTM” (Goldstein, 2011, p. 154). According to the French theory, research showed correlation between higher activity in the “temporoparietal junction — an area responsible for collecting and processing information from the external world. “ (Kim, 2014). This finding coincides with the fact that the temporal lobe plays such an important role in the senses. It can be inferred that when this area of the brain is activated it is because of the large amount of meaning found in the dream which in turn creates a long-term memory that we recall upon waking.
I have always found dreams a fascinating mystery. I always believed that my dreams were simply fictional stories my mind created while I was in an “auto-pilot” state. Now, I believe that while my dreams are still only painting stories, there is underlying meaning in them. Each face, each scene, each conversation and scenario has stemmed from my current collective understanding of these things. Perhaps this is why some people remember their dreams in great detail and others do not. If the stimuli the dreams are putting forth carry no meaning for the dreamer, the brain is unable to create a long-term memory for it and the dream is lost just as quickly as it is created.
References
Goldstein, B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition. Wadsworth, Inc.
Kim, M. (2012, February 22). Study: The key to remembering your dreams might be the blood flow in your brain. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2014/02/22/486125e2-9a56-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html?wprss=rss_national.