Did you ever wake up and think “Wow that was an awesome dream,” but don’t remember the whole thing? I know I have, and chances are you have as well. Dreaming is one of the things that every human experiences. While we sleep, have one dream every 90 minutes.
First we should try to understand what dreams are. There is no definite answer yet to what dreams specifically are because scientists are still trying to figure them out. But, according to the Merriam-Webster, a dream is “a series of thoughts, images, or emotions during sleep.” While we are asleep, there is constant brain activity in the pon part of our brain and that is why we have the ability to dream. During the day, while you are awake, your brain takes in information including faces and what is happening all around you. When you lie down to go to sleep, scientists believe that your brain goes through what happened. Your brain uses those reflections to create dreams while you are sleeping.
Remembering dreams can be a challenge for some people, including myself. Some dreams are easier to remember than others. According to Professor Mark Blagrove, Professor at Swansea University, “for all of us dreams are very easily forgotten once we wake up if we don’t consolidate them or in other words if we don’t transfer them from short-term to long term memory immediately upon waking.” Mark Blagrove also believes ‘that it might be we just are not paying attention to the dreams and that is why we do not remember them’. I also found that some scientists believe we may not remember our dreams because of the chemicals going through our brain.
We can always try to remember our dreams, but it does not come naturally. While looking for tips on how to remember our dreams, I found a few:
– Keep a notebook by your bed. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can remember any part of your dream, write it down. Writing it down can help process the information and events that occurred through your head.
-Try to go to sleep saying to yourself you want to remember your dream.
Here are the Top Ten common dream topics and their meanings. While reading the list, I was agreeing with them because I remember having dreams about the topics before.
Can you remember your dreams?
Sources: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/questions/question/2032/
http://gregscheckler.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/can’t-remember-your-dreams-you’re-not-alone/
Christina,
For some reason I have always been fascinated with dreams and what the meanings are behind them. The website you have included in your post was interesting and makes sense that dreams represent problems in our real lives. I always seem to remember pieces of dreams but never the whole dream. Here is a website that talks about the brain/body activity during dreams. http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/brain.htm