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Why you remember dreams when you first wake up, but the memory quickly disappears
Have you ever woken up and remembered every detail of your dream vividly, but by midday you can’t recall what happened at all?
Dreams fade from our memory really quickly unless we actively take action to remember it, like writing them down, but why do we forget?
Why you can’t remember your dreams for long
We spoke to Medical doctor Dr. Ozan Toy, who told The Focus that dreams fade quickly from memory because of how the brain processes memories during sleep, which differs significantly from the memories which are formed during wakefulness.
“When we dream, especially during the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep cycle phase, the brain’s hippocampus, which is basically the brain’s memory center, actually becomes less active,” he explained.
This means dream content isn’t effectively transferred from short-term memory into the long-term memory. As a result, dreams feel very vivid when you first wake up, but you won’t remember them unless you are deliberately reinforcing those memories.
- MORE ON DREAMS: Reason you have vivid dreams more during a nap
Most people think about their dream when they first wake up and then never think about it again. So, they won’t remember it. If you actively reinforce those memories by writing them down or telling another person, you will force your brain to remember it for longer.
“The brain also prioritizes processing real-world events during the daytime upon awakening over dream experiences further contributing to this as well,” Toy continued. “So, that dream washes away in the memory pathways of our brains.”
Dreams just aren’t that important to the brain
Neuroscientist and sleep expert Dr. Chelsie Rohrscheib added that dreams simply aren’t that important. It’s quite cool that the brain creates these elaborative narrations, but they don’t have any benefits, so why would it spend time remembering them?
“The brain does not prioritize consolidating the content of our dreams as memories and instead prioritizes other critical functions that occur during sleep, such as cell and tissue repair, hormone release, and brain maintenance,” she explained.
During Non-REM sleep, the muscles relax and the body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure lowers, allowing the body to rest and repair itself, the NHS explains. After that, REM sleep occurs, where the body switches off and the brain receives extra blood to process the days events.
Sleep stage you wake up in makes a difference
The stage of sleep you are in when you wake up also plays a part in whether you will remember your dream, Rohrscheib explained.
“Many people wake up during light sleep, a stage where dreaming doesn’t occur. This means that we no longer have access to the dreams we experienced during REM sleep and are less likely to remember,” she said.
However, people who typically wake during REM sleep might be able to recall some of their dream, especially if it was particularly interesting or emotional.
Dr. Ozan Toy is a medical�doctor�who is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is Chief Medical Officer at Telapsychiatry and got his medical degree at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, before completing training in psychiatry and neurology.
Dr. Chelsie Rohrscheib is a neuroscientist and sleep expert with over a decade of experience in clinical sleep medicine and sleep science. She holds her PhD in Neuroscience with a speciality in sleep and mental health, and is head sleep expert at Wesper.
