Why I do not remember dreams when I wake up - this is the answer!

Dreams are fascinating, stories that are born in our own heads but that seem carried by the designs of another person. For many generations, people have been asking themselves what is happening to us while we are sleeping and what it means to have in real life.

The truth is that we still do not know many of the things that happen in our brain, and even more than what happens when we are sleeping. There are many questions for which we have no answer, however, there are others that science has already been able to unveil. Why I do not remember dreams when I wake up is one of them and in the next article we will reveal it to you.

Why we dream

From the first moment in which mankind has trodden the earth and fallen asleep in it, he has wondered about the meaning of the stories that happen in our heads during sleep. Do they have any link to reality? Do they tell us something about the world? Are they premonitions?

There are many cultures that have used dreams as part of their political and military strategy, basing their interpretations on the designs that would guide their peoples. That is why it is not surprising that, when we have had the necessary technological tools to be able to enter a little more into our brain, we have wanted to discover what is hidden behind our dreams. At this point, the scientific community has certain doubts and versions, the reality is that the brain is an organ that we still do not know enough, but that does not mean that we can not formulate some theories about what is the origin of dreams and why we dream. Far from the psychoanalytic theories that Sigmund Freud, in which he defended that the dreams were a deformation of our hidden desires, the new scientific theories plead for other hypotheses to support the enigma on why we dream:

Clinical-anatomical hypothesis

According to the clinical-anatomical hypothesis of dreams, these have their origin from stimuli during sleep that come from outside, as well as memories or any stimulus that reaches the brain as, for example, a tummy ache or desire to pee .

What happens is that while we are asleep, both the motor cortex, which controls our body movements, and the prefrontal cortex, which controls thought and its coordination, are deactivated, so its functions are not comply However, the hypothalamus, where emotions are created and controlled, is performing at its maximum. Therefore, dreams would be thoughts without any filter about all the stimuli that reach the brain, that unleash emotions but that have no logic because our brain is not coordinating thoughts.

Activation-synthesis hypothesis

For its part, the hypothesis of activation-synthesis, which was formulated by the psychiatrists of Harvard University Hobson and McCarley, is a theory that postulates that dreams originate from the will of the prefrontal cortex to give an interpretation to the whole information given by the neuronal activity that exists in this organ when we sleep. The problem is that when we sleep this bark is deactivated, which creates stories that do not make any sense.

At present this is the theory to which the experts give more validity, however, there are still leftovers and gaps that still need to be filled and that, with time, we hope that they serve to give us a full explanation of what they are. the dreams and why they happen.

Why I do not remember dreams when I wake up

Although we still have some doubts about why we dream, what is clear is that we all dream . Now, as it is possible that there are people who remember almost all the dreams and every day they can tell you what they have dreamed the previous night while others lose all the information they open their eyes. Now we can say why, and that science has found the reason why there are people who remember dreams when they wake up and others who do not.

During the study conducted by the specialized publication Cerebral Córtex, an analysis of brain patterns was made between a group of people who do remember their dreams and another group of those who do not remember them. Through the investigation it was discovered that, either while they slept or while they were awake, the group that did remember the dreams had an activity in the prefrontal cortex, the one in charge of receiving the stimuli, much greater than the one that did not remember them.

In turn, this also gives an explanation to why people who dream more and remember it usually wake up many more times at night and are often more aware of what is happening around them while they sleep.

In summary, we could say that those people who have a lighter dream are able to remember dreams much better, since they allow them to be registered in their brain.

How to remember dreams

There are some tricks that we can use to force us to remember our dreams, in fact, with time and practice we can learn to remember them better. Here are some tips so you know how to remember dreams :

Keep a dream journal

  • Place a notebook and a pencil or pen next to the bed, always in the same place.
  • The sheets should be smooth to avoid distracting you, in addition, you should leave it open for a clean page to not waste time looking.
  • Record the dialogues first, words are usually easier to forget than images.
  • Write absolutely everything you remember, even the most trivial details.
  • Write not only what you have dreamed, but also the sensations that this dream has caused you.

Have a restful sleep

There are products that affect the quality of your sleep and the way you remember them later. That's why before going to sleep you should not:

  • Drink alcohol
  • Take drugs
  • Take drugs or psychotropic substances
  • Make a frugal dinner at least two hours before going to sleep

In the following article we explain how to have lucid dreams and how to interpret the most common dreams.