You wake up in the middle of the night with your last super vivid dream, you momentarily enjoy how funny and crazy it is and decide to tell your partner or your friends about it when you wake up. But if you do, you’ll hardly remember that you had something funny to say to them. Many of us have this feeling at some point, but not all of us have the same frequency. And there is people who remember dreams very easy, while others are rarely able to do it. They even think that they may not be dreaming at all, because they usually don’t remember any dreams, even when they wake up.
The latter occurs in 1 in every 250 people, according to a study published in 2015. But the truth is that most people dream every day. The difficulty is not in the dream, but in remember this. Until recently, scientists were not clear why some people remember dreams and others do not. There are several assumptions, some of which even point to personality to each individual. But it is not known for sure.
Nowadays, thanks to many studies published in the last decade, there is more information about it. We know that people who remember dreams do so because their brains are more attentive to external stimuli while they sleep. Said a lot more or less, will not rest so deeply. But let’s see what it really means.
The keys to people who remember dreams
Most studies agree that the key for some people to remember dreams is their ability to stay alert while they sleep. For example, in 2014 a group of scientists from Lyon Neuroscience Research Center Conducted a study where this was very clearly seen. 41 volunteers participated in it, of which 21 declared themselves people who remember dreams, with an average of 5.2 dreams remembered per week. On the other hand, for the remaining 20, the average is lower, approx 2 dreams a month.
They all went through a positron emission tomography (PET). This is an imaging technique that allows us to see which regions of the brain are active at each moment, so it is done while they are sleeping. Thus, it was found that those who remember dreams have more activity in the brain region known as temporo-parietal union. It is responsible, among other functions, for giving orientation and attention to external stimuli. Therefore, people who are more active have lighter sleep. This is something that was confirmed in a 2017 study where it was observed that people who describe less deep sleep are also more likely to remember what they dreamed about.
On the other hand, other scientists have confirmed that there are also people who remember their dreams more network activity by default. This is an area of ​​the brain that is activated when the brain is at rest, but awake. In other words, we are not fully awake, but we are already analyzing the stimuli.
All this makes sense, since, when we wake up, the long-term memory encoding It is very vulnerable. Any distraction can prevent us from storing new memories, so if we fall asleep quickly or stay sleepy, we may not remember what we dreamed of. On the other hand, if we are more attentive to what surrounds us and wake up more easily, it will be easier to remember.
What if they still dream?
There are researchers who think that people who remember dreams actually do so because they are still dreaming. So, by chance, it’s easier to remember some. This has not been shown to be robust enough, although it is true that there are some interesting indications. For example, it is seen that these people tend to have bigger concentration of white matter in the medial prefrontal cortex involved in processing information about the self.
Gray matter is mainly composed of the somata of neurons. That is, that largest part, which resembles a head. Instead, the white matter is made up primarily of connections between these neurons, known as axons. Each has its own functions. Moreover, their concentration varies in different regions. And this, regarding dreams, is unusual, because it has been proven that people with lesions that affect the white matter, especially in the aforementioned area, They have lost the ability to dream.
Therefore, it is possible that those who remember many dreams are just because they dream more. But it can also be because, even awake, they cannot disconnect from their dreams. Is it good, or is it the worst of nightmares.
