Struggling to Remember Dreams? Researchers Reveals Bedtime Habits That May Help

Dreams are difficult to recall for the majority of people. You may get up and nearly forget your dreams. You wake up, and it occurs to you that you must have dreamed something, but you just cannot recollect what it was. It is quite normal. The time taken to have the dreams is up to several minutes or even hours whilst sleeping, and after we are awake, it becomes difficult to recall.

In some cases, we recall only fragments or nothing. Scientists say this is natural because our brain does not always keep dream memories. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people who would like to recall dreams more; it is entertaining, and some even find it useful in interpreting feelings and thoughts. Read ahead to know how bedtime routines can assist in dream recalling.

Why We Often Forget Dreams

You are not alone in forgetting dreams. According to scientists, dream recall is a trait-dependent, according to your own sleeping ways, and even to the season. You can recall more of your dreams if you daydream a lot, you care about your dreams, or you sleep lightly.

A big four-year study of over 200 adults, called "The individual determinants of morning dream recall," was published in Communications Psychology. It concluded that dream-receptiveness, mind-wandering tendencies, and greater light sleep helped in leading to a likelihood of remembering dreams. Also, in winter, recall declined compared with spring or autumn.

What the New Research Reveals

The study by researchers at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca used sleep trackers, EEG headbands, and cognitive tests. It offered fresh insight into dream recall that is associated with the mental openness phenomenon, daydreaming in life, and the natural process of light sleep.

Interestingly, it was not the question of good memory. Rather, it is a matter of attitude, distraction and sleep pattern. When you can easily be mentally distracted after pushing the snooze button, then you have less chance of remembering the dreams. And more temperate seasons also made things easier to remember, perhaps due to exposure to light or due to mood.

• First, a person’s attitude about dreams matters. People interested in dreams or who think dreams can teach them something tend to remember dreams more often. 
• Second, those who daydream or have a wandering mind also recall more dreams. 
• Finally, sleep patterns play a big role. Dream recall happens more when people sleep longer and spend enough time in lighter sleep stages instead of deep sleep.

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Simple Bedtime Habits to Boost Dream Recall

According to these results, the following simple guidelines can be given on how to increase the frequency of dream recall:

• Keep a Dream Journal: Write down anything you can remember just after you wake up. This is a way in which your brain is trained to pay attention to dreams.
• Sleep: In order to have lighter stages of sleep, one should strive to sleep longer.
• Relax at Bedtime: Mentally settling down to go to sleep may be beneficial to promote mind wandering, benefiting the memory of a dream.
• Think About Your Dreams: Get the idea in mind that you want to remember your dreams before bedtime. This pre-determines something.
• Heavy Alcohol or Sleep Disruptors: These may impair your sleep, and your dreams will be difficult to remember.

Why Dream Recall Matters

Dream recalling does not have to be a fun activity. It may help us to know ourselves better and work with emotions. There are those who seek to get inspiration or problem-solving through dreams. The dream recall is also perceived by scientists as a means of examining how the mind works in the state of sleep.

However, it should be known that forgetting the dream is quite normal. Each of us dreams numerous times every night, yet the dreams are not always recorded in memory. What this study indicates is that by making slight adjustments in how you sleep and your disposition, you can provide yourself with an improvement in the likelihood that you capture some of these images and stories while you are asleep.

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Conclusion

Remembering dreams is an amalgamation of attitude, the sleep state of the brain and external habituation. The new study provides good hints regarding the factors that determine dream memory and illuminates a question that has perplexed humans over the years. When you feel the need to record more dreams in your memory, you can consider different, yet not so complicated methods, as keeping a journal and ensuring that your rest is good. Dreaming comes quite naturally, and it is only with some attention that dreams come to mind.