Why dreams are remembered or forgotten, where dreams are
controlled in the brain, what they mean and more.
1. Why
the brain remembers dreams
Some people recall all kinds of dreams, others hardly
anything. Why the big difference?
Part of the reason that some people recall more of their
dreams is that they wake up more in the night, even if only for short periods.
2. The
dream control centre
Whether you remember dreams, then, depends on whether you
are a light or heavy sleeper.
A brain imaging study has found those who recall more of
their dreams have higher activity in the medial prefrontal cortex.
3.
Daydreamers are also night-dreamers
The overlap between waking and dreaming states was at the
heart of the Matrix films.
Sci-fi aside, though, the film asked: when we’re awake, are
we really awake or is this just another dream?
…all heady philosophical stuff of course, but actually this
has some neurobiological truth.
4. Some
people cannot dream
Some say that they don’t have dreams, but in all likelihood
they do, it’s just that they don’t remember their dreams because they are heavy
sleepers.
5.
Myth: dreaming only occurs in REM sleep
Since the 1950s it’s been thought that dreaming is only
associated with the so-called ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ portions of sleep, which
make up around 20-25% of total sleep-time.
6. What
do dreams mean?
At least I personally don’t believe dreams mean anything in
the sense that most people understand this question.
But I’m in the minority, as demonstrated by a study which
found that 56% of Americans endorse the Freudian view of dreams, in that they
reveal deep psychological truths about the self.
7.
Recording a lucid dream
Recording what happens in the brain during a particular
dream is hard.
You can put people inside brain scanners while they’re
asleep and then ask them afterwards what they dreamed about, but the problem is
they don’t know when they dreamed it.
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