Why do we dream? Do we always dream everytime we sleep? Why can't we remember the majority of our dreams?

satguru

I won't try all those questions as whole books have been written just on the first. But as far as memory goes, dream memories work quite differently from normal. Firstly, only the ones that are important leave a memory, which is the same as in waking. But unlike waking, most evaporate soon after. So if you want to remember them you have to write them down immediately, and then they are fixed like any other. Secondly if you remember bits of any memory, during the day soemthing that reminds you of the dream elements will remind you of some more in it. Remembering dreams alone is of little practical use unless a particularly nice one, but asking yourself what it reminds you of will unravel the symbolism, which can be obvious or totally obscure, but the more you do the easier it gets. Dec 02 04, 3:48 PM

TheAlphaWolf

you're supposed to dream every night. My hypothesis is that you can't remember the majority of your dreams because the majority of your dreams are just memories of the day. You basically just go over what you just lived. They experimented on rats... They put sensors and stuff on them and recorded the activity of the brain while the rats were going through a NEW maze. Then they let them go to sleep and they found out that the rats' brain activity was very similar to what it was when they were doing the maze. So they concluded that the rat was dreaming about the maze and that's how you learn more when you sleep. (just like driver's ed... I remember the first time I didn't get it at all... but then after I slept I did WAY better) so anyway.... there go most dreams. You also remember dreams when you're in REM (rapid eye movement... when you dream) sleep and you're woken up. darn... i wish people would stop talking to me... now I forgot what I was saying. Dec 02 04, 5:31 PM

Baloo55th

You do get strange things with dreams. I woke one morning at 7.30 when I didn't have to - just at the interesting bit of a dream about a girl I had been out with once or twice - and knew anyway. Later that day, a young friend was cursing his father for waking him up in the middle of a dream that morning - about a blonde he'd never seen before but described perfectly to me - a very distinctive girl. Yes, it was Diane. And he was woken at 7.30. Also, at about 14 I dreamed about driving a car. We didn't have a car. When I first drove one, everything seemed so familiar - as if I'd been there before. Of course, I had. In a dream. Dec 02 04, 6:14 PM

McGruff

People with disturbed sleep patterns do not dream everytime they sleep due to the fact that they fail to reach the level of sleep where dreams occur. This is seen quite often in people diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, depression and a host of other ailments. Dec 02 04, 10:30 PM