Sweet Dreams

Some people remember their dreams vividly. Others forget them by the time they sit down for breakfast.

A new study explained why.

The ability to remember dreams after waking up is called dream recall. Researchers have not understood this ability well until now. They say both individual characteristics and external factors play a role in the recall process.

“Dream recall is not just a matter of chance but a reflection of how personal attitudes, cognitive traits, and sleep dynamics interact,” said lead author Giulio Bernardi from the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Italy.

Humans spend approximately 26 years of their lives sleeping and they primarily dream in the so-called rapid eye movement (REM) phase of the sleep cycle, which gets longer as the night goes on, from just a few minutes at the beginning of sleep to more than 20 minutes by the time a person has slept for eight hours, Cosmos Magazine explained.

The final hours of sleep are the richest in dreams and people who remember their dreams usually remember the last dream they had before waking up.

Some people, however, have never remembered a dream in their life.

Researchers consider gender, age, personality, cognitive functions, creativity, and mental state as potential factors influencing dream recall.

The new study analyzed dreams in 217 healthy adults, aged 18 to 70, from 2020 to 2024. Every participant was asked to verbally record their dreams immediately after waking every day for 15 days.

They reported if they dreamt or not, what they remembered about the experience, and what happened in the dream.

The participants also wore a sleep-monitoring watch tracking sleep duration, efficiency, and disturbances.

At the start of the study, they underwent psychometric tests to measure factors including memory, anxiety levels, selective attention, any tendency to let their mind wander, and interest in dreams.

The analysis of the data showed that dream recall differs considerably from individual to individual, varies night-by-night depending on sleep patterns, and is determined by multiple factors.

Higher dream recall was found in participants who were more likely to let their minds wander and had a positive attitude toward dreams.

Participants who recorded longer periods of light sleep also better remembered their dreams.

Young people had higher dream recall while older people had the sensation they had dreamt but did not remember the dream itself.

Finally, participants were less likely to remember their dreams in winter compared with spring.

Researchers said that while more studies are needed, the findings have important implications.

“These insights not only deepen our understanding of the mechanisms behind dreaming but also have implications for exploring dreams’ role in mental health and in the study of human consciousness,” said Bernardi.