Dreaming about forgetting the dream
Almost nobody does not dream. Recall varies enormously and is affected by things you can change, which makes this the most actionable entry in the database for anybody who thinks they have nothing to record.
Also searched as: i cannot remember my dreams, losing a dream on waking, no dream recall, i do not dream
Dream recall is not the same as dreaming. People woken from REM in a laboratory report dreams the great majority of the time, including people who believe they never dream.
The loss is fast. Recall decays within minutes of waking and is heavily affected by whether anything intervenes, which is why looking at a phone first thing is the most effective way to destroy a dream.
Recall improves with attention. People who start a journal report more dreams within days, and this is one of the better documented effects in the area.
Waking naturally rather than to an alarm, and staying still on waking, both help.
Common associations
- Recall, not dreaming, which is the whole distinction.
- Fast decay, within minutes.
- Interference, which is the main enemy.
- Attention, which reliably improves it.
Positive readings
The most immediately useful entry here. A person who believes they do not dream can usually change that within a week, and the interventions cost nothing.
Lie still on waking, write before moving, do not check a phone, and keep something to write on within reach.
Difficult readings
Very little, though it is worth saying that increased recall means increased recall of unpleasant dreams too, and people beginning a journal are sometimes surprised by that.
Psychological perspectives
REM awakenings produce dream reports the large majority of the time, including from people who report never dreaming, which establishes that the variable is recall rather than dreaming.
The neurochemistry of REM is unfavourable to consolidation, which is a plausible reason dreams are so poorly retained by default.
Interference is the main practical factor. Attention on waking is directed at whatever arrives first, and a dream that is not attended to within a minute or two is usually gone.
Cultural and historical
Dream recall is treated as a skill in a number of traditions, with practices around waking, and Tibetan dream yoga among others has instruction on exactly that.
The modern journal is a thinner version of the same idea and works for the same reason: attention.
What the sleep science says
Well documented: REM awakenings produce dream reports the majority of the time, including in people who believe they do not dream.
Well documented: dream recall decays rapidly on waking and improves substantially with journalling.
Reasonably supported: interference on waking as the main practical obstacle.
Your own context
- What is the first thing you do on waking?
- Do you wake to an alarm?
- Is there anything to write on within reach?
- Have you tried lying still for a minute?
If this recurs
This is the entry that makes every other entry usable. A week of writing on waking, before moving, typically produces more material than a year of intending to.
Emotions often reported
- frustration
- curiosity
- melancholy
- longing
- relief
- confusion
Specific forgetting the dream dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
What happened
What state it was in
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- What do I do in the first minute awake?
- Do I have anything to write on?
- Did I move before trying to remember?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
4 references. What these labels mean
- 1.Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During SleepPeer-reviewed research
Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman (1953) · Science
Cited for: The discovery of REM sleep and its association with dream recall, the founding observation of modern sleep science.
- 2.Gender Differences in Dream Recall: A Meta-AnalysisPeer-reviewed research
Michael Schredl and Iris Reinhard (2008) · Journal of Sleep Research
Cited for: Dream-recall frequency as a measurable, individually stable trait, and the factors that move it.
- 3.The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development and Content AnalysisAcademic book
G. William Domhoff (2003) · American Psychological Association
Cited for: The continuity hypothesis (that dream content largely reflects waking concerns) and a sustained critique of symbolic dream interpretation as an evidential method.
- 4.Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural LightReligious or philosophical text
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (1992) · Snow Lion Publications
Cited for: The Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga tradition as described from within it, including its aims, which are contemplative rather than recreational.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of forgetting the dream have gone for other people, in their own words. Nothing here is an interpretation of anyone else's dream. It is a record of what happened and what it was like.
Nothing here yet. Be the first to say how this has gone for you.
Related records
- SymbolBedThe bed is the one object a dreamer is actually touching while they dream about it, and that shows in the reports. A large share of frightening bed dreams are sleep paralysis rather than dreams about a bed.
- ActionKnowing you are dreamingLucid dreaming is one of the few things in this entire database that has been demonstrated in a laboratory rather than inferred from reports. Sleepers have signalled from inside a dream with prearranged eye movements, on cue, while verifiably asleep.
- ActionThe same dream againRecurring dreams are common, they are more often unpleasant than pleasant, and the useful thing about them is not their content but the fact that you have a repeated measure of something.
- ActionA gameGames in dreams have rules the dreamer does not know and cannot ask about, and everybody else appears to know them. That structure is the clearest statement of something the first-day, examination and competition entries each describe in part.
- ActionA secretDreamers report holding a secret of enormous importance and being unable to say what it is. The weight is generated and the content is not, which makes this one of the purest examples of the pattern this database keeps finding.
- ActionBeing a child againDreamers regularly report being their childhood age with their adult mind, and accepting it entirely. The age is usually one where a great deal was encoded: the settings and the people come with it.
Records that mention forgetting the dream
These pages link to forgetting the dream, either as something reported in the same dream or as a related subject. This page does not point back at all of them, so the list is assembled rather than chosen.