Can you remember your Dream !

People often say that they can't remember what they dreamed about last night except some situations when the dream is either too joyful or a scary nightmare. Even if you can remember a dream just after waking up then most probably you will forget it within a few hours. Chances of remembering dream are more when you get awake in middle of it. Those who study sleep and dreams know the reason why you can't remember all your dreams.

Dreams are meant to be forgotten

On an average we sleep for one-third part of our life. 20% of that time is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep during which we dream. Everyday we dream at least 5 different dreams. If our brain remembers all those dreams then it will take a lot of memory. Remembering all those dreams can also make it harder for us to distinguish between real memory and dream memory, as sometime dreams revolve around real subjects and circumstances. We are meant to forget dreams only to make our life easier. Sometimes the dreams are either too joyful or too scary and remembering them for long duration can take us away from reality in actual life. Usually we remember only the last dream that we had last night and the chances of forgetting that dream within a few hours are quiet high. The probability of remembering a dream increases if we wake up in middle of it.

Science behind Sleep and Dreams

If you study a little about sleep cycle the then you will come to know that sleep can be put into two main stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep and Non-REM Sleep. Non-REM Sleep can be further partitioned into four different stages. Out of these stages "Stage 4" is the deepest sleep during which we never dream and our body repairs broken tissues and builds bones and muscles. We dream during REM phase and the duration of REM phase increases as the sleep cycle increases and so does the duration of your dreams. So most probably your last dream will be lengthier than other dreams and may take up to 1 hour of your sleep. If you try to remember your last dream within 45 seconds after waking up then most probably you will remember that.
50% sleep time of babies is dedicated to REM sleep, while this duration decreases to 20% in adults. It means that kids dream more than adults. You may notice the kids dreaming by noticing the movement of their eyeball inside their closed eyes, which is easily visible (that is why they call it REM, Rapid Eye Movement). Due to more REM sleep in kids, the probability of remembering a dream increases in them.

The more time we take after REM phase to wake up, the lesser are the chances of remembering that dream. So now you know why we remember some dreams while some we don't. And the dream that we remember is usually the last dream of that sleep.
Creative people do remember their dreams more often. A number of extra ordinary scientists have have accidentally made some discoveries through their dreams.