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Asked by anon-188130 to Warren, Shanti, Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 2 Nov 2018.
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Alex Reid answered on 2 Nov 2018: last edited 2 Nov 2018 4:39 pm
That is a fantastic question and we are honestly still trying to figure that out. There is probably more than one reason.
Firstly, parts of your brain responsible for learning and storing information while you are awake switch ‘modes’ during sleep, and interact more. This helps consolidate memory, a process (or series of processes) that helps prepare your memories for future use. This means at a biological level your brain is not so much on ‘receive’ but is more focused on memory processing and reprocessing rather than learning and remembering new information.
Secondly, some dreams may actually be super mundane and not very memorable. While dreams are often thought of as being typically wacky and bizarre this is definitely not always the case. If you wake people up at different points in the night, particularly during the deepest levels of sleep, their dreams are often really mundane and boring. It is only when you get more to the end of your sleep cycle (when you get more of a type of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement sleep) that things get bit more visual, interesting and potentially more memorable.
Thirdly, time might be a factor as you are usually asleep for many hours. Psychologists have long known you typically have better memory for things that have occurred more recently (known as the recency effect). As such when you wake up you are more likely to remember the last thing you were thinking (or dreaming) about rather than things you dreamed of hours earlier.
Lastly, and this is my speculation, but I have a hunch our brains want us to forget dreams. Dreams may be a by-product of memory processing when we sleep, and it is not in our interests to confuse the vivid hallucinations we have with reality. If our ancestors got mixed up about where they last saw a big sabre tooth tiger because of a dream they might quickly become dinner! As such our brains may encourage (though hormones and varying brain activity) the quick forgetting of dreams to help us survive.
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Nadine Mirza answered on 2 Nov 2018: last edited 2 Nov 2018 4:52 pm
This question is something I would love to know the answer to as well!
From what I’ve learnt in classes there are quite a few theories and ideas about why this might be.
One reason I read, from some research in 2011, was that the hippocampus, which is responsible for short term and long term memory, might be one of the last parts of the brain to wake up once we wake up. Because of that the dreams never make it from short term to long term memory so they never get stored and we forget them.
I’d love to hear what the other psychologists know about this though- Alex has given a pretty well detailed answer above! -
Warren Mansell answered on 2 Nov 2018:
Alex has answered this really well, so I think I’ll complement what he’s saying with a different angle…
We don’t even consciously remember most of the experiences we have had whilst we are awake. Most of the memories we store in our brain are the ones that are essential for our everyday behaviour without us having to be aware of them. We need memory to talk, sing a song, drive a car, make a cup of tea, and to do a handstand! We do most of this best when it has become automatic – almost unconscious.
Our ability to consciously conjure up memories is amazingly sophisticated (that’s an answer to another question!), and we can’t take it for granted. In fact, we might be the only animals on the planet who can manage it! Whereas it appears that other animals go into a dream state during sleep (I can tell you how we know this if you want to ask). So, we maybe shouldn’t expect it to be easy to consciously remember dreams (or anything even!).
On the other hand, from what Alex has explained, it is clear that after sleep – our memories will change (‘consolidated’ and ‘reorganised’) – but we won’t be aware of it. There is evidence that the old adage ‘just sleep on it’ is true – after a good night’s sleep people show better performance at a skill or problem they had been working through before they went to bed.
Do say if you want further details on my sources or to elaborate on anything!
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Paul Matusz answered on 11 Nov 2018:
Others have provided some great answers here already; in short, the point of dreams is not to be remembered but they are a by-product of the brain making sense of what happened in a given day and integrating it with waht we already know. 🙂
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