Do you think it's good or bad when you can't remember your dreams?

I have been thinking about this for awhile now. I think it's horrible that I haven't been able to remember many dreams lately when I used to remember them all. My friend said that it's good not to remember your dreams. And I guess if you belong to the Freudian school of thought, that'd make sense because there is nothing your subconcious needs to work out or stress that needs to be quieted through dreams. But, I think that dreams are a great source of imagination and feel that I am even more stressed on days that I don't recall having any dreams. I also feel that I am losing my imagination in some vital way. I just wanted to know what some of you think on this subject. I know it's probably not the most interesting thread. I was just curious.

reply to post by ldyserenity


i think it's really good to remember your dreams!!

not only does it give you a break from the real world, but it gives you something to think about, and anything extra is worth pondering over, especially if it's a weird dream!

usually though, dreams are there to tell us something - try ceasing your fluoride intake. once i switched to non-fluoridated toothpaste, and when i stopped drinking sodas and teas, my dreams became MUCH more vivid, and i could remember each and every one, every single night!

just don't drink teas or sodas for a couple weeks, as an experiment, and see if your dreams don't become more vivid and memorable!

I can't say if its good or bad to not remember your dreams. But I went through something similar to your experience. After a lifetime of dreaming all night, every night, with vivid recollection, I stopped dreaming altogether for about six months.

First my step-father died, then my father-in-law died, then my mother died, and finally my father died. All within two years. Also, my dog died. Then my new kitten disappeared...

I can't say the deaths and the dreams were related in any way, but they did stop. Now, they are back and I feel better.

My husband never remembers his dreams. He says he doesn't dream and maybe he doesn't. But he is a logical, mathematical type. I'm the opposite. I'm imaginative and interested in all types of communication.

To each his own.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by Hazelnut]

I would like to remember my dreams, but i never do anymore.

no one liner.

reply to post by ldyserenity


I LOVE dreaming. It is like a gateway into the realm of imagination and other worlds.

A couple of tips to help you if I may:

Affirmations right before falling asleep:

"I will recall, in absolute detail, the content of my dreams upon awakening."

Keep a DREAM JOURNAL right next to your bed. Before your feet even touch the ground, and while you're in the half asleep, half-awake state, try to grasp one scene from a dream and quickly jot it down, even if it's only one word---This can sometimes act as a trigger to open the floodgates of recall.

IMO dreams are good to remember, even write them down. Just don't dwell on them. Dreams too are just a piece of the picture.

reply to post by ldyserenity


For me not remembering my dreams is a good thing. I've been victim to frequent nightmares (2-4 times a week) since I was a kid so not remembering my dreams is more of a blessing. For me "good dreams" usually consist of no one dying. I will tell you that I can't remember having one dream, even darkness for over 2 weeks now and honestly it's been a nice little break.

It's a shame, that is for sure. But it doesn't have to be 'bad' as such. Dreams are your subconscious making sense of things and you don't have to consciously record it for it to work. But yeah, try changing your diet like adrenochrome said, it may help. Or meditate before you go to sleep that always works for me in regards of remembering dreams.

Dreams are at least a very own production of your mind to some kind of experience and can feel as real or even more so as real life and should be treasured as such. But as long as you sleep you dream so not remembering is not bad for your health, it's just a shame.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by Harman]

Originally posted by adrenochrome
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

i think it's really good to remember your dreams!!

not only does it give you a break from the real world, but it gives you something to think about, and anything extra is worth pondering over, especially if it's a weird dream!

usually though, dreams are there to tell us something - try ceasing your fluoride intake. once i switched to non-fluoridated toothpaste, and when i stopped drinking sodas and teas, my dreams became MUCH more vivid, and i could remember each and every one, every single night!

just don't drink teas or sodas for a couple weeks, as an experiment, and see if your dreams don't become more vivid and memorable!

That's what I beleive that it would be good to remember and bad for your mental health to not remember them. I don't know if I could give up the soda, I have a large consumption of soda, does coffee count too? I only drink herbal teas, hardly ever drink black tea. But I drink alot of coffee, too. I don't use flouride toothpaste.

I hope i'm not violating any T&C's but don't take a certain drug of the green variety if you're interested in dreams. That certain 'bud' of the green variety makes you forget or not realize your dreams I believe.

Mixed blessing. Eh?

They say mediating helps but I haven't tried it yet.

One thing that's important I think is to know when you're dreaming.

I can only count the number of fingers I have on one hand of the times of when I realized: 'I am dreaming!' and tried to make my wishes come true

Sometimes I record dreams, if going thru a tumultulous (sp?) time, just to try to make sense of things.

Usually though, I wake up have flashes of the dream, then go about my day remembering bits and pieces of the dream. Then eventually lose the whole memory of the dream (what is THAT about?)

Wonder if dreams are supposed to hint at paying attention to a particular issue in waking life?

Thank you for the replies; I will try all these things to see if it helps out. A lot of my dreams I like to use as a jumping points for stories, I love to write and when I don't remember my dreams it makes me get writer's block. But it's good to see some of you have gone through the same thing. At least I am not alone!

I think it's good to remember your dreams.

Vitamin C seems to help in dream remembering.

Have you ever gone to sleep, woke up and went back to sleep and fell right back into the same dream? It's a really cool thing to learn to do.

It's those dreams that have me scared out of my wits that I don't like.

The strangest dreams I have are the ones with people I have loved that are dead now. At my age I have many who have left this reality.

In my dreams of them their bad points seem to stand out. I seem to be trying to control my actions in the dreams and trying hard to overcome what it was about them that intimidated me.

It might be fun to get into a dream study of some kind.

There are a lot of different reasons that we dream.

We dream to download memories to long-term storage.
We dream to allow our subconscious mind to communicate with our conscious mind.
We dream to have fun and release stress.
We dream to consciously prepare ourselves for things we may not be able to cope with otherwise.
We dream to explore possibilities that our reality (or even our morality) may not allow us to experience.

Although dreaming is an autonomic function that happens regardless of whether you consciously remember them or not, there is nothing wrong consciously attempting to remember them.

Matter of fact, the more we attempt to consciously remember our dreams, the more useful and relevant the interaction becomes.

Just the simple act of writing down your dreams, whether you remember them or not (entering an entry of "I chose not to remember my dreams" when you cannot remember them) screams out to your subconscious that dreams are important to you. Once your subconscious mind knows that you are listening, it will open the floodgates and start using dreams to communicate far more frequently.

Our conscious mind represents only a small fraction of our brains (one millionth if you want to be specific about it). Our autonomic mind represents about 1%. The other 99% is under the purview of your subconscious mind. If you aren't taking advantage of trying to remember your dreams, then you aren't using your brain to it's fullest potential, simple as that.

Remembering your dreams isn't easy, but it's not difficult either. It takes about a month of concerted effort in keeping a Dream Journal on a daily basis before you can reliably recall the majority of your dreams. However, it is a well spent effort with many great rewards. We sometimes forget how much our conscious mind relies on the filters of emotion, personal experience, first-hand stimuli, morality, preconceived ideas, etc., and the answers to most of our problems that evade our conscious mind are crystal clear to our subconscious mind that isn't constrained by those filters. The truly difficult part is learning the symbolic language of your subconscious mind and being able to consciously decipher what it is telling you in your dreams. For that, it could take a lifetime just figuring out the symbols your own mind use (and Jungian Psychologists have been trying to do this for 5 generations now, and aren't much closer than Carl Jung was).

Originally posted by dizziedame
I think it's good to remember your dreams.

Vitamin C seems to help in dream remembering.

Have you ever gone to sleep, woke up and went back to sleep and fell right back into the same dream? It's a really cool thing to learn to do.

It's those dreams that have me scared out of my wits that I don't like.



It might be fun to get into a dream study of some kind.

Yes, I have heard that about vitamin c, but how much? Should I take a supplement or eat an orange before going to sleep? Yes I have had the dreams that I woke up and fell back to sleep and continued the dream, many times when I was a teenager. I think it would be fun to get into a dream study!

Some narcotics suppress dreams. It's not just that you don't remember them.

My most frightening dreams are the ones I know are precognitive. They have a completely different nuance to ordinary, sub consciousness and I never forget them. Waiting for the events they foretell (mine generally relate only to me or those I love) alters awareness of everyday events.

Watching them play out has not been happy. My brother recently died and events around that were as had been in a dream I had some fifteen years previously. I am thankful that the dream did not foretell his death, only his involvement as central to events.

reply to post by ldyserenity


Dreams are a very vidal part of life. Some people speculate that they are just merely your brain conjuring up fantastic scenarios. But I think there's more to it than that.

I think every time you dream, it's having something to do with what's going on in your physical realm. Your mind is trying to help you, or guide you, maybe on a particular issue that you're having, but it does it in a nonchalant, beautiful way. I always look to my dreams for answers to life-changing questions.

Your brain is capable of thinking without you :]

Just a thought, try and have a journal by your bed. When you first awake, lie there for a minute or two, thinking about what you just dreamed of. Try focusing at a spot on the wall, not really thinking, just let your mind wander back to that state of mind you were in before you woke up. Write down some specific things you remember. Maybe a color (although some say we dream in black and white, which I can say, without a doubt, is false), or a person, word, place, thing, that was very prevalent in your dream. You can also look up these specific items to find out what their hidden meanings are.

Sometimes it's hard to remember your dreams after you've woken up and gotten out of bed. Your mind isn't even CLOSE to being in the dream state anymore, so it's likely that you'll forget.

[edit on 1-6-2009 by undefy.gravity]

Originally posted by wclv13
Sometimes I record dreams, if going thru a tumultulous (sp?) time, just to try to make sense of things.

Usually though, I wake up have flashes of the dream, then go about my day remembering bits and pieces of the dream. Then eventually lose the whole memory of the dream (what is THAT about?)

Wonder if dreams are supposed to hint at paying attention to a particular issue in waking life?

I don't know what that's about, wish I could tell you. You may try to srite down the pieces you remember before you go about your day, as others who posted here have said. But, at least you've got bits and peices you remember. It is possible that dreams sometimes hint at paying attention to a particular issue, I've had plenty of those,as well as all the premonitions in dreams I've had. which sadly, is the only way I had any kind of premonitions at all. So you can see why I'd be upset that those have completely gone for the past 8 years.

I am pretty good at lucid dreaming. I have been doing it for many many years.

I can realize I am dreaming in the dream and totally take control. Well not totally but to an extent.

This enables me to remember many dream. I can also awake myself from a dream on demand by "hurting myself" in the dream.

My subconscious mind caught onto this trick and then slowed things to slow motion when I am trying to hurt myself so it doesn't hurt and I cannot wake up.

Anyways. Keep a log next to your bed and write them down immediately if you want to remember.

Dreams are funny. Sometimes I can only remember a dream for a few minutes after awakening and then they are completely gone.

Strange stuff indeed.

I don't think remembering them is harmful in any way and can provide insight into your subconscious mind.

i used to keep a dream journal, but I never got anything from it and dreams just turn out to be more stressful than anything so I quit dreaming all together. Can't say I miss it all that much.

You may be right about the loss of imagination tho. I feel I've become less creative over the years since ceasing to dream. Coincidence?