Why do we forget our dreams so quickly?

Do you remember your dreams? It could well be that your brain deliberately erases them to avoid overload.

Nightmares or strange dreams, you don’t remember anything anymore, barely out from under the duvet? But what are the reasons for this immediate forgetting?

During paradoxical sleep

You just remember that you had a bad nightfilled with unpleasant and stressful dreams. Or that on the contrary you had dreamed of a nice meeting, of a pleasant moment. And then everything disappeared once I woke up. Too bad or not, it depends, but why, in general, do we not remember our dreams?

Some see it as a door to the soul, a dive into our past as well as a glimpse into our potential future. Dreams and their interpretation have always been a mystery. But researchers love to unravel, and rationalize, mysteries. Inevitably, some have looked into the why of these (too) quickly forgotten dreams. Dreams that correspond to a specific phase of our nights: paradoxical sleep.

Read also – 6 natural tips to improve sleep

Memory put to rest

During this rest period, in fact, our brain does not sleep. On the contrary, its activity becomes more intense. This phase is also associated with the REM (rapid eye movement) phenomenon during which many rapid eye movements are observed. How if we were in the Matrix saga, memorizing the mysteries of a new program. Maos is in fact a phase during which the different areas of our brain responsible for the transfer and storage of long-term memory (in other words, our memories) are generally deactivated.

Only very short-term memory then remains active – less than 30 seconds, which would tend to explain why we are in principle not able to remember our dreams other than in a diffuse manner. For some researchers, this voluntary forgetting would also be a way of avoiding overloading the incredible computer that constitutes our brain. Indeed, during our sleep, the brain also sorts between the information to remember or not. And, apparently, our dreams are not one of them.

Read also – Should we believe in premonitory dreams?

Unimportant information

According to a Californian study published in 2019 in the columns of the journal Science, This phenomenon of forgetting dreams is linked to a group of neurons located in the hypothalamus. Responsible for producing the melanin-concentrating hormone (HCM), involved in the control of sleep and appetite, they could also help the brain store memories.

But, paradoxically, research carried out by deactivating them has instead demonstrated the opposite result: in fact, “These HCM neurons actively help the brain forget new, probably unimportant information,” explain the scientists. Starting with our dreams, which take place precisely while these neurons are in full activity, during the paradoxical sleep phase.

Read also