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What does it mean if you don't remember your dreams (while asleep)?

The Ü™

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What do you think it means from a cognitive standpoint (not necessarily Jung) when people don't remember their dreams while asleep?

Only very rarely do I remember the images in my dreams. Which got me thinking. What do you think is cognitively going on with people who don't remember their dreams? Do you think that their inner world is a vacuum?

Do you have a bad memory for your dreams?

Try to avoid MBTI or Jung related terms. I want to try and steer away from relations to that for purposes of this topic.
 

Jack Flak

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Psychosis? No, I doubt it relates to much. I rarely remembered them when I was younger, but today it seems like I always wake up remembering a dream.
 

The Ü™

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Do you have any theories as to why some people don't remember their dreams?
 

Haphazard

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I'm pretty sure people don't remember dreams if they don't wake up during a certain part of their sleep cycle... so it's not really psychosis or anything. It's just when you wake up. Usually I get more dreams when I'm stressed out and don't sleep so much, so I don't know if not remembering dreams is so much of a problem...

One weird thing that I remember though is that I might fall asleep for maybe two or three minutes during class if I'm tired enough, and I'll get a few blips of dreams. Not a whole lot that I can remember... but there was definitely something there.

Then again, this is from the same person who once got sleep paralysis right in the middle of class, LOL.
 
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ThatGirl

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depends on my first thought when I wake up

If I automatically think of the dream I will remember it, if half and half I will remember glimpses, if I think about something else and then try to remember I cant
 

The Ü™

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depends on my first thought when I wake up

If I automatically think of the dream I will remember it, if half and half I will remember glimpses, if I think about something else and then try to remember I cant

So you normally remember the dreams after waking up? I'm confused by your wording here.

You say "if you think of the dream," so the way you word it, it seems like you can remember them after you wake up.
 

INTJMom

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What do you think it means from a cognitive standpoint (not necessarily Jung) when people don't remember their dreams while asleep?

Only very rarely do I remember the images in my dreams. Which got me thinking. What do you think is cognitively going on with people who don't remember their dreams? Do you think that their inner world is a vacuum?

Do you have a bad memory for your dreams?

Try to avoid MBTI or Jung related terms. I want to try and steer away from relations to that for purposes of this topic.
I don't think it means anything significant that you can't remember you dreams.
Your dreams are supposed to be your emotions working themselves out.
Lots of times my dreams are a reflection of how I'm feeling at that time.

Some people say they don't dream - because they don't remember their dreams - but I have heard psychologists say that if you didn't dream, you would become psychotic - as in "lose touch with reality".
 

GargoylesLegacy

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Oh great, a Dream-Thread! =)

I do remember my Dreams. I often have more than just one each Night, mostly even all chaotic Things happening too. When I wake up I can remember very clearly. Everything. And the weird Thing is, that I can even still remember them Months after.
But so far I have no Theories on why and how. :huh:
 

Colors

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Like Haphazard says, it doesn't mean much. Just that you don't wake up during REM. And you probably have a nicely worked out sleep schedule and aren't sleep deprived. If you really want to remember your dreams, it's helpful to take out a minute or two just after you wake up to jot down anything you remember. Even writing down a few words or impressions will start to greatly improve your memory of your dreams. (I did it as an assignment for a Psychology course.)
 
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ThatGirl

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I thought that was a typo. Remember a dream while sleeping, like a continuation or manipulation of thought?

This I also do, essentially I usually push my mind in my dreams the same way I push my thought process when I am awake.
 

spirilis

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Even writing down a few words or impressions will start to greatly improve your memory of your dreams. (I did it as an assignment for a Psychology course.)

I am the same way with dreams, I don't remember most of them but I catch vague glimpses of some of them in my waking periods. However, if I jot down a few words describing the conscious memory of my dream at the moment I wake up (on a notepad next to my bed) it almost always improves my recollection--of that dream, anyway.

A few words act as a mental "index" to the dream, and re-reading them allows me to recall images/impressions and feelings within a certain time window around that point--usually can't remember anything before a certain point.
 
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ThatGirl

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What do you think it means from a cognitive standpoint (not necessarily Jung) when people don't remember their dreams while asleep?

Only very rarely do I remember the images in my dreams. Which got me thinking. What do you think is cognitively going on with people who don't remember their dreams? Do you think that their inner world is a vacuum?

Do you have a bad memory for your dreams?

Try to avoid MBTI or Jung related terms. I want to try and steer away from relations to that for purposes of this topic.

I'm intrigued. Any way to maybe elaborate a bit more specific. Possible senerio
 

The Ü™

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I don't understand what you want me to elaborate on.
 
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ThatGirl

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Well you say remember their dreams while they are sleeping. Remember implys from a past stand point. So clarifying a continuation of thought or the visiting or reassociation of a prior dream during a future sleep period. Which I understand and am able to participate in. Although from what I hear that is not the norm and most people cannot control their thoughts when in the sleep pattern. Which has me intrigured as you put the general side of your OP as the analytical focus. Instead of focusing on the ability to as more of a mystery. Just find it interesting and outside of the normal chronological thought process.
 

The Ü™

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I merely put the "while asleep" part in to differentiate dreams from aspirations so that people would read the thread.
 
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ThatGirl

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oops


So you normally remember the dreams after waking up? I'm confused by your wording here.

You say "if you think of the dream," so the way you word it, it seems like you can remember them after you wake up.


I guess that is what confused me then, no big deal
 

StoryOfMyLife

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I generally remember my dreams...the days I don't remember, I seem to not have woken up of my own accord-- or rather, I've been unexpectedly pulled from sleep before I mean to wake up. Sometimes, if I can fall back to sleep after being interrupted, the dream will resume and I'll recall it in better detail when I wake up when I mean to. When I say "unexpectedly pulled from sleep", I don't mean by my alarm [because my body is "programmed" to wake up by the time I set it for-- sometimes I'll even get up a few minutes before because I can tell it's coming close to time for me to get up]-- but say from a loud noise or some kind of internal/external disturbance...could be just me, though. Like everyone else has been saying, it may just have to do with sleep cycle..
 

wedekit

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I also don't remember my dreams on a regular basis. Typically the only time I do is when I sleep in too late, then my dreams kind of get weird. I'm a morning person so when I sleep past 10 or 11 my body starts acting weird. I wake up sweating and usually from an awkward, nonsensical dream that sticks in my memory.

But yeah, it's a rare occasion that I remember my dreams. It's strange because I used to dream all the time.

I also do this thing where I lay down and close my eyes, but I do not sleep. I just think. Usually my thoughts taper off into a "dreamlike" state and I eventually snap back into being awake. Some of my most brilliant ideas come from this "fake sleeping" (as I call it).
 

Orangey

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Then again, this is from the same person who once got sleep paralysis right in the middle of class, LOL.

That's scary.

People tell me that I make weird movements and noises when I'm in sleep paralysis, so I wonder what your class thought.
 

cherchair

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What do you think it means from a cognitive standpoint (not necessarily Jung) when people don't remember their dreams while asleep?

Only very rarely do I remember the images in my dreams. Which got me thinking. What do you think is cognitively going on with people who don't remember their dreams? Do you think that their inner world is a vacuum?

Do you have a bad memory for your dreams?

Try to avoid MBTI or Jung related terms. I want to try and steer away from relations to that for purposes of this topic.

This is just anecdotal, so don't know how valuable it is. I was a vivid dreamer all my life (e.g., can *still* remember certain dreams from as early as age five) until I suffered a significant brain injury to the right hemisphere. For the next fifteen years I couldn't remember *any* dreams. In the beginning, I had major cognitive deficits as a result of the injury, but even after recovering almost all of my cognitive function, still no dreams (that I remembered). Then a couple years ago I changed medications for a condition that has nothing to do with the brain injury and bingo! my ability to remember my dreams returned unimpaired.

Go figure.
 
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