Just a theory I have

[BloodyShade]

Hi there,

I have a theory about the subtle erasing of dream information when you are woken up by someone/something(not natural waking).

I think that the first copy of the dream information is located in a kind of 'ram memory' which is only temporary and lasts just a small amount of time until it's either copied to a part of memory or is erased.

I've noticed that to keep the dream information longer, you need to take a few minutes thinking about the information contained in this 'ram memory'. It'll be placed in a part of memory that will last longer, you'll then have more time to write it in case you keep a dream journal.

Now, when someone or something wakes you up, your attention turn to what is happening, who is the person and assimilating the reason for the sleep-break. When this happens, the space in this 'ram memory' is occupied by this outside attention and you end up forgetting the dream information, because your brain had to make more space(or just thought the information was useless, since you didn't pay attention to it) to store the information you're actually paying attention to.

Just a theory, but kind of makes sense, in my view.
If anyone have another theory or and to discuss this one, would be nice to know your thoughts about it.

Thanks for you time,
Bye.

[CFTraveler]

I have a totally different experience. When something wakes me up I remember the dream better than if I naturally wake up. I think it has to do with emotion also- If I am woken up before I want to, it makes me angry and it puts an 'emotional marker' on what I was dreaming just before. All I have to do is remember the reason for the anger and it brings me back to the dream.
Interesting how two different people can have such opposing experiences.

[BloodyShade]

I have a totally different experience. When something wakes me up I remember the dream better than if I naturally wake up. I think it has to do with emotion also- If I am woken up before I want to, it makes me angry and it puts an 'emotional marker' on what I was dreaming just before. All I have to do is remember the reason for the anger and it brings me back to the dream.
Interesting how two different people can have such opposing experiences.

Hehe, really interesting. It never happened with me, so I think it's just a matter of personality? Not sure :)

Thanks,
Bye.

[Veles]

I would agree with BloodyShade. Whenever my alarm clock wakes me up, i stand up in rush getting ready to go wherever i need to, and i can hardly recall anything from my dream. If you'd look at the pattern of my dream journal - during the week my dreams are very brief, on the weekends they are much longer and detailed. But when i wake up, say on saturday, i start thinking of what's happened in my dream, even after making a record of the dream in my journal i keep on replaying the dream for the next hour or so and the more i keep replaying it, the more details keep on coming back to me.
Sometimes i woke up thinking i had an ordinary dream, nothing important but as i kept thinking about it, by lunchtime i could realise that the dream was very important and unusual as new details filled the gaps in my memory.
A few weeks after i started my dream journal, i began to wake up in the middle of night (it never used to happen to me before) probably straight after a ram stage. At that time my dream memories are at peak.
Although referring to CFT, it could be "just a matter of personality"

[CFTraveler]

I wonder if gender is involved. I'm female.

[BloodyShade]

I wonder if gender is involved. I'm female.

I'm Male. Though I find it difficult to be gender-wise. Maybe different people have different memory-systems? Not sure, but I can't discard your thought on it :)

Bye.

[Beekeeper]

I'm with CF. If I'm woken (as I often am by a snoring husband) I have no trouble recalling the dream. I also share Veles' experience. If I sleep in, I'm much more likely to have more detailed recall and, on top of that, more likely to lucid dream.

If I'm mentally very busy before bed time, my recall is compromised. If I go to bed at a reasonable hour and raise energy and meditate my recall is significantly better. I've noticed too that there's often a correlation between how strong the energy sensations are and how good the recall is.

The exception occurs occasionally where I suddenly get a night of scant recall or none at all for no apparent reason. A few times that this has happened, one friend or another will tell me I popped in for a visit.

I agree with this bit, BloodyShade,


I've noticed that to keep the dream information longer, you need to take a few minutes thinking about the information contained in this 'ram memory'. It'll be placed in a part of memory that will last longer, you'll then have more time to write it in case you keep a dream journal.


You will probably find that the longer you keep your journal, the better your recall will become.

[kiwibonga]

In my experience, dreams go into short term memory. Everything is selectively recorded there. The only way to keep it for longer is to think about it (reprocess it) after the fact. If it's been too long between the dream and the moment you wake up, memories will fade. I've noticed that on the nights I've had the best dream recall, I would usually start dreams unconsciously, then finish them lucidly, pass into light trance and reprocess them half-consciously, until I realized that I was in bed, still tired enough to sleep for a while longer. What I remember is not the dream itself, but the moment I was in trance shortly after and replayed the dream in my mind.

I think it's impossible to remember more than one dream a night unless you are able to wake yourself up at the end of each dream (even if it is into a light nearly-unconscious trance). It's the same for projections if you don't willingly come back to your body and remain unconscious. "Keep your first projections short" is some of Robert's best advice.

In the morning, if you break that trance-ish mood you're in when you wake up, you pretty much seal out the dreams from your memory -- that is, if you woke up close enough to a dream to remember it.

Usually, what sticks the most is "peak emotional events". Something scary will shock you, cause you to reprocess for a long time, and it will have a deep impact on your long-term memory.

What sticks the least, and is very similar to dreams, is your thought processes, your internal dialogue. I've noticed that whenever I have a "conversation with myself" I never remember the specifics. I don't memorize my thoughts for more than a few seconds.

It seems that "inside perceptions" take on a much lesser importance with regards to memory than the physical senses. This behavior, like the inability to remember dreams, is learned, and can be unlearned by spending more time in introspection, imagining things and remembering them, so that your inner senses are memorized automatically.

I'm sorry for spamming this method everywhere, but the best way to remember experiences and gain control over them is to practice trance by making yourself shift between awake and asleep many times in a row. Make alarms ring and force yourself to write down anything that happened while you were asleep. If you do it enough times, you'll build up the ability to become aware in trance, during dreams, and this in turn will improve every aspect of your nightly experiences.

[Veles]

so far it looks like gender could be involved. I'm male too. 2 males are differ from 2 females.

kiwibonga, that's ok, thanks for sharing the method, sounds informative :)

I often wake up several times in the morning, recount my last dream, then fall back asleep. I may continue that dream, or start another. I've often awoken several times, and upon my final awakening been able to record several dreams that I've remembered. I think we're capable of remembering more than one dream, IF we wake up long enough to place some sort of marker or clue into our physical memory to trigger the dream memory later on.

I also find that my dream recall increases according to the vividness of my dreams, and also is much better if I've done energy work before bed, or while in bed before falling asleep. This may be because I more often experience lucid dreams (which I forget less often) and more often experience VIVID dreams in which I explore curiously and with more mindful intent, when doing energy work before falling asleep. This is in contrast to what I consider a normal dream where I am for the most part not in control and just wandering through the dreamscape without questioning or exploring it inquisitively.

[sleeper]

Bloody shade, do you often get mad at people when they wake you up? for a lot of people, they call this the "snap".... i'll explain if you answer...