I rarely remember what I dreamed during night

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I once dreamt that I had oatmeal for breakfast.  When I woke up, I found the wife in the kitchen making oatmeal for breakfast.  Refute THAT.

Boru

Selection bias and sample rate error. Since most dreams are not remembered there is also a bigger likelihood you had a dream you did not remember about desiring a food, and did not end up eating it that day.

(I snipped the last paragraphs that had nothing to with dreams)

I don't deny what you're saying, but it is undeniable that I had a dream, and what I dreamt about happened.  I'm not claiming that ALL dreams are necessarily predictive, but this one clearly was.

Stop trying to prove I don't have superpowers, ok?

Boru

[polymath257]

I very seldom remember my dreams, or even having dreamt. I can count on two hands the number of remembered dreams over the last 30 years.

Truthfully, I prefer it this way. I went through a period where I did remember dreams. They were ordinary: talking with people I knew, walking down the street, etc. But I got confused whether I talked to that person in real life or in my dream. I didn't like that aspect.

I assume that I *do* dream. But not remembering them is actually a good thing, IMHO.

[Yonadav]

The dreams that perplex me are the ones that I routinely have when I'm sitting in my chair, trying not to fall asleep. I will fall asleep for just a second, and wake up with a start, thinking that I had just figured out some profound thing that I now can't remember.

[The Valkyrie]

"I once had a dream that there was this enormous tree and I was sitting right on top of it."
- Elizabeth I, Blackadder 2

[Alan V]

Usually when I wake up I have no memories of what I've dreamed. Sometimes I know what is happening in a dream right before waking up, and after I wake up I completely forget the dream. My sleep is pretty deep, is it because of that?

Actually all REM sleep, when dreaming is most common, is at the same level of sleep.  Deeper sleep is usually dreamless.  However, it is certainly true that some people naturally remember their dreams better than others, but it may have more to do with when in the sleep cycle they typically wake up.  That would be my guess anyway.

If you wake right after a dreaming period, and make a special effort right after you wake up, you can usually remember bits of your last dream, usually the end of the dream.  The part of the brain that processes information into memories is typically turned off during sleep and dreaming, which is why insomnia of dreaming is natural.  That's why it takes the extra effort after you wake up, when your brain is reengaged and you can process memories again.  It's a skill which can usually be improved with practice.

Many dream events are so discontinuous with how the waking world works that memories of them are more difficult to process.  We usually don't have the necessary categories for processing the discontinuities, confabulations, vague events, irrationalities, and so on.  For this reason, we often add bits to the dreams we remember, or delete bits from them, to make them seem more like waking, to smooth over such problems.  That adds inaccuracies while making memories easier to process.  However, when you understand that dreaming is its own unique kind of experience, you can avoid many of such translation errors.  Again, practice usually helps.

But one of the primary barriers to remembering dreams is that we are so tired when they happen, or right after we wake up, that we can't be bothered.  We need a motivating interest in their details, and their usual nonsense doesn't provide much tangible motivation.

[Alan V]

... insomnia of dreaming is natural.

"Insomnia of dreaming" -- duh!

I meant "amnesia of dreaming."

Brain fart. 

[The Grand Nudger]

I dreamt, a few nights back.....that I seat of my pants landed a commercial lunar shuttle.  This was made all the more amusing because I was not...actually, the pilot.  I;d stolen his identity...which the mission commander realized, but on account of the fact that we all lived through it...he wasn't gonna snitch.  He still invited me to his ranch south of the border and tried to ask me who I was.  I demurred...and pedaled off on a bike (LOL!).  The rest of the dream was just a general feeling of dread about how I could possibly get home before my (irl) wife noticed I was missing.

 I probably dreamt, the same night, about banging some rando girl I saw at the grocery store, too..I just don't remember that shit - and..hey...if you're going to forget some dreams and remember others.....well.....

[EgoDeath]

Everyone dreams; it's a matter of whether or not you remember your dreams...

Some advice for remembering your dreams:

Start keeping a dream journal. Even if you can only remember faint blips or small scenes, or even feelings or just images... anything. Write it all down AS SOON as you wake up. Try to describe as many of the "five senses" as you can in as much detail and write in first-person present tense. So instead of writing, "I dreamed that I was on a yacht, blue waves crashing against the bow," write "I am on a yacht, smelling the ocean air as bright blue waves are crashing against the bow." This helps put you "in the moment." Do this every day for a couple weeks and I guarantee you'll have better dream recall soon enough.

Start using "reality checks" in your waking life. Here's an example of a "reality check,"... Trying to breathe through your nose while keeping it closed it with your fingers. If you can breathe through your nose with it plugged, you're dreaming. While performing the reality check, also pay attention to how you feel, how everything looks, how your body feels in your seat/bed or whatever. Be mindful of everything while doing it.

Basically, the idea here is that if you perform these reality checks often enough while you're awake, you'll eventually do one in your dream, which will lead to the realization that you're dreaming. This is called lucid dreaming and can be an amazing experience. You'll basically be dreaming while you're aware that you're dreaming, which can lead to some crazy possibilities. People with lucid dreams, from my personal experience, tend to have much better dream recall than people who do not lucid dream.

Next tip... Be mindful in you're waking life. Practice meditation and mindfulness techniques. This will lead to having a better awareness of how you think, feel and sense things while you're awake which will make you aware of these things while you're dreaming, which could also lead to lucid dreams. But, in general, mindfulness during your waking life should lead to better dream recall.

I have been an avid lucid dreamer for years... it's absolutely insane. I also have pretty crazy dreams on a regular basis as well. My dreams are always very intense, vivid and out-there in subject-matter. My last remarkable one was that I was a Jewish man in Poland in WWII trying to escape the SS. Crazy shit. My dreams are always out-there, though.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Never give up on your dreams.  Keep sleeping.

Boru

[Sal]

I have reoccuring dreams about my father, since he died last year.