Why do we forget our dreams?

We dream every night, yet memory drains away like water when we wake. There are reasons for it — and simple tricks to remember more.

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It happens to almost everyone: we wake up certain we dreamed something important and, while looking for our slippers, the dream dissolves. It is not poor memory, nor a sign of anything worrying; it is the brain working normally.

While we sleep, the brain areas in charge of storing memories run at half speed. Dreams are lived intensely but filed poorly. Only if we wake during a dream, or right after it, does memory manage to keep a copy.

Can we remember more? Yes, with simple habits. Keep paper and pencil on the night table and write down any fragment as soon as your eyes open, before even moving. Repeat to yourself, when going to bed, the intention to remember. And wake up without hurry whenever possible: rushing is the enemy of dream memory.

Many of our older readers discover that writing down dreams becomes a lovely habit: a kind of diary of the night which, reread over time, tells us things we did not know about ourselves.