International Association for the Study of Dreams

[timeisnotlinear]

Some dreams I forget as soon as I wake up. Some dreams I remember for a day. Others I remember for years. However, I can't figure out a rhyme or reason why I remember some longer than others. It can't be that the precognitive ones last longer in memory, because there are some that more than likely are not precognitive considering their content. Could it be that the ones that are most vivid have the longest lifespan in our memory banks?

Anyone have any theories on the topic?

[Amy]

I would guess that the ones with the most emotional content are better remembered, just like in waking memories. We remember the ones that have strong feeling, puzzle us, have strange imagery or make us wonder about the meaning.

[timeisnotlinear]

I agree that dreams with heavy emotional content often last in our memory for a long time, but I have dreams that I can recall at this moment, in great detail that have no emotional content whatsoever as far as I can tell. No apparent relationship to any waking life event. Why makes these dreams last so long in our memory. Is it just the fact that they were extremely clear and vivid, nothing else?

[Amy]

Sure - clear and vivid is unusual enough to make something memorable. There might also be some positive emotion associated with extreme clarity and sharp visuals

[evandream]

You got it. Clarity and vividness are qualities of hyper-awareness and lucidity. I don't mean lucidity in the sense of 'knowing you are dreaming,' but more as a term denoting a level of awareness, consciousness, presence within the here-and-now of your experience. Those dreams that seem to have no special significance yet remain in memory indefinitely are no different than waking experiences with seemingly no special significance yet are remembered forever. There is a significance there. Not a "meaning," but a significance. Something piqued your awareness. How you interpret that significance is up to you.

[timeisnotlinear]

And sometimes, like a lot of other parts of life, the reason for the significance is not always readily accessible to the conscious mind.

[waveluv]

I go for the theory that is closer to the significance of a dream for ones life. I recall a dream from early adulthood( I'm now 61). I was coping with a fever at the time. While sleeping I maintained delerious dreams of water wells, scattered over a horizontal field, equi-distant from one another. I walked amoung these wells, with my surrogate children( i was working as a surrogate foster parent at the time). At each well(constructed of stones stacked in a circle), I would stand with the children and observe/control the boiling water as it churned and rose up in each well. when the water subsided, we would move on to another well in the field. these dreams seemed to spike and subsist through the fevered night. I came to regard this dream as a lesson in how to deal with pain without suffering.
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SZZZZZZZZZ!

[Marcia]

Perhaps your unconscious is sensing that your dream is "important" in some way that you aren't able to understand consciously.

I would say that it is similar to having an "obsessive" thought in waking life. Look at the content of the particular dream and try to figure out why it would be important.

[timeisnotlinear]

Hi Marcia,

Welcome to the IASD Discussion Boards.

I agree that it could be of significance, but a beautiful sunset will sometimes make us pause and stare at it, even remember it for a long time afterward. Although that sunset may not hold any particular importance other than the fact that it is vibrant and beautiful.

waveluv,

Thanks for the dream account. It was very interesting to read in the context of a fever filled night of sleep.

[Marcia]