# Do we see our dreams in the middle of the night? Or before we wake up? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-see-our-dreams-in-the-middle-of-the-night-or-before-we-wake-up/218387 "2003-12-11T17:12:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caramelboy23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@caramelboy23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caramelboy23)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-see-our-dreams-in-the-middle-of-the-night-or-before-we-wake-up/218387/1 "2003-12-11T17:12:38Z")
Do we see our dreams in the in the middle of the night? Or when we are about to wake up? ---
**Author:** ![cmurdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@cmurdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmurdough)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-see-our-dreams-in-the-middle-of-the-night-or-before-we-wake-up/218387/2 "2003-12-11T19:25:06Z")
In Psychology 101 my class was taught that we dream toward the end of each completed 90-minute (on average) sleep cycle. Apparently, that’s when the majority of rapid eye movement (REM) tends to occur. So in eight unbroken hours of sleep, someone might experience five rounds of dreaming. The prevailing theory as to why we dream seems to lean towards the idea that our brains have to sort out all that we experience, whether we recall it or not. That might explain why dreams are often so eclectic and difficult to remember (if we recalled all of our dreams, the brain would have that much more to sort through during the next REM sleep). ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-see-our-dreams-in-the-middle-of-the-night-or-before-we-wake-up/218387/3 "2003-12-11T20:27:35Z")
Wasn’t there recent evidence that REM sleep and dreaming are not as correlated as had been thought? ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-see-our-dreams-in-the-middle-of-the-night-or-before-we-wake-up/218387/4 "2003-12-11T21:03:32Z")
Only in that the theta waves were being more closly correlated with the fringes of wakefulness. It rings a bell though **toad** …