I have found that at my age, I don’t remember my dreams very often as opposed to when I was younger, remembering them every morning. Does this happen to everyone or is it just me? And why would be good too.
People dream less and sleep less as they age. That probably helps babies enjoy sleeping so much. But, it makes sense, if more of the sleep time is consumed with dreams, one is more likely to be in dreamland at wake-up time.
Got a cite for that, doctordoowop? Most recent studies have indicated that sleeping gets more erratic as people age, and they sleep shorter amounts, but need more naps. The overall time of sleep doesn’t go down. REM, or dream sleep, may actually increase due to shorter, shallower sleep periods. But recall of dreams seems to decline, and sleep disturbances become more common with age.
Beware: Link is a pdf file.
http://cwpp.slq.qld.gov.au/sleepqld/factsheets/Ageing.pdf
QtM, MD
What are doing doc , making rounds w/ me?
It is in the memory bank, but I have no cite. I will check your cite now. I always liked Lasorda’s line:“I sleep like a baby, up every 2 hours.”
Welcome aboard, doctordoowop! I greet on on behalf of the fellowship of doper docs. There’s me, KarlGauss, Dr_Paprika, DSeid, and of course DoctorJ (he’s just an intern (for a few more weeks anyway), but we let him hang with us 
). Also a few others, who I’ve shamefully forgotten to mention.
Remember, the dopers here are a querulous and demanding bunch. A medical degree alone does not inspire awe, reverence or acceptance one bit. Be prepared to present reputable cites from sites such as the NIH, CDC, Johns Hopkins, etc. etc. in the fight to dispell ignorance. And be prepared to be shown that your dearly cherished opinion is actually wrong (gods, that one hurt the first time! It gets easier to accept with time tho).
Posting here has actually improved my medical knowledge base and helped me practice better medicine. It’s certainly honed my internet research skills! May you have a long and fruitful association with us here!
(BTW, what’s your specialty? In case I need a free consult? )
QtM
What is your age? I’m in my 40’s and remember a lot of my dreams. I have found though that my sleeping habits have changed. I don’t sleep as deeply now as I once did, and I can go on 5-6 hours sleep when I used to need 8-10.
What i don’t understand is why I dream some of the things I dream. They make no sense sometimes.
I am 26 years old. I used to wake up every morning throughout high school and most of college and remember each dream vividly and even wrote them down because they were either freakishly strange and odd or exciting and fun. I even got into my dreaming so much, that I would try to control what I dreamed about and it worked sometimes. Also, if I woke up a in the middle of a good dream, I could go back to sleep and finish the dream. Because I was so good at dreaming and loved to do it, now that I am a little older, I am disappointed that I’m not remembering my dreams. I did a research paper in high school about dreams and I remember one of the facts being that everyone dreams every night, even if you don’t remember it, you still had one. I remember them about once a month and that is it, and this is quite honestly, pissing me off! hehe…so I just wondered if there was something about getting older that changes things.
QtM-thank you for the welcome. Very polite & much appreciated. Been poking around on the internet since using it for work. There are certainly some very impolite people-(there, not here), but as a friend said, “Just like the world, & I add, even more so” Found this thru an etymology forum, very good, but "straying "was not allowed. My specialty is psychiatry, especially forensic psych, you know insanity, disability evals etc. You are right, some very intelligent queries here.
“See you” at the next grand rounds.