Two related questions:
Why do you generally not remember dreams unless you wake up in the middle of them? My only thought is that dreams are only recorded in your short-term memory, but heck, I don’t sleep that long;
Why is it which dreams you do half-remember, if you try to remember them in full, you get that sensation like the dream is slipping away from you, and the harder you try to remember, the more you forget?
Sua
You can remember your dreams better if you take sufficient amounts of one of the B vitamins - I think B6, but could be 12.
I dream almost every night and I usually remember most of what happens in them - I’m not sure why. Some dreams (or portions of them) I remember for a long time, and some are gone in a few hours. My dreams are also very ‘busy’ and I rarely feel rested when I wake in the morning.
I’ve heard that the best thing to do if you want to remember a dream is to write it down as soon as you wake up, so it is still fresh.
This doesn’t answer either of your questions, but I hope you don’t mind me sharing.
Not at all, Belle. 
I’ve heard of the writing dreams down thing, too. Ironically, on occasion I’ve “recaptured” dreams by putting them out of my mind in the morning - they’ll come back to me later in the day.
Sua
What you remember is the memory of a memory of a dream.
Really - if I understand it correctly, dreams are stored in the “compartment” designed for short-term memory. Thus when you wake up, they are only rememberd as shadows. However, if you replay the dream on your head as you wake up (as in the case of especially intense dreams) later you’ll remember thinking about them. Ever remember having a recollection? It’s like that.
Sua, you need to buy a ‘Dream Catcher’
Another thing that you are told to do to remember your dream, besides trying to recall the dream as soon as you wake up, is to tell yourself that you are going to remember your dream before you go to bed. I’m not sure if this really works, but I have read it several places.
Another thing to help you remember your dreams is to lie in the same position after you wake up that you were dreaming in. Apperently for some people it’s harder to remember once their body is physically removed from the position in which they were dreaming.
Sounds weird, but it works for me.
It’s been some time since I’ve read anything on this subject, so hopefully my response will not be wildly innaccurate.
From what I recall, one theory is that dreams stem largely from the unconscious aspect of our brains, and when we wake, the conscious aspect once again re-asserts itself. For most folks, unless an effort is made immediately upon waking to recall the most recent dreams, within ten minutes of waking or thereabouts, the dream is lost pretty much completely to the conscious mind. My own experience is pretty similar to this, and I do know that when I first wake up, my imagination and what is going on in my head does seem much more vivid and creative. After a few minutes of being awake, creativity becomes more difficult to access, though this may be the difference between attempting focused creativity as opposed to just enjoying the random show of the initial waking state.
From my own experience, it is possible to remember more about dreams using auto-suggestion for a few days or weeks prior to falling asleep. This also can work for bringing about lucid dreaming, the ability to have waking conciousness within a dream. The few times I have been able to dream lucidly, the surrounding dream was immediately available to my conscious mind upon waking, and I still remember those dreams clearly even now. Some folks also have success in suggesting to themselves that they will awake immediately after dreams for the purpose of recording a dream journal. I have trouble going back to sleep after waking in the middle of the night, so I don’t attempt the dream journal thing. Amongst those who do, it’s stated that keeping a jounal over time can be very revealing, though I would say any conscious effort to study one’s own mind and behavior would bear similar fruit.
Yeah, handy, but the only place I can find one is Sharper Image, and I refuse to pay their mark-up.
Everyone, thanks for the responses. I’m not sure I have my answer yet, but I’ll sleep on it. [insert groan here]
Sua
I doubt it. I take a fairly large dose of all of the B vitamins and haven’t noticed any difference.
Dreaming, from what I recall reading in a psychology textbook once, occurs while you are in REM sleep.
In order to BEST recall the dream, you must be awakened during REM.
In a number of studies (if I recall correctly) approximately 90% of test subjects awakened during REM were able to recall their dreams.
But this was awhile ago, so I recommend that you consult a psychology text for more details.
I never remember dreams no matter when I wake up, if I didn’t know better, I would assume I don’t dream. But about 2 years ago I used to have 2 recurring nightmares both of which I still remember vividly
I find that I can clearly remember scenes (but rarely sounds) from dreams from months or even years ago, but only when I’m just about to fall asleep. As somebody alluded to before, it does help to be in a similar state of mind (i.e. semi-asleep); I can’t remember dreams with such clarity when I’m wide awake.
I can “make” myself remember dreams by deliberately visualizing a few well-worn scenes (highlights, if you will) from my dreams’ “Greatest Hits”. Once I stop trying, scenes from other dreams start coming in. Of course, I seldom get the whole “narrative”, but rather get snippets from my various nighttime escapades.
Before anybody questions if my dreams have a “narrative” component, I’ll acknowledge that it’s likely that I impose a certain amount of order on my memory of the dreams. Still, I’ve sometimes woken up with a really good story, with a fair bit of detail. I once wrote down a particularly vivid dream and it filled an entire sheet of paper. Most of it made sense, too (I never dream of flying giraffes or anything odd like that).
I’ve had success with the auto-suggestion and dream journal thing. For an introductory psychology class we were supposed to at least attempt to remember dreams (using this technique if necessary). It took at least a week before I could wake up during my dreams, though I’d almost always lose the dream after waking up. After some time, I even began waking up at crucial moments in dreams (just before someone was about to reveal something that seems important), as if I was tormenting myself somehow. Although I tend to remember more dreams anyway than many of my friends, so maybe you do need to be inclined to it.
One thing that did help while keeping the dream journal when waking up was to simply record one or two words, colors, or sounds that were in the dream. In the morning the single word often triggered a memory of the entire dream (or dreams) of the night before, and my sleep wasn’t disturbed. Keep a pencil and paper handy to do it, and don’t bother turning on the light.
One interesting aspect of recording dreams is to notice similarities – especially people, colors, and locations.
panama jack
“Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself.” – fleetwood mac
SuaSponte– If dreams are stored in short-term memory, then it doesn’t matter how long you slept after your dream ended. You still would have had to awakened during or immediately after your dream in order to have any memory of it. True short-term memory lasts only between 12-20 seconds, and information can only be carried in your working memory for longer stretches of time if you repeat it to yourself over and over again.
If you wake up remembering fragments of your dream, running them through your head again and again will help you remember them longer, and may help jog your memory a bit. However, you still would have to had your mind set on remembering your dream from the second you woke up.