Arnav Kheni - Week 15 - A Vanished Dream

Have you ever had a super exciting dream? You are anticipating what is about to come next. But  right before then…all of a sudden…you wake up and all your answers to the “wh-” questions fade away. Well…I have. As a kid, I did not particularly care about the mystery as I did not have much of an attachment to my dreams. But, considering how precious dreams and sleep are for me nowadays, I often long to remember what I was thinking about just a few seconds ago. I still remain confounded about how I can simply switch from being immersed in a scenario (to the point of reality) to waking up and still having an adrenaline rush from a story that has enough holes to form a canyon. While science has a hard time explaining how our dreams work in general (or even why they exist in the first place), there may be an explanation for this phenomenon. 



https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-forget-so-many-of-our-dreams1/


According to Stephanie Pappas from Scientific American, when we sleep, our brain goes through this cycle called the REM sleep. Our brain in those moments are like an “awake brain,” except that the areas of our brain that transfer memories to the “long-term storage” area and the “long-term storage areas themselves” are “relatively deactivated” (Pappas). The thing is, our REM cycles start off as being short as 30 seconds, and towards the end of our sleep, can get as long as 20 minutes. In order to remember our dreams, we need to “wake up from REM sleep” while it is occurring (Pappas). But for those who lack sleep (I wonder who?), their REM cycles will not be long enough to complete their dreams as that is when it happens. But another reason is because of the passage of time. Memories of dreams “plateau” in the early 20s and gradually “decline” later in life as we get older (Pappas). In the end, it is a shame that I miss out on some of the stuff my brain makes up. I might not remember what happened, but I know that they are the strangest, most nonsensical things out there. Perhaps maybe if I consistently get more sleep one day, I can then see what sort of oddity my brain cooks up.

Comments

  1. Tanishka NathApril 30, 2025 at 11:57 AM

    Hi Arnav! I also always wonder what my dreams are after I wake up. I think of it as an amazing phenomenon that we can’t remember our dreams even 5 seconds after we wake up. Through all the complexities and amazing skills that the brain can accomplish, it seems peculiar that we can’t remember our dreams that we were fully immersed in only a few seconds earlier. When I have dreams, I always try to remember everything that happened right after I wake up, but in no time, it seems to flee my brain immediately. The psychological explanation of dreams was quite beneficial, and I found it interesting that the long term storage areas of the brain are deactivated during REM sleep. This does sound logical, and the varying lengths of REM cycles is interesting as well. It makes sense that people who don’t get much sleep have irregularities in their REM cycles which interfere with the memory of dreams, and I can definitely relate to this due to all the work school comes with. I will also try to get more sleep so I can remember my dreams, good job!

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