Dream weavers

There are many theories as to why we dream. Some view dreams as housekeeping by the brain trying to declutter and make sense of the day’s events. For some dreams are the unconscious mind trying to speak symbolically to the conscious mind. Others see dreams as a tapping into deeper collective knowledge and having predictive powers. Whatever the nature and purpose of dreams however, we do know that we all dream every night, but some of us recall more of our dreams than others. Now a new study may have discovered just why some dreamers remember and others don’t.

In the study the researchers classified their subjects as either “high dream recallers” or “low dream recallers”. High dream recall was defined as remembering dreams an average of five nights a week while low dream recall was identified as recalling dreams only two times a month. The subjects were then tested using positron emission technology (PET) to measure their brain activity not only while they were asleep but also while awake.

The findings showed that high dream recallers had higher levels of brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction, both brain areas involved in detecting external stimuli. The increased activity in this areas was present both while they were awake and also when asleep.

What this tells us is that high dream recallers are more reactive to stimuli like sounds and changes in light so that they probably wake more during the night. You cannot recall dreams that occur while you are fully asleep so those who remember dreams are probably those who wake more frequently, even if they don’t know it, and so can recall the dream adjacent to their waking, encode it and remember it on waking.

It is also possible that people with higher levels of activity in these brain areas may produce more dreams as well.

Whatever the case, it seems your prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction are the stuff dreams are made of.