Explain Like I'm Five

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Why do we vividly remember our dreams ~5 minutes after waking up then promptly forget every detail? (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It’s weird how I’ll see a dream and really ponder over it right after waking only for it to be completely out of my memory shortly after.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Dreams don't really make any sense. When you wake up, you're remembering the emotions and linking them with images, but as the feelings fade, unless you were actively making them into a narrative, the random stimulus soup doesn't have any staying power worth remembering. Trying to remember just corrupts your working memory and will make you change and add details that weren't there. Same reason eye witness testimony is very often wrong.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't know about you, but I can recall and recount perfectly a dream I had almost 15 years ago about a battle in a warzone.

Weirdly enough, two years later I was caught in an irl war. I still think that's interesting, even though it is most likely coincidence.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I had a dream last night that my bed was filled with centipedes - coincidence?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Human Centipedes?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Congrats on your sobriety.