Help, My Dreams Went AWOL

Most People Don't Believe Me

I can remember up to 15 dreams and night. I'm not kidding. There are nights that I can remember even more. The maximum one night was 21. And I lucid dream and astral travel and have out of body experiences. No wonder I got interested in dream analysis. If my dreaming mind was going to be that prolific, it obviously had something to tell me. 

So you can imagine my dismay when every once in a while my dreams go AWOL. It feels a bit like I'm losing one of my main senses. Two days with no dreams to recall and I get worried. A week ? I start to freak out. One time, I went 2 weeks without a single dream I could remember. I was beside myself. I started investigating. I had to find out why.

Seeking Answers

The literature was telling me that aging could have something to do with me not recalling my dreams. There were factors listed such as stress and disrupted sleep cycles, anxiety, medication, gender, personality. 

I read that the chemical processes in my brain may have changed. Specifically my neurotransmitters like norepinephrine could be low - which is apparently crucial for memory. 

One study determined that people who recall their dreams more frequently have a greater amount of white matter in their prefrontal cortex. Hmm, had that changed?

None of my findings left me feeling very positive, I wanted fixable solutions. To my knowledge, my brain white matter hasn't changed, nor my gender. The only thing that had was that I was two weeks older. So why had my dreams decided to take the left stage exit? 

Sleep Hormone

A lab in Japan spent years examining the roll of a hormone that controls sleep. Scientists there were specifically looking at narcolepsy and the hypothalamus - a peanut sized area found deep inside the brain. I curled up ready for a good read.

The lab research found that Melatonin Concentrated Hormone (MCH) fires significantly during REM sleep. They then asked the question whether these MCH cells send messages to the hippocampus, the brains memory center.

To test this, they did memory testing on mice. They found that turning on MCH cells worsens memory. Turning the MCH cells off, improves memory. So what does this mean? It means that MCH neurons actually help the brain FORGET new and important information.

Since dreams primarily occur during the REM sleep (the stage where the MCH sells turn on), activation of these cells may prevent the content of a dream from being stored in the hippocampus - so the dream is quickly forgotten.

Terrific! Not! 

Wow! That was no help at all. 

Left Brain - Right Brain

I was going all in. I started studying the work of a specialist who focuses on brain development. She studies brain related development issues as well as looks at the relation between right brain versus left brain. I was finding out all sorts of interesting information. 

For example, did you know that it's a myth that the left brain controls math and logic, and the right brain controls creativity? 

And it's another myth that we only use 10% of our brain. (Perhaps the person who came up with that idea only uses 10% of his brain). It seems pretty hard to justify millions of years of evolution occurring just to keep all of that energetically costly braintissue sitting idle.

Another thing I didn't know is that in vitro, the two hemispheres of your brain may develop at different rates. If this happens it can cause a brain imbalance called "functional disconnection”. This disconnection can lead  to immune system problems and all sorts of health issues, including ADHD, autism, gut dysfunction, depression, dyslexia, anxiety, even chronic infections. 

The good news is that our brains are very malleable and trainable, and even as adults, we can heal longstanding brain functional disconnection related issues. 

This was all very interesting, but it wasn't helping me recover my dreams.

We Don't Only Dream During REM

It was originally believed that we only dream during REM sleep, but now scientists and researches know that we dream during every cycle of sleep. But it is during the stage REM, the stage which follows our deepest sleep cycle, where we produces the most psychedelic and vivid dreams.

During REM, our body is completely paralyzed but our brain is hyperactive. The amygdala and hippocampus (the memory and emotional centers of the brain) are buzzing with life. Scientists estimate that these regions are 30% more active during REM sleep than during waking hours.

As the night progresses, the REM portion of our sleep cycle becomes longer. This is why we're more able to remember the dreams that occur closer to waking up. Did that mean I was having 21 dreams in the hour before I was waking up? Hmm? 

We sleep about a third of our life. That means that a human sleeps around 230,000 hours during his life. That's 26 years of sleeping. Whoa!  26 years X  365 days a year X 15 dreams a night = 142,500 dreams. I'm going to need a new pen. That is, if I could get my dreams back. 

Maybe My Dreams Were Just Dull 

Ok, I get it. Dreams that are more emotional are easier to remember. That makes sense. That's why we always remember our nightmares. So, maybe all my dreams had suddenly decided to become dull. 

My Conclusion

At the end of all my research, I was no closer to having my dream recall return. In fact, I had probably put my dreams further behind the curtain because of the stress I was creating within myself trying to figure out why they had disappeared in the first place. Maybe it was all just as simple as getting a new pillow.

I stopped focusing on it. I went about my day.

And my dreams returned.

The conclusion I reached, although not very scientific, is that sometimes this just happens. Sometimes our brains take a break from recalling our dreams, and that's okay. We have all heard the phrase what you resist persists, and I was resisting big time by trying so hard to understand what was happening.

Every once in a while my dreams still go AWOL. I let them. In fact, sometimes I am thankful that they do because it gives me a break from recording them every morning. I love my dreams, but I don't stress if I don't have one. They will always come back. And they always do.