WHY DREAMS ARE FORGOTTON ATER WAKING

It is proverbial fact that dreams melt away in the morning. They can,
of course, be remembered; for we only know dreams from our memory of
them after we are awake. But we very often have a feeling that we have only
remembered a dream in part and that there was more of it during the night; we
can observe, too, how the recollection of a dream, which was still lively in the
morning, will melt away, except for a few small fragments, in the course of
the day; we often know we have dreamt, without knowing what we have
dreamt; and we are so familiar with the fact of dreams being liable to be
forgotten, that we see no absurdity in the possibility of someone having had a
dream in the night and of his not being aware in the morning either of what he
has dreamt or even of the fact that he has dreamt at all. On the other hand, it
sometimes happens that drams show an extraordinary persistence in the
memory. There can be some dreams which one has experienced during his
childhood and still he is able to recall it.

In the first place, all the causes that lead to forgetting in waking like
are operative for dreams as well. When we are awake we regularly forget
countless sensations and perceptions at once, because they were too weak or
because the mental excitation attaching to them was too slight. The same
holds good of many dream-images they are forgotten because they are too
weak, while stronger images adjacent to them are remembered. The factor of
intensity, however, is certainly not in itself enough to determine whether a
dream-image shall be recollected.

We often forget dream-images which we know are very vivid, while a

very large number which are shadowy and lacking in sensory force are among
those retained in the memory. Moreover when we are awake we tend easily to
forget an event which occurs only once and more readily to notice what can be
perceived repeatedly. Now most dream-images are unique experiences; and
that fact will contribute impartiality towards making us forget all dreams.

Far more importance attaches to the third cause of forgetting. If

sensations, ideas, thoughts mans so on, are to attain a certain degree of
susceptibility to being remembered, it is essential that they should not remain
isolated but should be arranged in appropriate concatenations and
groupings. If a short line of verse is divided up into its component words and
these are mixed up, it becomes difficult to remember. ‘If words are properly
arranged and put into the relevant order, one word will help another, and the
whole being charged with meaning, will be easily taken up by the memory
and retained for a long time. It is in general as difficult and unusual to retain
what is nonsensical as it is to retain what is confused and disordered.’
 Dreams are in most cases lacking intelligibility and orderliness. The
compositions which constitute dreams are barren of the qualities which would
make it possible to remember them, and they are forgotten because as a rule
they fall in pieces a moment later. Finally, there is another fact to be borne in
mind as likely to lead to dreams being forgotten, namely that most people take
very little interest in their dreams. Anyone, such as a scientific investigator,
who pays attention to his dreams over a period of time, will have more dreams
than usual-which no doubts means that he remembers his dreams with greater
ease and frequency.

There is nothing that can help us to remember dreams. ‘In this way
dream-structures are, as it were, lifted above the floor of our mental life and
float in psychical space like clouds in the sky, scattered by the first breath of
wind.’ After waking, moreover, the world of the senses presses forward and at
once takes possession of the attention with a force which very few dream can
resist; so that here too we have another factor tending in the same direction.
Dreams give away before the impressions of new day just as the brilliance of
the stars yield to the light of the sun.

There are several experiences of peoples which cannot be explained by

some popularly existing theories. However different psycho-analyst tries to
prove their theory as a complete solution of why dreams are forgotten when
we are awake. None of the proposed theory has reached to the perfection. If
one theory fits to reason out one of the most typical dream then it fails to
reason out other. So guys have a good sleep for n*1.5 Hrs where n is an
integer from 1 to infinity so as to face minimum dreams thus resulting into
minimal analysis from my side.

Mahesh 17th May’05