Thread: How many dreams do you have per night?

I usually have multiple dreams, although with a bad dream recall, I usually end up remembering just the last one (although I have improved enough recently to remember more than one a night by now)

However, the length of them is random, sometimes they can last for a few minutes, sometimes seemingly longer. But that could be down to individual perception anyway.

But from what I remember from A-level psychology a few years ago, we should dream during every REM session we have, and because we end up with more than one REM session a night, you should technically have more that one dream, even if you will only usually remember the last one. However, that could be completly wrong, like I said, its been a few years since I studied it. Perhaps someone else will correct/agree with me.

I read somewhere that we have 4 dreams on average a night, assuming that we sleep 8 hours a night. I remember something between 2 and 6 dreams a night currently, on the nights where I sleep 7-8 hours a night. The more tired I am from the day before, the less I remember, and the less vivid the dreams feel.

Those who tell you that they don't dream, lie. They just don't remember them.

hmm, my dream usually last a very long time like I am in a dream state for hours usually, do you think that maybe the different parts of my dream, like when i go from one place to another without reason or knowledge may be a break in my dream that i have just unconciously molded into one dream?

I assume that it's possible to experience that a dream spam over several REM cycles, but that the dreamer doesn't notice the interruption when not waking up in between. I might also just feel like it's lasting longer than it acually is. In dreams, scenes might change and skip, making it feel like it's lasting for longer. At least that's my experience.

Whenever i wake up during the night i will do a RC then go back to sleep and what i have found is that i fall right back into the same dream nothing has changed. I have definately noticed though that there are usually 3 or 4 times during my dream that i have a gap where i dont know what happened or how i got there. and the time frame fo rmost of my dreams is pretty sonsistent like the amount of time i spend dreaming.

Well, if I understood you correctly, you remember only like one dream a night, right? Sounds like that's what might be happening, the dream continues over several REM cycles. That's pretty cool.

Thats what i think it is, b/c i have always been able to remember vivid dreams and very long dreams, they just have little gaps in them where i dont know what is happening and my surroundings change. I have been reading back through my DJ and found that it is a pretty consistent theme. I am just wondering now if there is anyone out there who dreams like that or has something similar to it

Yeah I've had a dream chain before, where you wake up and then enter the dream again and continue it. I think I once had this happen all night over 3 dreams. It was pretty cool.

It depends on how much sleep I get a night, sometimes I get a few hours where as sometimes I get a nice 9/10. When I have a healthy amount of sleep, I usually get like 3 or 4 dreams.

Hm, dream chains that are all one story happen to me allot in the mornings. (When I keep hitting my "snooze" button on my alarm clock. Rofl)

Ok, somone tell me, isn't it possible to dream in the 3'rd and 4'th stages of sleep? I remember hearing that somewhere, perhaps M0rp8ix is just having a dream that lasts the whole night?

When I dream phase onto another setting,or subject..I call it shifting..if it pertains
to the original theme of the long dream.A shift is just a fragment conjoined to the
original theme...this can make dreams last for hours.

I just wanted to share, that after reading this thread yesterday, I had a dream chain last night that lasted over three dreams. I can remember soo many details, and it feels like I've been active all night! It must have lasted for two hours or so in total.

I dream in this style almost everynight is the thing. Last night though i really tried to figure out what was happening. and i found the breaks in my dreams, i had 4 distinct ones and when i shifted from one dream to the next i always walked through some sort of doorway where when i opened the door white light flooded around me and i was in the next dream, it all just flows together in that i have the knowledge of my previous dreams during all of my dreams.

the most i remembered for one night was about 3 i think

I have usually two dreams a night that are fairly long and can remember, but time is hard to judge in a dream for me. if i guessed, each one took about a half hour. i have a very profound dream maybe once a month, and have noticed some wickedly vivid dreams after a night of drinking hard liquor. As for control over my entire experience in dream (IE lucid), i have had only five i consider worthy of such a name. each was amasing, involving superhuman feats such as teleportation, strengh, human flight, and speed. I also am into music alot, but never dream of music (very rare) although i heard musicians seem to be sensitive to dream states.

hmm on average I believe I have about 3-5 dreams a night. THough, I think it's been said on average we dream about 5-7?

I normaly get a about 2 to3 dreams per night but only write down 1 to 2 of them as i have to get up for school, but I rememer almost all of my dreams that i have had from 2 months ago since i started my dream journal.

i think the amount of dreams can change from night to night.
I heard a while ago that you useually dream 5 dreams each night, but i don't know if that is true.
I have been able to recall up to five dreams from one night.

I recall three or four every night.

I think I wake up about 4 or 5 times every night, remembering a dream and writing them down in my journal. This is when I have not drank alcohol, or smoked hash. If there is hash in the game, I have complete blackout, and don't wake up during the night. I also don't remember one single dream in that occasion. With alcohol...depends on how much If not too much than about 2 or 3 maybe.

Feist

I woke up twice last night and got a total of 4-5 dreams. usually its about 2-3 dreams per waking up, depending how easily i can remember them.

Egad, the number I remember varies extremely by pre-sleep setup. Without any attempts to recall dreams or go lucid, I remember none to maybe three. When I do make an attempt, I'm usually guaranteed one to three recalls. My record was like five (that was indeed a good night for me!)

As a total, my goal is fourteen per week. Last week I recalled a tantalizing 18 dreams, though some lower weeks have eight or nine. Average is around ten, which means I'm close to the goal.

When it comes to chain dreaming, I've done those, and I understand the description of the void between scenes that can't be quite explained. Those are kind of annoying because it's not easy to distinguish individual dreams, thus distorting my count. It's also odd in retrospect seeing the same plot and characters, but then it's a while new scence.

To straighten some things up:

As was said, you dream during each REM-cycle. You'll get about five of these during 8 hours of sleep, and they'll last longer as the night goes on, while your delta sleep (stages three and four) get shorter. Those people who think they don't dream or have only one dream a night, simply don't remember more than that.
During the other five sleep phases, you normally won't have any dreams, though non-REM dreams do occur. However, these are often very different from normal dreams in that they're not nearly as clear.

Of course, it's technically possible for the topic of your first dream to continue once you reach the later REM phases. Of course, whether or not this is the same dream depends on your definition of same.
If you dream about the end of the world at first, and about pink dinosaurs playing quidditch later, but this all takes place in the same REM period (i.e the dream has not stopped, but was suddenly transformed) it's still the same dream, if you ask me. That means that even if you dream about the same thing in two different REM periods, it's not technically the same dream.
Of course, this is just my view, and I don't get to decide in which of these two scenario's the dream actually stays the same.

Either way, in practice, the above question isn't too important. This is about how many dreams you have a night. I can pretty much assure you that your long, epic dreams are simply dreams of, at the most, half an hour in real life. A lot of things can happen over a period of 30 minutes in a dream, and you're lucky enough to dream vividly and remember a lot of it.

If the setting of your dream actually would reform in a next REM period, you shouldn't actually notice anything like a break in between, because in the other sleep phases, you're normally too deeply asleep to be conscious at all. It's like turning a video camera on and off, and on again. It won't have recorded what happened while it was off.
I'd say the breaks you remember are a result of your conclusion about the seperate REM periods. this made you expect to experience short breaks and so they were there, as with all things in dreams.

Now to stab myself for my inability to write short posts.

Originally Posted by Umbrella

To straighten some things up:

As was said, you dream during each REM-cycle. You'll get about five of these during 8 hours of sleep, and they'll last longer as the night goes on, while your delta sleep (stages three and four) get shorter. Those people who think they don't dream or have only one dream a night, simply don't remember more than that.
During the other five sleep phases, you normally won't have any dreams, though non-REM dreams do occur. However, these are often very different from normal dreams in that they're not nearly as clear.

Of course, it's technically possible for the topic of your first dream to continue once you reach the later REM phases. Of course, whether or not this is the same dream depends on your definition of same.
If you dream about the end of the world at first, and about pink dinosaurs playing quidditch later, but this all takes place in the same REM period (i.e the dream has not stopped, but was suddenly transformed) it's still the same dream, if you ask me. That means that even if you dream about the same thing in two different REM periods, it's not technically the same dream.
Of course, this is just my view, and I don't get to decide in which of these two scenario's the dream actually stays the same.

Either way, in practice, the above question isn't too important. This is about how many dreams you have a night. I can pretty much assure you that your long, epic dreams are simply dreams of, at the most, half an hour in real life. A lot of things can happen over a period of 30 minutes in a dream, and you're lucky enough to dream vividly and remember a lot of it.

If the setting of your dream actually would reform in a next REM period, you shouldn't actually notice anything like a break in between, because in the other sleep phases, you're normally too deeply asleep to be conscious at all. It's like turning a video camera on and off, and on again. It won't have recorded what happened while it was off.
I'd say the breaks you remember are a result of your conclusion about the seperate REM periods. this made you expect to experience short breaks and so they were there, as with all things in dreams.

Now to stab myself for my inability to write short posts.

hmm, very interesting. I would have to say that in my case when i say a different or another dream happens the entire scenario changes. What i mean to say is that when they transition the entire dreamscape changes, no detail is the same, all of my DC change, well most of them, and the plot of the next dream is non-linear to the previous dream. It is as if i jump from one dimension to the next where each place is completely different.

The whole thing with walking through a door and having my dream skip to the next one i believe now was just my mind trying to put something there so it wouldnt bug me as much. I think that now because last night I wasnt looking for a change, although i did have moments i cannot recall where my dream ended and a new one started, but they were just empty spots not an actual transition scene. So who knows, i dont wake up during the night, unless i am going to WILD that night. everyother night i sleep straight through till morning.

I remember so much detail about my dreams, and i am not quite sure why. I have complete control over my actions and have only a few times had it where i watched from afar basically. I don't however have very much control over my surroundings, like if i concentrate really hard i can manipulate my dreamscape and break the natural laws. But it takes a lot of mental power and i tend to wake up somewhat soon after or i lose enough control that it is pointless to keep trying. I have used enough energy before that i just wake up or it all goes black. but i never actually have to do anything to realize i am dreaming, i just am aware that it is a dream and that i am no longer held by moral or most physical laws. I have only on a few occasions had a dream where i had complete control, but that was amazing. so i think i naturally have a good ability to LD but not enough to control it yet

Oh, and i do understand how fast time in a dream can pass, i had a huge dream before and woke up feeling exhausted it was so long, there were no breaks and i could see and remember all teh detail, but it was only like 10 min in real life. so i know what you mean about the time frame being skewed in dreams.

P.S. If anyone would like to give me a few pointers on the WILD technqiue i am having some difficulties with it. Thanks

Recalled 4 this night...