Before I begin, let me point out how amusing I find it that I'm actually starting to use this site more to get rid of my dreams than to enhance them.

For several months, maybe even longer than that, I've had the habit of setting my alarms to multiple times during the night. I have one at 5 AM, which is when I wake up, and also ones at 3, 4, and sometimes even 2 AM. I can't remember if I had dreams or not before doing this, but I'm pretty sure I haven't been having many dreams while I was doing this because I would wake up every morning with little to no memory of having had any dreams over the course of the night.

I decided to stop doing this a few days ago, however, and only set one alarm to 5 AM. For the three or four nights I've slept with only one alarm set, I've noticed increased dream activity. This came to a head last night when I had one particularly unpleasant dream that happened to be much more vivid than usual. I can't say it was terrifying or a full-fledged nightmare, but it was disturbing enough that I decided that I'm going to try harder to get rid of my dreams than I did before.

Now that I've decided to say no to dreams, I'm going to go back to setting my alarm to multiple times during the night. That should take care of it. What I want to know, however, is this: Is it unhealthy to set your alarm to multiple times during the night? Does it deprive you of sleep? Judging by my decreased dream activity, I'm guessing that setting that many alarms reduces my REM cycles. Those who say that REM cycles are important for feeling well-rested and mentally alert the next day should know that I haven't felt the slightest bit more well-rested or alert after the last three or four nights that I made sure to only set one alarm. What should I do?