Dream Patterns - Quality, Duration and Awareness

[JustASimpleGuy]

After about 5 weeks of DJing, I notice some distinct patterns. 1) The most vivid, lengthy and detailed dreams I have are remembered from what seems like a logical beginning (for a dream). 2) The more fragmented and fuzzy dreams seem to me to be an ending with the beginning and/or middle missing. I can backward track to a certain point and then hot a wall. 3) For # 1, it seems clarity, detail and whatever amount of self-awareness I have fade as the dream progresses. This might explain #2 (they are the tail end of a more complete dream). The interesting thing is lately the last several Type 1 dreams have had levels of self-awareness that had some correlation, if somewhat distorted, to waking life at the beginning. For instance a dream I had last night had me waking up in my bedroom. Both the bedroom and house were composites of several places I've lived, but the odd thing I noticed is the two electric heaters had popped a fuse or circuit breaker. I thought that odd because I 'knew' I don't have, need or use electric heaters, but that's as far as it went. I also noticed when I went out into the backyard all the grass was gone and the ground was bare and composed of softly textured sandy-colored soil. I was even picking it up, feeling it between my fingers. Now this also struck me as odd, because I had put in some work in the yard in the spring, the soil is much, much darker and I had reseeded and the grass filled in nicely. Anyway, gotta get ready for work. I'll give this some thought but it seems encouraging to me.

[Ctharlhie]

Type one is what Sensei calls "epics": long dreams with complete plots where you are present and acting with your waking ego.

[Arnov]

I've had similar experiences as well. When my dream have a solid beginning and conclusion I have better recall. The human brain is much better at remember stories and narratives than random facts. That's why many mnemonic/ memory techniques often involve forming a story or narrative around the facts your wish to remember. As for number 2, I think this might be due to the primacy and recency effect. Our brains are more likely to remember the beginning and/or ending of dreams with the middle being kind of fuzzy. When I have difficulty remember some parts of the dream, I usually close my eyes for a few minutes, breathe deeply, and allow my mind to come up with associations. Sometimes bits and fragments of the dream come back to me and I try to expand upon them until I can recall as much of the dream as possible. One thing I've noticed with my dream recall is that I am much better at remember dreams at the end of my sleep cycle, but have more difficulty remembering dreams earlier in the night.