I have recently finished reading a fantastic book by J. Allan Hobson called "Dreaming - The Science of Sleep", which basically covers the recent research conducted into dreaming and sleep. It is incredibly interesting and I would recommend it to all of you who are remotely interested in the biological basis of sleep and dreaming.

But to my point - in the book, it is mentioned that we only remember dreams when we wake up in the middle of them for a chemical reason.* During sleep, one of the chemicals responsible for short term memory stops being produced. As soon as we wake up, the stores of this chemical are instantly replenished, which is why we can remember our dreams when we wake up in the middle of them.

However, it has also been shown that parts of the brain not usually activated in non-lucid dreaming ARE activated in lucid dreams. Since, in lucid dreams, our short term memory regarding the dream is restored, it is very possible that this chemical is replenished. This would mean that all our lucid dreams would be remembered.

It's just an idea, and I'm probably wrong for some reason, but neither Hobson or LaBerge have mentioned this in their books - they have only stated that some lucid dreams ARE forgotten. This is an area I would definitely like to research once I gain my degree in Neuroscience.



* I have spent literally HOURS scouring this damn book again trying to find the exact passage, but it seems to have dissappeared. I'm going to reread the book again, and when I find it, i'll quote it.