Thread: Can you NOT dream?

There is a difference. In deep sleep, you dream, but you may not remember it. Or you dont dream at all. In a light sleep, you will dream, and youre more likely to remember your dreams. We dream every night, sometimes we recall, sometimes we dont.

What she's saying is basically No. You can't NOT dream. You always dream in the night. Not constantly, but in certain phases.

Alright thanks for your comments

You need to dream, to sort out memories and other goings on in your mind.

I don't recall dreams unless its light sleep in the morning

I think I heard somewhere that alcohol screws up REM sleep and that you get a big rebound the next day (making up for the lost REM sleep), but I don't know if it totally eliminates dreams from your sleep.

You always dream, you just don't always remember it.

Speaking of alcohol, I don't know if it's a bad thing or not, but waking up with a hangover eliminates that darkness that I see when I close my eyes, and I just see the mental images it normally takes about an hour to get to when sober. That's probably not a positive message to send, so I will say no more.

Originally Posted by Loner

Speaking of alcohol, I don't know if it's a bad thing or not, but waking up with a hangover eliminates that darkness that I see when I close my eyes, and I just see the mental images it normally takes about an hour to get to when sober. That's probably not a positive message to send, so I will say no more.

Really? I've not experience this when I've been hung over.

Hey there,

Even in Scientific circles, the relationship between REM sleep and Dreaming has been shown to be far more complex then 'you dream during REM sleep'. Non-REM dreams are an accepted phenomena these days. We dream when we sleep (and as a matter of fact, considering hypnagogic images, it might well be possible that we begin to dream *BEFORE* we sleep ). Additionally, states of prolonged sleep-deprivation will lead to waking-dreaming, once more showing that we don't need REM to dream.

So yes, we dream every night that we sleep, from the moment we fall asleep till the moment we wake up.

Ofcourse, remembering those dreams is another matter. Just as one can train oneself to remember dreams, one can probably train oneself NOT to remember dreams too.

Just my 2 cents,

-Redrivertears-

Originally Posted by Kitty

In deep sleep, you dream, but you may not remember it

If by "deep sleep" you mean stage IV, there is no dreaming happening there. Your brain waves are very low and not capable of much thought. This is primarily the stage at which your body starts to "heal" itself and do it's maintenance. Dreams occur during REM (after deep sleep).

I believe alchohol (or drug) doesn't completely deprive you of REM - you either enter extremely shorter periods, of which not much of a dream occurs enough for you to have recall.

In the first 18 years of my life I didn't recall a dream so one of those times maybe it's possible I went a night without dreaming.

From what I understand, you do not dream under the influence of general anesthesia.

Originally Posted by RageOfAchilles

In the first 18 years of my life I didn't recall a dream so one of those times maybe it's possible I went a night without dreaming.

No, that isn't possible. You always dream. You were just unlucky with recall.

Originally Posted by TweaK

No, that isn't possible. You always dream. You were just unlucky with recall.

Yeah ,I think you go crazy if you don't dream.

You need to dream, to sort out memories and other goings on in your mind

Are you sure thats the purpose of dreaming? I thought it was still disputed

It is disputed. But then again most anything in Academic circles is.

There's literally dozens of theories out there as to why people dream. Some of the more commonly quoted are the ones above, others more obscure (and often more absurd).

In short, scientifically speaking, no one really knows why we dream

-Redrivertears-