The famous phrase was written between 1610 and 1611 by the English playwright Shakespeare in the fourth act of his opera "The Tempest". But if we have the same substance as dreams, why do we hardly ever remember them? Why do we not make them some nights? Why are they sometimes nightmares from which only the alarm can free us? Can we resume the most beautiful and sweet dreams that we interrupted waking up? There are profound differences between people regarding the ability to remember dreams or not and there are some tricks that can help us remember them. Let us find out a few secrets and curiosities about the beloved and hated dream world.

What are dreams?

In sleep, our brain processes information and stimuli received during the day and frees itself from accumulated pressures. The dream world can be seen as a 'magic door' through which the brain releases energy, a process necessary for our health and our emotional balance.

What are they for?

Nel sonno il nostro cervello elabora le informazioni e gli stimoli ricevuti durante la giornata e si libera dalle pressioni accumulate. Il mondo dei sogni può essere visto come una ‘porta magica’ attraverso la quale il cervello rilascia l’energia, un processo necessario per la nostra salute e il nostro equilibrio emotivo.

Do we all dream the same way?

On average we dream one to two hours per night, but when we wake up, in the best of cases, we only remember 10% of our dreams. REM sleep increases at the end of the night and is particularly high at birth and early childhood, while it reduces with age, the elderly, therefore, dreams less. Everyone dreams, apart from particular cerebral pathological conditions, so those who say they do not dream simply do not remember their dream as they wake up during the non-REM phase.

Why do we have nightmares?

The nightmare is a distressing dream accompanied by feelings of tachycardia, sweating, pupil dilation, oppression and difficulty in breathing. It is an expression of a pathology, often familiar, and more frequent in pre-adolescent age because those who are younger are constantly assailed by images, sensations, smells and new sounds that cause them strong sensations. Over time, the child learns how to externalize their emotions, to talk about them, and so will make less and less nightmares.
Nightmares in adulthood are often revealing an anxious, depressive or phobic-obsessive condition, translated in anguish, a recent fear, a dysfunction and stage, in most cases, a real-life event. You can also refer to distant memories, which date back to many months or years ago. It can happen that you have post-traumatic nightmares, following an accident, a war or a suicide. In some cases, nightmares can also be caused by a disease, chronic pain or simply by poor digestion. In all cases, these dreams provide us with information about our unconscious.

Dreamlike remembrance

Regarding the ability to remember dreams, the so-called oneiric remembrance, each individual remembers on average two dreams a week, some manage to remember up to six in the same night, while others swear not to remember one. This ability has nothing to do with the quality of sleep. From some studies it seems that those who more often remember dreams, have a total awake- time during sleep longer than others. On average, the great dreamers have awakenings lasting about two minutes, so if you remember your dreams perfectly in the morning, it is probably because you have woken up several times in the night without being aware of it. During sleep the brain can not store new information, it needs to awaken to do it.

Tricks to remember dreams

If you really want to exercise your dream memory, you could set more than one alarm clock at night at irregular intervals, which will significantly improve your chances of remembering the dream you were doing. But if you prefer to sleep well, an excellent way to remember dreams is to stay in the position where you woke up, because that is how you were dreaming, and remember as much information and feelings as possible and then write them down immediately. In this way your memory will improve and your brain will learn to classify images of dreams. Everything must be done as soon as you open your eyes because as soon as you move your body, you disconnect from the dream you were in a few seconds before.

A dream is a wish your heart makes!" sang Cinderella and who of us does not have a dream in the drawer? Do you have a desire that you jealously keep deep down in your heart?
With the hope of realizing it soon, we wish you "sweet dreams!".