2023-09-07 12:38:00
Verified on 07/09/2023 by Alexane Flament, Editor
How can we explain that some people have no memory of their dreams? Is it possible not to dream while sleeping? We take stock!
Why do some people feel like they never dream?
If old studies have revealed that we are 80 to 90% able to remember a dream following waking up from REM sleep (and 50 to 75% when waking up during another cycle of sleep), a tiny fraction of the population never manages to remember their dreams.
According to Inserm, 0.38% of us even claim to have never dreamed in their entire life. To verify the existence of this category of dreamers, Isabelle Arnulf, head of the sleep pathologies department at the Salpêtrière hospital (in Paris), conducted a survey of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Indeed, “many of these patients have sleep problems. Very rare cases say they never remember dreams, even when they are awake in the middle of the night”.
Not remembering dreams, a problem with encoding rather than memory
After ensuring that no subject suffered from cognitive disorders, the team of researchers from the Paris Brain Institute analyzed patients’ nights in the laboratory by subjecting them to polysomnography, an examination which records their sleep.
As a result, not only was the patients’ sleep cycle completely complete – and therefore included the paradoxical sleep phase – but in addition, all the patients without exception dreamed, which is confirmed by the recordings where they are seen talking or simulating a fighting for example.
According to the researchers, this proves that everyone dreams, although one in two people have difficulty remembering their dreams. Nevertheless, the absence of memories would be more related to a problem of encoding rather than to memory disorders.
Dreams that remain more easily engraved following the REM sleep phase
Despite everything, there is indeed a category of non-dreamers. “These are, for example, patients who have suffered brain damage affecting the visual areas”, says Isabelle Arnulf. This is called Charcot-Willebrand syndrome, which is characterized by focal damage to the brain that prevents it from dreaming.
For the others, the fact of not being able to restore the dreams comes rather from a lack of interest, especially when it comes to banal dreams or everyday images that often occur during the slow and deep sleep phase.
In contrast, dreams that are more emotionally engaged, such as nightmares, are more likely to stick in memory. These occur rather during the REM sleep phase, just before waking up.
Journalist
September 07, 2023, at 2:38 p.m.
The proof that everyone dreams! Inserm
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