Does Anyone Else Not Dream?

[malachi]

I don't sleep well (averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night for the last few years). I fall asleep immediately and deeply but wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall back asleep. While this makes me tired and moody, I manage.

My question is actually about dreams and nightmares. I'm new here, and it looks like most everyone struggles with nightmares.

I haven't remembered a dream or nightmare in years. I don't know how many (I have memory / identity issues) but let's say at least 5 years.

Do any of you not dream or not remember your dreams?

 

[Silver.]

Everyone dreams, a lot of people don't remember them.
There are ways to start learning dream recall, if that interests you.

 

[EveHarrington]

Many people don't remember their dreams.

I have already "conquered" my nightmares and don't get them anymore.

 

[void]

@malachi

(I conferred with a Sleep Med. expert for _ years, and learned a lot about sleep under his generous tutelage.)


I have had periods where I am unaware of having dreamed. It is possible, however, to dream every night and NOT be aware of same.

Though unawareness of dreaming is not necessarily indicative of pathology, lack of REM is.

Have you considered obtaining Medical advise with respect to your sleep?

For some, mild sleeping meds can realize tremendous benefits, even without a Sleep Study.

Obviously, only your GP or Psychiatrist could advise as to whether a Sleep Medicine ref. is indicated.

Be well.:happy:

 

[brae]

i have very similar sleep patterns and empathise with the exhaustion and moodiness a lot. i dont remember my dreams much but am usually aware that there were dreams. i feel like maybe it could be that its like a battle of the conscious/unconscious. the unconscious is using dreams to bring our fears and buried memories/beliefs to the surface, but the conscious mind attempts to suppress this out of self preservation.
oy its 6am and iv been awake since 3 after sleeping for a couple of hours and abruptly awaking from a nightmare ):

 

[mudbug]

I seem to go in phases, like I will remember most of my dreams for a couple months, then I might go a year without remembering one. Often I will know I have had one, but I forget it so quickly I’m not even sure it counts.

I did used to keep a dream journal because I like to write and I've gotten good ideas from dreams before, good short story fodder, and I think that kind of unintentionally helped me to remember my dreams. I stopped recording them when they started to be more nightmares than dreams. They weren't even super scary, and I don't think they were really related to trauma, at least not directly. Mostly they were just disturbing, particularly as I was getting more and more aware of when I was dreaming. Like let me tell you, it was nothing like inception. Stuff was just off and very distorted, like people's faces, lots of shadows, and one time I saw myself in a dream either in a picture or a mirror or something and it was straight up grotesque. I am okay with never experiencing that again.

Anyways, it was almost predictable that when I stopped recording dreams I stopped remembering them.

Now I mostly get dream “vestiges” I like to think of them as. Like I’ll have a dream I don’t remember, but I can still feel my emotions from the dream, things like discomfort, fear, pain. Never seem to be good emotions. When I think about it, my trauma tends to manifest much less in nightmares (in fact almost never?) and way more in hypnopompic hallucinations.

 

[MissInvisible]

I haven't remembered a dream or nightmare in years. I don't know how many (I have Memory / identity issues) but let's say at least 5 years.

This is something that I've questioned as well. I very seldom have nightmares. I've even wondered if that means my memories of CSA aren't real, because it seems like every survivor has nightmares. But I do think we all take our own path to recovery and it doesn't necessarily look like someone else's path. Wish I had more for you, but I'm just beginning this process myself. All the best to you!

 

[Abstract]

It is normal to not remember dreaming. You are more likely to remember as you wake. Apparently people who wake more often are more likely to remember and some are more able to remember in general. But you cant lay down new memory while you are asleep.Traumatic nightmares aren't going to go unnoticed in that way (they wake you up and are highly disturbing so its more likely one will remember them) but everyone is different and you don't have to have the same symptoms as everyone else. Some with PTSD never have flashbacks (proper ones) and others do for example.

 

[Gadgie]

I rarely get normal dreams, all I get are nightmares, and like I've mentioned before they are always reinactments of horrible events that I've gone though in the past?

I only wish I could have normal dreams, nice ones that is.

 

[EmmaOwl]

There is one thing that I don't see accounted for and it is this: When a person is extremely exhausted, sleep-deprived, the stages of sleep don't always occur on a "normal" cycle. This can include completely missing some stages of sleep, especially the lighter sleep that your body goes through when you are in the dream-stages.

It's true that lots of people don't remember their nightmares or any dreams at all. @Silver is correct in that everyone dreams at some point, whether remembering or not. But it's also possible that you have fewer dreams to begin with, simply because you aren't getting all the REM sleep or whatever stage is needful for dreaming to occur.

Normally I thrash around - I'm what you might call an "athletic sleeper" - but here and there, when I've been absolutely through the ringer, I've woken up to realize that I had not moved an inch for several hours, and there have been a couple of occasions where someone told me this happened when I was not even aware of it. I think I was in very deep sleep, and so the usual stages were bypassed, and I think that has something to do with severe sleep deprivation.
It's not my study - just my impressions.

It sounds like you are in need of more sleep, with dreams or without, 4 hours is not adequate particularly for those who suffer from PTSD or other illnesses. Getting more rest can actually ease depression. (I know, I know - good luck w/THAT. :meh:)

I only wish I could have normal dreams, nice ones that is.

This happens to me once or twice a year...waking up from a good dream! It is very exciting (seriously!)

 

[WishfulThinking123]

I read one time that if you say to yourself that you want to remember your dreams you will wake up and remember at least one of them. I know this sounds kind of silly and simple but, I have actually used this technique for myself and it does work.

 

[EmmaOwl]

if you say to yourself that you want to remember your dreams you will wake up and remember at least one of them.... I have actually used this technique for myself and it does work.

This technique led to my first recovered memory, during my early adolescence. At that time, I read something similar, that if you think very intensely as soon as you wake up from recurring nightmares, you might be able to figure out what is behind them. I went from no memory to horrible flashbacks, vivid remembrance of things that happened to me when I was 3 or 4.

I have mixed feelings about the technique. Like - I wish I hadn't tried this at age 12 or so. But who knows. There's nothing to do about it now.

I'd like to advise caution and safety for anyone trying to dig up sources of recurring nightmares and bad memories. A therapist to talk to, etc. A support system of some sort. In my experience, you never know what might come to the forefront of your mind. It might be more than you can handle. It certainly derailed my life.