Why do we remember – or not – what we dream of at night?

A study, conducted by researchers from the School of Advanced IMT Studies of Lucca and published in Communications Psychology, investigated the factors that influence the ‘memory of dreams’ – the ability to remember dreams when awakening – and discovered that certain individual features and certain sleep patterns influence this phenomenon.

Between 2020 and 2024, the IMT school team, in collaboration with the University of Camerino, I carry out a study with more than 200 participants from 18 to 70 years to those who registered their dreams for 15 days while monitoring their cognitive and sleep data through portable devices and psychometric tests.

Each participant received a voice recorder in which every day, when he woke up, he had to count whether he had dreamed or not, if he believed he had dreamed but did not remember it, or describe the dream if he could remember it.

The participants also carried a sleep control bracelet watch that detected the duration, efficiency and sleep alterations.

In addition, at the beginning and end of the dream recording period, the participants were subjected to psychological evidence to determine aspects such as anxiety levels, interest in dreams or propensity to mental wading (diverting the attention of the task in progress towards internal reflections), already tests of memory and selective attention.

The memory of dreams, defined as the probability of waking up in the morning with impressions and memories of a dream experience, showed considerable variability among individuals influenced by multiple factors.

The study revealed that people with a positive attitude towards dreams and a tendency to roam the mind were much more likely to remember their dreams.

Sleep patterns also seemed to play a fundamental role: individuals who experienced longer periods of light sleep were more likely to wake up remembering their dreams.

Younger participants showed greater memory rates of dreams, while the elderly often experienced ‘white dreams’ (feeling of having dreamed without remembering any detail), which suggests age -related changes in memory processes during sleep.

In addition, the team observed seasonal variations: Participants remembered dreams in winter than in spring which points to the possible influence of environmental or circadian factors.

“Our findings suggest that the memory of dreams is not a mere issue of chance, but a reflection of how personal attitudes, cognitive features and sleep dynamics interact,” according to Giulio Bernardi, principal author and professor of general psychology in IMT school.

“This knowledge not only deepens our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie sleep, but also have implications to explore the role of dreams in mental health and in the study of human consciousness.”

The data collected in the project will serve as a reference for future comparisons with clinical populations and will help advance in the study of pathological sleep alterations.