<p>You see a dream and wake up during or after it and you remember the dream. Why is it so difficult to remember the dream in the morning, unless you write it down directly when woke up in the night?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-20T16:03:23.783Z
There are many different theories as to why our dream recall is so poor, check [How Dreams Work](http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream4.htm), but it is still largely unknown as to why. But there are ways to improve your recall, e.g., keep a dream journal.
Sophy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-25T13:34:12.077Z
The functional state of mind is so different in sleep than when awake that we cannot easily access the memories from sleep. This happens all the time when being awake too: the state we're having right now can completely wash away the memories of what was 5 minutes ago, when you were in a different state. You could recall them with some effort though, because the change is not big. However, when sleeping, the state is so much different than from awake that we cannot reconstruct it to return to the memories of that state.Creating a mnemonics bridge between sleep and awake, like a journal, helps.
noncom
<sleep><dreams>
Why is it so difficult to recall dreams?
CuriousSuperhero
# Why is it so difficult to recall dreams?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-19)

You see a dream and wake up during or after it and you remember the dream. Why is it so difficult to remember the dream in the morning, unless you write it down directly when woke up in the night?

**Tags:** sleep, dreams

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There are many different theories as to why our dream recall is so poor, check [How Dreams Work](http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream4.htm), but it is still largely unknown as to why. But there are ways to improve your recall, e.g., keep a dream journal.  
> **username_2**: The functional state of mind is so different in sleep than when awake that we cannot easily access the memories from sleep. This happens all the time when being awake too: the state we're having right now can completely wash away the memories of what was 5 minutes ago, when you were in a different state. You could recall them with some effort though, because the change is not big. However, when sleeping, the state is so much different than from awake that we cannot reconstruct it to return to the memories of that state.Creating a mnemonics bridge between sleep and awake, like a journal, helps.  

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## 0 answers

