Do You Know How Our Brain Behaves During Sleep?
The dream fulfills a fundamental function in the human being; allows the body and brain to rest. In this phase, interesting symbolic manifestations take place, such as dreams.
Have you woken up some morning without being able to remember anything you dreamed of? Do you often wonder why there are people who have a great tendency to remember their dreams? The truth is that people dream a lot of things at night; the problem is that they cannot remember them every day. What is the real reason for this? The results of some studies in this regard are detailed below.
Brain activity when sleeping
At the French Neuroscience Research Center, headed by Perrine Ruby, the scientists decided to start their studies by recording the brain activity of 36 people, which were divided into two large groups: high Recallers (capable of remembering their dreams) and low Recallers (those who only remember their dreams once or twice a month).
In both sleep and waking states, these people were made to listen to ambient melodies along with the sporadic sound of their own name. Although it is quite curious, there is a common denominator among people who tend to remember their dreams.
They are generally more alert when hearing their own names. This detail aroused the interest of different scientists.
Over the time they slept, the two groups exhibited similar changes in their brain activity when their names were made to be heard. But while they were awake, the high Recallers saw a prolonged depreciation of one of their brain waves (known as the “alpha wave”) when they heard their names. According to Perrine Ruby, this change during wakefulness could be the differentiating factor in the ways of dreaming.
It can be said that, compared to low Recallers, high Recallers have the ability to activate more regions of the brain in order to improve sound processing when they are awake. Now, during sleep, the alpha wave exhibits an inverse behavior, so it tends to increase when an unexpected sound is heard.
The best explanation for this effect is based on the fact that, through this mechanism, the brain tries to protect itself from being interrupted while sleeping.
General results and conclusions
In conclusion, a person whose alpha wave tends to increase for a long time during sleep, that is, a high Recaller, has a greater tendency to remember dreams, since their brain is better protected against interruptions and foreign sounds.
In addition (and contrary to what might be expected), they tend to wake up more easily, compared to low Recallers, so they have a greater tendency to remember a dream if they wake up after having one.
The aspects that we must consider
After knowing these investigations, you know: the next time you ask yourself why you are not able to remember your dreams, you may have to attribute it to your personal traits. In addition, living under stressful situations results in attention problems, so you should also wonder if there is something going on in your head lately that is taking up a lot of your attention.
You should also ask yourself if the place where you sleep is free from noise. Noises that could be causing you micro-awakenings at night and influencing the quality of your sleep.
