What It Really Means If You're Not Dreaming + What To Do About It, According To Experts

Dreams are as mysterious to the dreamer as they are to the experts. But what we do know is that dreams are a neurobiological process, just like thinking.

Dreams are the result of heightened activity in our neocortex1, the outermost layer of our brain, although researchers are still understanding how different types of dreams (like lucid dreaming) activate different regions.

We haven't yet pinned down why we dream or what our dreams mean—but we do have promising theories.

According to Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., board-certified sleep specialist, dreaming is all about data processing and data storage (and in that order). "One of the functional purposes of dreaming is moving information from your short-term to your long-term memory," he explains. "That movement of data, we think, is represented in your brain as this kind of fantastical imagery we call dreams." We all experience emotional events on the reg, and according to Breus, dreams are a reflection of processing, understanding, and storing these events.

And dream expert Leslie Ellis, Ph.D., agrees: "In dreaming, we appear to pull out those emotionally charged elements from the previous day or so and weave them onto our existing memories but also into a new kind of image or story," she previously explained to mindbodygreen.

The fact of the matter: Everybody dreams. Your dream life may not rival the plot of Inception, but you're still dreaming. And you still have the ability to remember your dreams.

Most of our nightly dreaming happens during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement sleep stage. According to Breus, about 80% of REM sleep is spent dreaming, although you can dream in the other stages of sleep. "Chances are that if you wake somebody up in REM, they're going to be in the middle of a dream," Ellis adds.

Those of us who think we "don't dream" are actually experiencing deep forgetting. "What happens to most people is that when they wake up, something causes an executive function to erase what's in their head," Breus says. Unnatural wakeups like an alarm or hungry doggo can easily impede dream recall. "Executive function takes over before memorial processing can continue to occur," he adds.

Dreams are quintessential to the human experience. Not remembering your dreams can feel eerie, or perhaps you feel like you're missing out. But "not dreaming" isn't bad or wrong.

"People measure what they think the depth of their sleep is based on whether they remember dreaming," Breus says. However, he finds the association between remembering dreams and quality of sleep problematic. "It's an irrefutable fact that every single person dreams," he says. So, assuming our sleep is poor because we can't remember our dreams is an inaccurate and incomplete assessment.

That being said—focusing on sleep hygiene and quality may carry the unintended benefit of improving dream recall. Neuroscientist and author of The Oracle of the Night: The History and Science of Dreams, Sidarta Ribeiro, Ph.D., previously told mindbodygreen some factors that interfere with REM sleep—and therefore, our dreams—include inconsistent sleep schedules, excess screen time, substances, and eating or exercising too close to bedtime.

The lifelike hallucinations we call dreams are our chance to experience the impossible, transcend limitations, and (if we're lucky) commingle with a celebrity crush. Save for the occasional nightmare—they're downright fun. If we never or rarely remember our dreams—how can we start? 

"Wake up at roughly the same time every day," Breus advises. "Circadian consistency allows your brain to know when to come out of REM sleep." If you wake up consistently at 7 a.m. over the span of three weeks, your entire sleep schedule will respond. Not only will you start naturally waking up at that time, but you'll also be fresh out of REM sleep with a high chance of remembering your dreams. 

For Ellis, the key to remembering dreams is simply paying more attention. "The more we pay attention to our dreams, the more we recall them and the more helpful they are."

Both she and Breus say that recording dreams in a dream journal the moment you wake up is a great way to strengthen the muscle of recall.

And to that end, don't be so quick to get up! Ellis and Ribeiro both previously explained that allowing yourself a few moments to lie still when you first wake up will greatly improve your chances of dream recall as well.

In case you were wondering, there are actually some benefits to remembering our dreams, functioning as a sort of "report card" from our subconscious. Dreams can give us an idea of what's transpiring beneath the surface—and stress dreams are a prime example.

Stress dreams are "repetitive dreams that aren't necessarily scary but elevate your level of arousal or anxiety," Breus tells mindbodygreen. They're the dreams where you're getting chased, can't unlock your door, or have just walked onstage totally unprepared.

"Stress dreams can be a signal that something is going on in life that is stressful and not being recognized," Breus describes. They can be interpreted as helpful clues to prioritize stress management during waking hours.