Why do some people remember dreams and others don't? New study

Researchers from the IMT School of Advanced Studies (Italy), in collaboration with the University of Camerino, conducted a large-scale study to understand what factors determine so-called "dream recall" - the ability to wake up with conscious memories of nighttime reveries.

How the study was conducted

• Sample: More than 200 people between the ages of 18 and 70.
• Observation period: From 2020 to 2024, each session lasted 15 days.
• Methods
  1. Participants used a voice recorder each morning, describing their dreams (or indicating that they did not remember them).
  2. Sleep was measured using an actograph, a wrist-worn device that records sleep duration and phases.
  3. Psychological tests were conducted: anxiety level, tendency to mind-wandering, interest in dreams, and memory and attention tests.

Key findings

1. Positive attitudes toward dreams
   Those who placed a high value on dreams and were generally interested in them were more likely to wake up with clear memories.
2. Light sleep and "waking" phases
   Long periods of shallow sleep correlated with a high likelihood of remembering dreams, according to the results of actograph measurements.
3. Age differences
   Younger participants reported high 'dream recall', while older people were more likely to talk about 'white dreams' (the feeling of having dreamed but not being able to recall details). This may reflect age-related changes in memory.
4. Seasonal effects
   Participants were less likely to remember night visions in winter and more likely to remember them in spring, which may indicate the role of circadian rhythms and environmental influences.
5. Tendency to mental wandering
   People who often had their attention "drifting away" into free fantasies or thoughts (mind-wandering) had higher odds of retaining dream episodes in their memory in the morning.

Why it matters

According to the study's lead author, Professor Giulio Bernardi (Giulio Bernardi), the results show that dream memory is not an accident, but a complex interplay of our personality traits, sleep habits and attitudes towards dreams themselves. Studying these mechanisms helps to further understand not only the nature of dreams, but also issues related to the workings of consciousness and mental health.

Practical implications and perspectives

• Monitoring sleep disorders
  The study provides insights into how to maintain optimal conditions for healthy dreaming.
• Psychological counselling
  Taking an interest in dreams and working through them can promote emotional wellbeing, according to scientists.
• Diagnosis and prognosis
  Information about how a person remembers dreams may help in detecting early signs of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

The data collected will form the basis for future comparisons with clinical groups to further explore pathological changes in dreaming and assess its diagnostic value. And understanding why some people see a "film" and others wake up "with a clean slate" brings us closer to the mysteries of the unconscious and how the brain shapes human experience during rest.

Study: The individual determinants of morning dream recall, Communications Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-025-00191-z