Is it possible to not dream

One more thing to note: Sleep quality isn't dependent on dreams. So if you wake up not remembering your dreams, that doesn't necessarily mean your quality of sleep wasn't noteworthy. So to recap: If you're in the "why don't I have dreams? But never fear, there are some science-backed strategies to help you better remember your dreams—and everything they're trying to tell you. The best way to remember your dreams when you wake up is to get into the practice of writing them down as soon as you open your eyes.

Tal recommends keeping a dream journal by your bed and writing a detailed description while the dream is fresh. If you're not a journaler or are always rushed in the morning, Tomko suggests telling someone like your partner about your dream when you wake up or even recording yourself a quick voice note on your phone.

So if your sleep quality sucks, you're less likely to experience dreams. Dimitriu says. According to Dr. Dimitriu, there are many factors that can contribute to poor quality sleep, including:. It's one thing to know you should improve your sleep quality; another thing entirely to do so.

Experts say you can prepare for the end of daylight saving time for days in advance. Among the recommendations is outdoor physical activity.

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Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Is it possible to have no dreams? Are dreams connected to quality of sleep? How to remember your dreams Should I worry? How dreams work and why you may not have them.

Does not dreaming affect sleep quality? Tips for remembering your dreams. Is a lack of dreams a symptom of an underlying condition? Read this next.

Medically reviewed by Timothy J. These include lifestyle factors, sleep hygiene practices, and differences in brain physiology. However, answering it is quite difficult, as the medical community still does not fully understand the functions or mechanisms behind sleep and dreams. Understanding more about sleep may help reveal why we dream. The sections below will look at this in more detail.

Sleep is a vital part of our lives. In fact, most people spend about one-third of their lives sleeping. Sleep serves several important roles in our physical and mental well-being. For example, researchers believe that sleep supports physical health by:. Sleep also supports brain functioning and emotional well-being. During sleep, the brain enters a state of active rest wherein it can repair and form new neural pathways.

Learn more about why sleep is important here. Chronic sleep deficiency can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. There are two types of sleep: rapid eye movement REM sleep and non-REM sleep, which is further divided into three stages.

Stage 2 begins about 25 minutes after sleep onset. During this stage, heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing decrease. Body temperature drops, and the eyes stop moving. Stage 3 is the deepest sleep stage. During this phase, the brain produces slow delta waves. The muscles become completely relaxed, and heart rate and breathing reach their lowest levels. REM sleep occurs about 90 minutes after sleep onset.

REM sleep is characterized by rapid side-to-side eye movements, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and shallow, irregular breathing. Otherwise, the issue isn't whether or not you're dreaming — it's whether or not you're sleeping well enough in the first place. In their case, a lack of dreaming is more of a consequence of overall poor sleep. And if you're not dreaming because you're not getting quality REM sleep, that's where other health issues come into play. Additionally, studies have connected poor quality of sleep to a higher risk of heart disease , obesity , and even Alzheimer's Disease.

With that in mind, people having difficulty sleeping over a long period of time should consult with a doctor. Pelayo has a simple way to determine if you're just sleeping through your dreams: wake up earlier. Buying a sleep tracker can help you determine if and when you're having REM sleep, he says — once you've figured out what times you're likely to be in REM, all you have to do is set an alarm during that time.

And because most dreaming happens in the final hours of sleep, you might not need to wake up much earlier than normal to catch a dream before it ends. When I think about the few dreams that I do remember, this makes all the sense in the world. Those dreams are always the ones that seem to end abruptly — the ones that make me feel like I'm being physically thrashed out of my brain at four or five in the morning.

I thankfully discovered from Pelayo's alarm trick that I do, indeed, have REM and dreams that I've just been sleeping through. If you end up using a sleep tracker to track your own REM sleep, though, Baron advises taking its readings with a grain of salt. There can be some variation in how much REM an individual gets, even in a healthy sleeper. An inability to dream due to an overall sleep deficiency might be a cause of concern to experts — but what about sleeping through dreams? Can I still reap all those emotional and cognitive benefits from dreams if I'm barely aware that I'm even having them?

When asked, Pelayo and Baron both assure me that sleeping through dreams and failing to recall them is totally normal. Pelayo adds that the most important thing is that I'm getting quality sleep at all.