Looking forward to your dreams at night makes you more likely to remember them, a study has suggested.
Italian scientists seeking to understand why some people remember their dreams while others do not also found daydreaming can improve your ability to recall details from the sleeping subconscious.
Based on experiments with 200 participants, the results also showed how other factors influence whether or not people remember their dreams — such as age and the seasons.
The scientists, from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, asked participants to wear sleep-monitoring devices and used tape recorders to document their dream recollections over a 15-day period.
Volunteers, aged 18 to 70, were also required to undergo psychological tests before the experiment to assess aspects such as anxiety levels, interest in dreams, and proneness to ‘mind-wandering’, or daydreaming.
The researchers described mind-wandering as a tendency to shift focus away from tasks and instead concentrate on ‘unrelated thoughts or internal reflections’, similar to daydreaming.
The findings revealed clear patterns in who was more likely to recall their dreams—and in vivid detail.
Individuals who enjoyed dreaming, and saw it as beneficial to wellbeing, and those who frequently engaged in mind-wandering were more likely to remember their dreams.
Having a positive attitude, frequent daydreaming are the best way to remember your dreams, a study suggests
The study also found participants who experienced longer periods of ‘light sleep’—as opposed to deeper, more restful sleep—were more likely to recall their dreams.
Younger participants were generally better at remembering dreams than older individuals.
Older people more commonly experienced what researchers termed ‘white dreams’—a state where they remembered having a dream the night before but couldn’t recall specific details.
The authors, writing in the journal Communications Psychology, said this suggested an age-related change in memory may influence the ability to recall dreams.
Participants who took part in the sleep experiment in spring were more likely to recall their dreams than those who did so in winter.
The scientists suggested this hinted at factors like sunlight exposure, which is higher in the warmer months, playing a potential role in the ability to recall dreams.
Professor Giulio Bernardi, expert in psychology and author of the study, said the results suggested the ability to recall dreams was a complex process influenced by many factors.
‘Our findings suggest that dream recall is not just a matter of chance but a reflection of how personal attitudes, cognitive traits, and sleep dynamics interact,’ he said.
The authors added they hope the study will form a base point for similar research on the ability to recall dreams in the future.
