this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why do we vividly remember our dreams ~5 minutes after waking up then promptly forget every detail? (self.explainlikeimfive)
submitted 1 year ago by echoplex21 to c/explainlikeimfive
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It’s weird how I’ll see a dream and really ponder over it right after waking only for it to be completely out of my memory shortly after.

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[–] Buddahriffic 2 points 1 year ago

I don't think it's consistent with lucid dreaming where you're actively taking part in an experience rather than passively experiencing memories being encoded and other parts of your brain believing it's a new experience.

It might be a part of what's going on, but I believe there's more to dreaming than that. Something involving the imagination/creative centres. If I had to guess, I'd say part of the reason we dream is the brain trying to learn by fitting random pieces of information together to see if it notices something new, though it's the subconscious that gains most of any benefit from that.