You wake up and remember flying through a neon jungle, chasing a talking cat. Your partner? They barely remember closing their eyes. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. For decades, scientists have tried to figure out why some of us hold onto dream memories like scenes from a movie, while others wake up feeling like the night was just a long nap with nothing in it.
Now, a brand-new study from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (in collaboration with the University of Camerino) has taken a serious dive into what affects our ability to remember dreams. Spoiler: it’s not just about getting a good night’s sleep. The answer includes your attitude toward dreaming, how much your mind tends to wander, and even the season of the year.
A deep look into how we recall dreams
Between 2020 and 2024, researchers followed more than 200 volunteers, ranging in age from 18 to 70. Each participant was asked to record their dreams every morning for 15 days straight. To do this, they used a voice recorder right after waking up—no coffee, no scrolling, just a quick recap of the night’s mental adventures (or lack thereof).
But this wasn’t just a “tell us your dream” kind of study. Each participant also wore an actigraph—a wristwatch-like device that tracks sleep patterns including how long they slept, how well, and whether they tossed and turned all night. On top of that, they filled out surveys measuring their anxiety levels, memory skills, attention span, and their general attitude toward dreams.
Who remembers their dreams more often?
The study confirmed what some people have suspected for years: younger adults were more likely to remember their dreams. People who daydream often or let their thoughts wander during the day were also strong dream-recallers. And those who were genuinely curious about their dreams? Yep—they remembered more too.
It turns out that mind-wandering isn’t just something that gets you in trouble during meetings. It’s also linked to your nighttime mind. People who naturally drift off into internal thoughts during the day tend to hold onto dreams better by morning.
As for older adults, many reported experiencing what scientists call “white dreams”—that weird feeling of having dreamt something but not being able to recall a single detail. According to researchers, this could be due to how memory works (or doesn’t work as well) during sleep as we age.
Sleep stages and dream memory
One of the most surprising findings? People who spent more time in light sleep were more likely to remember their dreams. That’s right—the kind of sleep that usually gets a bad rap (because it’s lighter and more easily disrupted) actually helps your brain hold onto those dream images. The researchers suspect it’s because you’re more likely to wake up during or right after a dream, giving you a better chance to log it in memory.
It’s a reminder that dreaming isn’t just about what happens in your mind—it’s about when and how you wake up too.
Even the season matters
Here’s one that caught everyone off guard: the time of year seemed to make a difference. Participants reported fewer remembered dreams during winter compared to spring. That doesn’t mean your brain hibernates, but it could suggest that circadian rhythms—your body’s internal clock—play a bigger role in dream memory than we thought.
Why spring? Maybe it’s the longer days, more sunlight, or shifts in sleep schedules. The study doesn’t offer a definite answer, but the pattern was clear enough to raise eyebrows.
Dream recall and mental health
So what’s the point of remembering dreams, beyond entertaining breakfast stories? According to the researchers, dream recall might give us more than watercooler conversations—it could hold real value for understanding mental health.
“Dreams reflect a deeper layer of consciousness,” said Professor Giulio Bernardi, lead author of the study. “When we understand how dream recall works, we get closer to understanding the link between dreaming and emotional well-being.”
His colleague, Valentina Elce, added that this data could help scientists one day detect or even predict mental health disorders based on how people experience and remember their dreams. It’s early days, but the research opens the door to using dream patterns as a window into our psychological world.
Dreaming isn’t random, after all
One of the most reassuring takeaways from the study? You’re not just “bad at dreaming.” Whether or not you remember your dreams has less to do with chance and more to do with how your mind works, how your sleep flows, and even what time of year it is. That’s pretty empowering, right?
So the next time someone tells you they had the weirdest dream last night and you can’t recall a thing, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean your imagination is broken—it might just mean you slept a little deeper, or your mind doesn’t wander quite as much during the day.
The future of dream research
The IMT team hopes their work will help researchers explore deeper links between dreaming and consciousness. By learning more about what helps or blocks dream recall, they believe future studies could even guide therapies for people struggling with sleep disorders, PTSD, or anxiety.
But in the meantime, if you want to boost your chances of remembering your dreams, try waking up gently during light sleep, journaling right after you open your eyes, or simply giving your dreams more thought during the day. You never know what your brain might be trying to tell you while you’re asleep.
