We often forget our dreams because the brain doesn’t prioritize dream memories in the same way it does waking experiences. During sleep, especially in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stages, the brain is active but focused on processing emotions, consolidating memories, and clearing out irrelevant information. Dream memories are more fragile and less likely to be encoded into long-term memory. Additionally, upon waking, we’re quickly distracted by daily thoughts and activities, which causes dreams to fade. The transition from sleep to wakefulness, coupled with the brain’s natural filtering of unimportant information, leads to dreams being forgotten.

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