The memory of a dream fades away before you know it, unlike memories of true events. Maybe it’s because the brain figures that what’s not real is not worth remem­bering. Still, the colours and the shapes seem to linger for much longer, and once those are gone, all that’s left is the emotional state built up gradu­ally during the dream. That’s probably why we wake up from our sleep feeling elated or irritable, although we have no recol­lec­tion of the dream itself.

To me, it appears that dreams are about trying out new connec­tions between real objects. It’s the people and things that we see in our day-to-day lives that manifest themselves in our dreams, albeit in strange ways. Maybe, the brain is trying to figure things out: there’s this huge jigsaw puzzle with a zillion pieces, and they’re being put together in different combi­na­tions to see if it still makes sense. I had a dream once. I was travel­ling on a train — or rather, on top of a train — and I could see things zooming by. I also recall that it had something to do with a railway station, but all I really remember is a lot of brown and grey, and a few shapes. Did this really happen (in a dream) or am I making this up just now? As a system admin­is­trator would put it, how do I ensure that my dream-database hasn’t been corrupted? Ask Slashdot? Yeah, right!

Links

(1) ‘Hacking’ Sleep

(2) Effects of sleep-deprivation

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