Why are there no dreams. Why do some people stop dreaming altogether?

Sleeping and dreaming is completely normal, even if their plots are not always pleasant. But the complete absence of dreams is a sufficient cause for concern. It means that the normal processes that occur in the human body during sleep are disturbed. And it is worth looking for the reasons why dreams stopped, until their absence began to negatively affect the general state of health.

When Dreams Occur

The generalized data of numerous and versatile studies of sleep made it possible to unambiguously establish that dreams in the human brain occur in strictly defined states of it, and not immediately after falling asleep, but after the brain has passed the phase of non-REM sleep.

In total, during the night there is an alternation of various sleep cycles that replace each other and have quite clear characteristics by which they can be distinguished. The whole process can be divided into falling asleep, several alternations of sleep cycles (slow / fast) and waking up.

Knowing about all the phases of sleep, it is easier to understand why some people do not dream. Not remembering dreams is not dangerous to health, the alarm signal is only their actual absence.

Finding out if you are dreaming is easy - you just need to ask someone close to you to watch how you sleep. If 20-30 minutes after falling asleep your eyeballs begin to move randomly, then everything is in order - you are watching a dream. Ask them to gently wake you up at this moment and see for yourself.

If the fast phase of sleep is really absent, it is advisable to contact a neurologist or somnologist, as this may indicate physiological or mental disorders.

Reasons for lack of dreams

There are many reasons for lack of sleep. We list only the most common of them. But a dream is such a unique phenomenon that scientists still cannot fully understand the mechanism of its appearance.

The absence of dreams can be affected by:

As you can see, under the influence of negative external factors, dreams can stop dreaming for a while, and then come back again or disappear for a long time, and then you need to seek qualified help to restore the normal alternation of sleep phases.

Lucid dreaming

Now more and more people are addicted to spiritual practices, some of which include such a phenomenon as lucid dreams, which often become the reason why dreams are not dreamed. There is nothing wrong with this, if the mastery of such techniques occurs smoothly and under the guidance of an experienced specialist. Many actually succeed in configuring brain activity in such a way that they acquire the ability to change the plots of dreams at will.

But if such things begin to be practiced by people who are completely unprepared, who do not understand the basic principles of the work of the human body and the nervous system, then trouble is not far off. By trying to maintain control of awareness while falling asleep, they simply do not allow the nervous system to relax. After some time of struggle with sleep, fragmentary images, flashes of light and other visions appear. But the brain is programmed to want to fix them, so the person immediately wakes up.

Long-term experiments like this have already brought more than one person to serious mental disorders. And insomnia, accompanied by increased excitability, memory disorders, decreased concentration, is a common problem for such self-taught adepts.

Therefore, if you are going to do such practices, make sure that there is a person nearby who will teach you how to do it correctly and without harm to physical and mental health.

Night sleep is cyclic, it has several phases: fast and slow. When the brain is in slow wave sleep, the muscles in the body begin to relax, the heart rate becomes slow, and in some people, the body temperature even drops. All this happens for a reason: slowdowns in the body contribute to proper rest and tissue regeneration. At the same time, the brain actively processes all the information received throughout the day.

The phase of REM sleep is exactly the opposite of slow sleep: the heart beats more often, there is an eye darting and an increase in body temperature. It is this reaction of the body that is capable of producing dreams.
During the night, a person can see 4-5 dreams. As a rule, it is the first visions that are saturated with the events of the previous day, and those that occur in the morning are more fantastic.

A person remembers dreams seen in the morning, or those during which he woke up. But it also happens that for a long time we don’t remember the dreams we saw at all. Why do we forget dreams?

Reasons for lack of dreams

Many people have stopped dreaming. Until now, there is no definite scientific explanation for this situation. But most doctors support the opinion that everyone sees dreams, but due to certain circumstances they simply do not remember them.

People do not remember dreams because of:

severe physical or moral fatigue, which provokes sound sleep;
being in a state of intoxication (visions cannot be remembered because the brain does not rest properly due to the influence of alcohol);
nervous or mental disorders (stress and depression, as a rule, provoke insomnia, and when falling asleep for a short time, we cannot remember dreams, because all forces are thrown into recovery);
lack of dreams, experiences and other emotions (psychological approach);
snoring (it is believed that snoring knocks down the dreams that the vacationer begins to see);
abrupt awakening from external stimuli (for example, the alarm bell abruptly switches the attention of the awakened person, and the person does not remember the dream);
taking medications (some sedatives and insomnia medications can interfere with your perception of dreams).

Sometimes the reason that dreams are no longer remembered is a change in sleep patterns. During the adaptation period, you may not remember the pictures and images that visited you at night. In addition, in theory, it is believed that the new place of sleep also affects the ability to remember it.

As you can see, most of the reasons why dreams have stopped are related to the emotional state. That is why, if you do not see dreams for a long time, it is better to consult a specialist.

Why dreams don’t occur: medical theories based on experiments

There is a theory that provides that dreams come to assimilate information. The experiment was conducted on students studying certain material. Those who had dreams memorized the information received better, and those who did not dream, poorly reproduced the material.

Neuroscientists at Stockholm University believe that dreams are a simulation of death. It was found that dopamine and other hormones are not released during nighttime rest, as in animals using a protective mechanism - akinesis (simulation of death for the purpose of protection). Therefore, the researchers suggested that earlier ancient people were saved with the help of sleep.

Finnish neuroscientists have come to the conclusion that for a person to sleep means to simulate possible threats or life situations. That is why it is often useful to dream, because in this way you adapt to various dangers, which means you have a better chance of survival or a favorable outcome for a particular situation.

What can a person do to have a dream?

What to do to have dreams or how to make them memorable? This question interests many.

If you do not have dreams, you need to do a number of simple recommendations:

try not to overwork, but plan your working day correctly;
stay in bed for a few minutes after waking up;
ask someone who is nearby to wake you up at 3-4 a.m. (just during this period a person is in REM sleep and sees visions);
before going to bed, you need to ventilate the room, as well as exclude third-party sounds and light in it;
try to tune in to see a dream (perhaps, in the first nights, nothing will work out for you, but as numerous experiments show, in the future, when using the settings, dreams are remembered);
put a notebook and a pen nearby: when you see a dream, immediately write it down;
enter into your daily regimen sports activities for 1-1.5 hours, but do not overdo it so as not to feel tired.

In addition, studies have shown that people are able to stop dreaming when the duration of a night's rest is too short. Therefore, everyone is recommended to sleep 8-9 hours.

Sleep through the eyes of psychology

Why do not dream dreams according to psychologists? At the stage of REM sleep, a person’s psychological healing takes place: all the experiences formed during the day seem to be sorted in the mind, and people continue to fully live on. It is during sleep that psychological wounds heal, and nervous disorders fade into the background.

Some psychotherapists use the sleep activation technique for people who have experienced severe nervous shocks, natural disasters and catastrophes. They are recommended to sleep awake, that is, to simulate the phase of active sleep. Indeed, after a series of such manipulations, many patients calmed down and more easily experienced past events.

Thus, according to most neurophysiologists and psychologists, dreams are the body's way of processing the information received during the day. And it is no coincidence that many people during night dreams found a solution to many tasks and a way out of the most difficult situations. Learning to remember dreams is not so difficult. The main thing is to try to put the desired internal setting and relax as much as possible before the upcoming night's rest.

List of used literature:

Neurology. Handbook of practical doctor. D. R. Shtulman, O. S. Levin. M. "Medpress", 2008
National Institutes of Health. NINDS Hypersomnia Information Page (June 2008). Archived April 6, 2012. (English)
Poluektov M.G. (ed.) Somnology and sleep medicine. National leadership in memory of A.N. Wayne and Ya.I. Levina M.: "Medforum", 2016. 248 pages

When Dreams Occur

Knowing about all the phases of sleep, it is easier to understand why some people do not dream. Not remembering dreams is not dangerous to health, the alarm signal is only their actual absence.

If the fast phase of sleep is really absent, it is advisable to contact a neurologist or somnologist, as this may indicate physiological or mental disorders.

Reasons for lack of dreams

There are many reasons for lack of sleep. We list only the most common of them. But a dream is such a unique phenomenon that scientists still cannot fully understand the mechanism of its appearance.

The absence of dreams can be affected by:

Lucid dreaming

Therefore, if you are going to do such practices, make sure that there is a person nearby who will teach you how to do it correctly and without harm to physical and mental health.

Why don't people dream? The reasons may be different, let's try to figure them out.

In fact, every person has dreams every night, but not everyone remembers them. Every night you have 4-5 dreams, depending on how long you sleep.

It works like this: sleep consists of several successive phases:

Slow is a deep sleep. The phase lasts from forty minutes to several hours. If you look at a sleeping person in a slow sleep cycle, you can notice that his breathing is deep, his posture is motionless. There are no dreams at this time
The fast phase lasts from twenty to forty minutes, and it is at this time that a person sees dreams. If you look at the sleeping person, you can see that he moves his arms or legs, his breathing becomes intermittent, he changes positions

Whether you remember a dream or not depends on what phase you were awakened during. If in a fast one, you can tell what you dreamed about.

Reasons for lack of dreams

Why do you not have dreams, and what does this mean from the point of view of psychology? There are several reasons why you do not remember what happened to you during your stay in the kingdom of Morpheus.

The reasons may be as follows:

You are very tired, you experience chronic fatigue. Then your brain during sleep tries to free itself from mental or physical overstrain, you fall into a deep sleep. This is necessary to unload the mind and relax as much as possible. You will wake up in the slow phase
Dreams can stop dreaming if you fall asleep in an uncomfortable position, your bed is too hard or too soft. In such conditions, you won’t be able to completely relax, so your subconscious simply cannot transform the emotions accumulated during the day into colorful sleep patterns.
Almost never dream after taking sleeping pills. Their mechanism of action is aimed at completely turning off the brain. Nerve impulses are blocked, due to which you do not fall into the "fast cycle"
Dreams do not occur even if you are very nervous, have experienced a full range of negative emotions. Severe stress deprives a person of REM sleep and worsens its quality.
Sometimes the reason for the lack of dreams lies in health problems. Most often these are diseases of the cardiovascular, nervous and respiratory systems.

Important: if a person turns off the phase of REM sleep, he will not be able to fully relax and recuperate. Through dreams, the brain tries to unload the body and psyche from the emotions experienced as much as possible. Therefore, it is very important to correct the situation, otherwise chronic overwork is inevitable.

How to learn to dream?

If you are concerned about the problem of lack of dreams, you can return them using simple methods.

What can be done:

Develop your imagination by being creative. Draw, embroider, sing, dance, do something with your hands. Creativity "turns on" the part of the brain necessary for the formation of dreams
Work with positive affirmations after you go to bed. You can repeat the following settings: "I see colorful and pleasant dreams", "I remember all my dreams in the morning." Try to formulate your desire and yourself
Do not overeat at night, avoid drinking alcohol before bed. So you will not only solve the problem of lack of dreams, but also eliminate nightmares, which are also unpleasant.
Keep a morning diary. As soon as you wake up, pick up a notebook, a pen and write three pages of handwritten text. Write whatever comes to mind, even if your thoughts seem crazy to you. This technique develops the imagination and turns on the right parts of the brain.
Practice lucid dreaming. We wrote about how to do this in
Keep a dream diary. If you managed to remember some dream, describe its plot on paper, share your emotions and impressions about what you experienced in the kingdom of Morpheus
Engage in meditation and other spiritual practices. They help to learn to relax the mind, concentrate and release unnecessary emotions.
Make sure you get at least six hours of sleep. Ideally, you should sleep at least eight hours a night. Then the cycles of dreaming will not be broken
Practice calm sports. Yoga, Pilates, stretching are well suited. Choose what you like and like

Watch a video on how to make a dream:

How to wake up during the fast phase?

Specialists who study dreams conduct experiments. They watch the sleeping person and then wake them up when the fast phase comes. Then the subject remembers and can tell about what he saw.

You can also do:

Experiment, set the alarm for different times. Go to bed at a strictly defined hour, and in the morning track what time you remember your dream and what time you don’t
If someone from the household agrees to the experiment, ask him to follow you. As soon as he notices that your sleepy breathing has become intermittent, you have stirred or started to mutter something, let him wake you up right away. Then you remember what you dreamed
If you wish, you can track how external factors affect dreams. Here are some examples:
Subject had his feet tied at the ankle and dreamed he was riding a bicycle
They changed the air temperature in the room to a cooler one, and the person saw himself in a dream surrounded by snow, ice, or floating in cold water along the river

Remember - have you ever dreamed that you were falling into an abyss, and then, when you woke up, you found yourself falling out of bed? Such memories most often arise in childhood.

Before going to bed, they wish you good night and sweet dreams. But a sweet wish causes discomfort if dreams are not dreamed. Or it just seems that there are no dreams. After all, scientists say that dreams dream of all people. Volumetric, vivid visions, action films and fantastic adventures - like a free movie. Someone does not imagine how you can not see dreams or see them in black and white. And someone, going to bed, closes his eyes and seems to immediately open them. Only the clock shows not 11 pm, but 6 am.

Why dreams are not dreaming - the main versions

Version #1 - French

French scientists believe that hearing affects the ability to dream. Rather, the sensitivity of the human senses. During the day, all 5 senses are involved, but of all the sensory abilities, hearing always works - during wakefulness and during. Therefore, the choice fell on him.

The French conducted an experiment - 36 people were connected to an electroencephalograph, they were allowed to listen to relaxing music, the sounds of nature, among which they sometimes heard their name.

Day and night, the researchers recorded the brain activity of the participants in the experiment. The goal is to establish the relationship between the auditory response and dreams.

What we managed to find out:

Some participants almost always see and remember dreams, while others almost never, with the exception of a couple of nightmares a month. They admitted this themselves at the end of the experiment.
During the experimental dream, everyone could hear a voice calling their names. At the same time, the decrease in alpha-brain waves in the "seeing" was more intense than in the "unseeing".
Relaxing alpha waves keep the brain in a state of sleep. During the day, their levels are naturally reduced. Parts of the brain that control attention, concentration, logic, and memory are switched on. The subjects responded to the sound of their own name in their sleep by reducing the activity of alpha waves.
Participants woke up in the middle of the night: "seeing" for 30 minutes, "unseeing" - for a maximum of 15 minutes.

As a result of the experiment, French scientists concluded that people who dream are more sensitive to external stimuli. And dreams make it easier to wake up, presumably on the end credits of the "fantastic action movie"

Version #2 - American

What they found out:

Most of the sample do not remember dreams or do not see them.
The same part scored average or below average on test scores.
Subjects who were in the minority scored high on tests and also described vivid dreams they had every night.

The brain with developed cognitive functions, absorbing information from the environment with the help of sensitive organs, continues to process data during sleep. After all, then nothing distracts him. Therefore, solutions to problems come in a dream, or upon waking up, a forgotten fact is remembered that one could not remember during the day.

And the result of the experiment of the Americans is obvious - most of them do not dream. Except for Hollywood screenwriters.

Version №3 - professional

Representatives of different scientific fields have their own points of view about the absence of dreams:

According to psychologists: dreams are not dreamed due to overwork. If the brain was exhausted during the day by the tests of American scientists, then at night it doesn’t want any “cinema”, but simply disconnects. Psychologists also believe that dreams are dreamed in the presence of anxiety. What to do: Before going to bed, listen to relaxing music with the sounds of nature, and have someone affectionately call by name. A dream about romantic France will come. And you don't have to be paranoid.
According to biologists: sleep is divided into phases - fast and slow. Dreams accompany both phases. But they are remembered only when waking up in the fast phase. What to do: set an alarm at different times during the night and catch the fast phase, which, like a rural bus, comes every hour and a half. Or use a French scientist with an electroencephalograph instead of an alarm clock.
According to esotericists: dreams are the memories of the soul about wanderings outside the body. The absence of dreams means one of two things: either the soul is so divorced from the mind that it unconsciously walks around in an unknown place all night, or it is so attached to it that it has never been anywhere at all. What to do: Read The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda before bed. Or any other esoteric teaching. Sleep will quickly come in a calm slow phase without tiring walks on the astral prairies.

Didn't dream in a dream

The ability to see dreams is affected by the peculiarity of the nervous system. "Prophetic" dreams are the result of hypersensitivity. Having received information from the outside, the brain in consciousness cannot process it quickly. This explains intuition, deja vu. At night, the consciousness falls asleep and the "mafia" - the subconscious - wakes up. The signals received during the day are analyzed and the result is given - a picture of the future encrypted in a dream.

Lack of dreams is not a pathology. This is an individual property, like a person's temperament type or the "owl-lark" chronotype.

The nature of dreams is not fully understood by scientists who find new facts and relationships within the framework of somnology. Thinkers and philosophers build hypotheses. Dreams in Zeeland are not an illusion, but a reality for the brain. Helena Blavatsky spoke of dreams as the inner experience of the immortal Ego. Indian shamans traveled in a dream to parallel worlds.

From a cyberpunk point of view, a dream can be compared to a system message - if it does not come, then the system is in order.