Dream Drought
Are you as frustrated as I am, when you can recall dreams several times a week and then, several weeks go by without even a fragment? You begin to wonder what’s up?!
Dream memories are fragile, if you don’t attend to them in the first minute or two they are gone. If your waking mind is occupied our attention immediately shifts outward rather than inward.
There are many reasons we can find ourselves in a dream drought and the most common is a change in our waking routine. Dream recall depends heavily on how you wake up: sleeping in a different position or environment, immediately thinking about the day’s task, checking our phone, getting out of bed too quickly.
Maybe it’s increased mental or emotional load. Interestingly, both stress and positive busyness can reduce recall. Your dreams may even become richer during these times, they're simply not making it into conscious memory.
There could be changes in your sleep quality. Dreams occur throughout the night, but the vivid ones we tend to remember happen during longer REM (rapid eye movement) periods toward morning. Things that reduce morning REM include: waking earlier than usual, fragmented sleep, illness, alcohol, some medications, hormone changes, or sleeping more/less than usual.
Another reason - psyche may be incubating. From a Jungian perspective, there are seasons when the unconscious becomes quieter, not because nothing is happening, but because inner work is occurring below the threshold of awareness.
The unconscious may be shifting its emphasis. Jeremy Taylor, a pioneering dream worker, author, and teacher often suggested that dreams come when they are needed. Sometimes people experience weeks with very little recall after integrating important dreams, completing a major life transition, or making an important decision.
Remembering to keep a journal by your bed, and setting an intention to recall your dreams before sleep can create the expectation and follow-through of dream recall.
Healthy adults dream 90-120 minutes each night. You may even know you were dreaming but just can’t recall specifics. Your dreams haven’t left you, but will return when the time and conditions are right.