How We Dream

It's pretty hard to dream if you're not asleep. The average person sleeps a third of each day (8 hours). If this pattern continues until we turn 75, we will have slept for 25 years and dreamt for 10.

Here's what happens when we fall asleep every night:
1) A period of deep sleep happens almost immediately.
2) A shorter period of lighter sleep, where REM (Rapid Eye Movement) occurs. During REM sleep, our eyeballs jerk around beneath our eyelids. It is also during this time that we dream. We experience REM sleep about five times during 8 hours of sleep. It is after the last one that we wake up, and we usually remember the dreams that occurred during this period the most vividly.

Simple events that happen in dreams usually take place in a real time span. In other words, if you dream about eating breakfast, the time it takes you to eat in your dream would take about the same amount of time if you were to eat in real life. More complicated dreams are more like a highlight reel; you don't see everything that would normally happen in real life, just the most important parts.

There are factors which can affect how well you remember your dreams. Drugs in particular can reduce the amount of dream time. When you wake up from your dream, don't move. Keep a notebook by your bed and write down everything you can remember immediately. The more you move around, the more parts of the dream you will forget.

--The Illustrated Dream Dictionary