You almost certainly do too, but the part of our brain that commits things to long term memory is inactive when sleeping. When people recall their dreams, it's at best just the ones that occurred right before waking up. Maybe you're a heavy sleeper and tend to sleep through that window.
Also why people tend to not dream if using substances that have memory loss side-effects—weed is common. And same reason people get "black out" drunk or drunkenly repeat themselves. The brain just isn't noting anything down, but it is happening.
From how I understand it, you dream every night as your body enters REM sleep, but you often don't remember dreams. You can try and train yourself to better recall your dreams and in doing so you may find that you "dream more often".
I'd say I have weeks where I remember my dreams, sometimes multiple, every night, and other times where I'll go a week or more without recalling any. It varies on a lot of things. In particular, I'll find if I stop smoking weed for about 4 or more days, I'll start remembering dreams vividly and frequently, but that'll lessen over 2 weeks.
Yeah, everyone dreams multiple times every night. I'm sure these days most people mean 'don't remember dreams' when they say 'don't dream', but when I grew up so many people honestly thought they did not dream and wouldn't believe me when I tried to explain how that's biologically impossible.
The bigger issue IMO would be that not everyone has quality sleep, so they might not have a long uninterrupted time in REM to properly dream.
Personally even when I'm in the right state to experience dreams (the type that I do remember) they usually aren't very vivid, for the above reason or possibly something else. I also have aphantasia so it may be related (or other brain/life stuff). Once I did have a colorful-yet-still(ish) dream related to then-recent photography.
I dream in a fashion that I "experience" the dream and remember it later, but only around the changing of the seasons. For instance, in Central America where I live, were transitioning into the rainy season soon. I've been dreaming so vividly for the pas two weeks, and only started feeling rested two nights ago.
In a week or so, that will taper back to rarely remembering ant dreams, and not surface again until October or November when our dry season starts again. (Disclaimer: we haven't had a rainy season with rain the past two Yeats, but we still call it the rainy season)
When I lived in New England, it was the same, but four times a year, and most pronounced in the fall-to-winter and spring-to-summer transitions.
That's not to say I never dream outside of those times, but rarely remember, and not consecutively. Last night I had one dream from 3am to 7am. I woke up once and used the bathroom and easily returned to the same dream, albeit subdued.
As far as I know, everyone dreams every night...it's part of the sleeping process...but you usually forget it ASAP so it seems like you didn't dream.
As for dreams I remember...less often as I get older, I find. Although I do get a few vivid dreams when using magnesium supplements, but I also acclimate to those quickly. And if I'm woken prematurely, sometimes a dream sticks around a bit more than it otherwise would.
I usually have three or four dreams a night. I often wake up thinking I should write them down as plots for short stories. I've sketched out a handful of the really far out ones (like when Colin Farrell popped out of a statue in front of a frat house to warn me that Bill Gates was chasing me).
I've smoked like 50g per month for the past few years and reduced by quite a lot now, and I only started to dream again once I did that. I feel like the thing about having no dreams is only really true if you smoke excessive amounts. How much do you smoke?
Multiple times a night. Typically I know I'm dreaming and can choose to wake up or alter the dream if I like, but I have some "uncontrolled" dreams as well.
I used to never dream but I would go to bed with the TV on. I wanted to switch to falling asleep to music. At some point I realized I would have nightmares whenever I slept without either. It was like my brain couldn't handle the lack of external stimuli.
But I wanted to dream more, so I started going to bed without it more and more often. Eventually those nightmares turned to dreams as I pushed through it. It was fantastical. Almost like hearing music for the first time after being deaf. It was a whole new world and I can't get enough.
I have a dream landscape? It's like all the places I've ever been have blended together to create a new world. And in a dream I know I can get from the fancy section (where there's the wierd Victorian house that is like a coop I used to live in, and sometimes there's a special room I can access by crawling up a specific wall) to the bar/shopping district by walking/going south, while by going west I can get to the beach that's an amalgam of several Texas and Mexican beaches along with a strong dose of Egypt. There's an epic resort there I often end up at, sometimes as a guest, other times worrying the whole time how I'm going to pay for it. There's also a subway system that leads to a New York/Paris/other massive cities I've been to with bad ass museums. I think that's to the northeast...
I have something similar I think, but yours sounds way cooler! Over the years I have essentially recreated a whole section of Denver Colorado in my dreams. My brain keeps adding things over time and many of the new stuff sticks; dream Denver now has a whole ocean north of downtown, and a boat ferry that goes to an island out there.
That is super cool, though! An ocean right outside Denver?? With an island?? And a ferry?? That would be amazing. Think this is very similar. Are you from Denver / spent a lot of time there?
Yeah I lived there for three years during a stressful period of my life. It's a lot of fun to dream about though, as I look forward to what's going to be added next!
I dream every night. I even dream frequently while taking naps, sometimes as short as 15-20 minutes.
Many dreams I forget shortly upon waking. As in, I can't remember what it was about by the time I get out of bed. But, I do actually remember the dream for a few seconds, so I know it happened. The majority of my dreams I can recall for the rest of the morning or even day. If something noteworthy happened, I can remember the dream for days, weeks, or years. I really depends on how impactful/meaningful the dream was.
I have not used sleep journals or anything of that nature to help me remember dreams. I have always been like this. I also have had sleep paralysis and sporadic insomnia for about as long as I can remember - not severe or frequent enough to need treatment.
I can't. I lost the ability around age 7-8 and have never had problem sleeping sense. I do have a small 1-2 nightmares every 7-8 months though. They did a sleep and psyc study on me and found that I just sleep heavy and my brain relaxes and i go i to deep sleep for most of the duration instead of processing information. It is also the reason I can fall asleep on "impulse" and also why studying before sleep works well for me since my information retains where it left off. It is my one super power if I was to say I had one.
That's fascinating! I can remember snippets from hundreds, if not thousands of my dreams, but it takes me at least 60-90 minutes to fall asleep each night.
My SO is the same way, and jokingly she hates me that I can just close my eyes and be instantly gone as she used to get upset that "I don't dream about her" since she dreams a lot and remembers lots too. But I don't dream about anything she knows that now but took a while for her to realize that.
Oh I agree, I drew the golden rest ticket. And it is OP. Feels like it makes life happier and easier in general tbh since I employ the tactics of "sleep on it" pretty much anytime and helps me process info and take time as well as cool off mentally if needed. In famous words of Bueller, "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." Good luck though, keep working on it and you may be able to train yourself.