

If these diseases cause patients to dream less, this may worsen the memory difficulties associated with these conditions. Hippocampal damage is associated with a number of diseases, including dementia. These findings suggest that a healthy hippocampus is necessary for both memory and dreaming, reinforcing the link between the two. found that the people with hippocampal damage reported fewer dreams and the dreams they had were much less detailed. The experiment was carried out with four people who had damage to both the left and right hippocampus and ten healthy volunteers. asked participants about their dreams immediately after being woken up at various points during the night. To overcome this limitation, Spanò et al.


One reason for these inconsistencies is that some studies asked participants about their dreams the next morning by which time most people, particularly those with amnesia, have forgotten if they dreamed. However, studies examining dreaming in people with amnesia have produced mixed results: some found that damage to the hippocampus had no effect on dreams, while others found it caused people to have repetitive dreams that lacked detail. If this is true, then part of the brain called the hippocampus that is important for memory should also be necessary for dreaming.ĭamage to the hippocampus can cause a condition called amnesia that prevents people from forming new memories and remembering past experiences. And the memories bring back, memories bring back you Verse 1 Theres a time that I remember, when I did not know no pain When I believed in forever, and everything would stay the same Now my. Although dreams are not a precise replay of our memories, one idea is that dreaming helps people process past experiences as they sleep. Dreaming has intrigued humans for thousands of years, but why we dream still remains somewhat of a mystery.
