What Determines the Dreams Recalled?

In this paper, I sought to understand what determines the dreams that are recalled so that I could learn a possible way to relieve recurring nightmares. Previous research has predicted dream recall frequency by variables such as time of day one is asleep, sleep awakenings, and interest in dreams. In my correlational study, I tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a period of 11 days. I measured time of day one is asleep by bedtime and sleep duration, sleep awakenings by recording awakenings during the night, interest in dreams by a daily assessment on a five-point scale, and dream recall frequency by number of dreams recalled with and without content. A significant correlation was found between sleep awakenings and dream recall frequency in the study. This correlation suggests that one possible explanation for what dreams one recalls is how many times one wakes up. This study provides an interesting starting point for future studies that could be conducted to determine the reasoning behind this correlation between dream recall and sleep awakenings.