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Is Dreaming A Sign Of Good Sleep?
Denys Chumak

Denys Chumak

04 Apr 2024

Is Dreaming A Sign Of Good Sleep?

In short: Dreaming happens mostly in REM, so remembering dreams is not the same as sleeping well. What dream recall does and does not tell you about sleep.

The purpose of dreams is still a highly debatable topic in the scientific community today. Researchers and sleep specialists agree on very few key ideas. One such idea is when dreams happen during our regular sleeping cycle.

When you sleep, your brain goes through two main stages: NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Dreams can occur during both of these stages, but they're more likely to happen during REM sleep, which is the final stage.

So, if you remember having dreams, it's a sign that your brain has been going through this last stage of sleep, which is a good indicator of a healthy sleep cycle.

Now, here's the big question: what comes first? Does dreaming make you have a good sleep cycle, or does a good sleep cycle make you dream? Which comes first?

What is A Good Sleep Cycle? – And When Do We Dream

Scientists have known for a long time that poor sleeping habits and irregular sleeping patterns reduce human longevity. Sleep deprivation is tied to some of the most dangerous diseases including a higher risk of obesity and heart disease.

Surprisingly, none of these negative outcomes have anything to do with dreams. No matter how good or bad your dreams may be, it appears that they do not negatively impact your mental, emotional, or physical health.

Let’s look at when dreams happen in the sleep cycle to get a clearer picture of why that is:

  • NREM Stage 1

It is the first stage making up about 5% of the sleep cycle. Your mind is mostly awake but you are drifting off. Dreams that happen during this stage are short and often incorporate noises from your surroundings or events from that day. You are less likely to remember these dreams

  • NREM Stage 2

You are less likely to remember dreams in this stage too. Stage 2 accounts for about 45% of the sleep cycle and at this point you have become less aware of the surrounding. Some scientists believe this is where memory and emotion processing/consolidation happens through dreams and thoughts.

  • NREM Stage 3

About 25% of sleep takes place here. This is where many people sleepwalk because it’s harder to wake up at this stage. The body repairs itself physically and the immune system is boosted, making sure you are energetic and refreshed in the morning.

More memories are processed here and anything learned during the day is consolidated. Your brain repeats NREM Stage 2 before going to REM sleep.

  • Stage 4 - REM Sleep

Usually begins about 90 minutes after NREM Stage 1. Your body is fully immobilized but brain activity increases causing rapid eye movement, increased heart rate, and breathing.

Due to increased brain activity, dreams are frequent here and more vivid, making it the epicenter of dreaming. Your body is immobilized which ensures you cannot act out your dreams.

The brain activity is similar to that of wakefulness but without the same level of consciousness. This allows the mind to generate thoughts, and plans, and imagine fictitious scenarios without consequence. Once the stage is over, your body repeats NREM Stage 2, and the cycle starts all over again.

Note that these stages occur more than once during the night, but always in the same order. In total, you dream for about 2 hours every night when you get a full 8 hours of sleep or more.

But you may be wondering, “I don’t dream every day!”

In reality, every person dreams each time they are asleep, we just don’t remember the dreams each time.

Remembering Dreams Leads to Good Sleep

Is-Dreaming-A-Sign-Of-Good-Sleep-Image2

According to Deirdre Barrett, a dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, we forget so many of our dreams because during REM sleep the brain’s short-term memory is most active, but it only holds memories for about 30 seconds.

Once you drift back into NREM Stage 2 without waking up, the brain forgets that dream since it never enters long-term memory.

After sleeping for about 8 hours, the REM stage will occur during those final hours. If you wake up after the 8 hours then your awake brain will have time to store the short-term memory into the long-term memory before the short 30-second window elapses.

This makes your waking routine extremely important if you want to remember your dreams more often. A good practice is to have a dream journal close to your bed. You may also go for a softer alarm system to avoid a loud awakening that may distract you as you wake up.

Does Remembering Your Dreams Mean You Slept Well?

If you keep remembering your dreams day in and day out, then you are constantly getting good sleep which translates to a healthy mind and a healthy body.

However, there is an exception – recurrent nightmares.

Occasional nightmares are normal. Some research shows that nightmares are a beneficial evolutionary trait, a mechanism that simulates rehearsals of threat perception and avoidance thereby preparing us for danger.

The problem arises when nightmares continue to occur on a regular basis. This causes you to drift in and out of REM sleep which is one of the most restorative stages. When interrupted, it takes longer for your mind to relax and get back to REM sleep, eventually, your sleep duration and quality are affected.

Recurrent nightmares can be caused by stress, major life-altering events such as the loss of a loved one, increased stress, too much alcohol/drug use, alcohol/drug withdrawals, illness, over-the-counter (OTC) sleeping pills, abrupt stoppage of OTC sleeping pills, PTSD, depression, or anxiety disorders.

Ensure you consult a medical professional to help address the nightmares further.

Is-Dreaming-A-Sign-Of-Good-Sleep-Image3

What Is Good Quality Sleep?

As seen, dreams (apart from recurrent nightmares) are signs of a healthy sleeping cycle. However, they are not the best signs.

The best sign of quality sleep is waking up feeling energetic, well-rested, refreshed, and not in need of any external stimulation like coffee. This is a better indicator of good sleep that does not rely on dreams that you may or may not remember.

Other good signs include:

  • Getting a full 8 hours of sleep or more which maximizes time spent on REM sleep.
  • Uninterrupted sleep.
  • Going to bed at the same time every night.
  • Using sleep tracker apps like SleepScore or SleepPilot to improve sleep through data-driven insights.
  • Maintaining good sleeping hygiene techniques like reducing caffeine and increasing daily exercise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, unless you are experiencing recurrent nightmares, dreaming won’t negatively affect your sleep, it improves it.

Dreaming has more benefits like improved creativity and memory. Moreover, there are specialists who can help you interpret your dreams to unlock their meaning and offer interpretations that may provide eye-opening insights.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Does Dreaming A Lot Mean Good Sleep?

So long as you are getting enough sleep and the dreams aren't recurring nightmares, then you can rest assured that your many dreams are a sign of good sleep. They are a symptom of ample rest, a relaxed, mind, effective memory consolidation, and emotional processing.

It is also normal to dream a lot. Human beings dream every day but we do not always remember our dreams. If you are remembering your dreams often, then it means you are experiencing increased awareness which also increases creativity in the waking life.

  • How To Monitor Your Sleep Quality?

Several studies have proven that monitoring your sleep quality is the best way to recognize patterns in your sleep habits. Using tracking devices, such as wearables and smartphone applications, can help patients understand why they feel sluggish sometimes and energetic at other times, depending on when and how long they slept.

The optimized sleep monitors analyze data recorded during sleep. The data is then used to provide useful information like sleep cycles and body movement behaviors, and in so doing, helps you improve the quality of your sleep.

The insightful data is presented in user-friendly ways including graphs and reports that will help you make sense of the quality of your sleep. Suggestions and recommendations are also made using personalized reports that help improve your sleeping habits.

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2 Nov 2026

Ex-boyfriend
Friends
Lottery
Money
Store
Dinner

Dream

中彩票,一万五到两万,和朋友吃饭前,爸妈带我去店里确认是否中奖,朋友的前男友联系朋友

1 Nov 2026

Grandpa
Brother
Darkness
Father
Group
Shadow

Dream

I have really long dreams, and this one was pretty complicated and pretty long. So, first, I was like on a deserted island, and the island was pretty big. And on the island there was a huge building that looked like a mall, like a huge, huge, like big mall. And it had a stage, like a concert stage, where there should have been like four performers: Megan something, Katseye, Megan The Stallion, and Tate McRae. It so happened that I was a part of Katseye, and we were supposed to be performing Hootie Frooty. And I was pretty talkative with the girls. It was all six of them, and I really don't know what was. I was like the seventh member, but it doesn't matter. And it seemed that there was something wrong with me, and I invited my father and my grandfather on the island so that they could watch the show because I'm a part of Katseye, right? And so that they could watch my performance. But for some reason, I had to pee constantly, and so my brother would go with me, my brother Peca, he would always go with me to pee, and the toilet was a huge bathroom, and it was like a sauna, but with showers and toilets all over, and it was pretty pink, and there were a lot of girls there. So when you would have to wait for your turn, in the meantime, you would talk to other girls. Then, but to get to the bathroom or the toilet, restroom, whatever, you would have to go through the backstage, and the backstage was like pitch darkness, and you know, and you, you like knew something was watching you while you were going through the backstage, and you had lights everywhere. But to get to the light, you would have to run, okay? And then after like tenth time of me going to the restroom, I noticed a little room in the backstage, and I went inside the room, and there was a couch with cigarette holes in it, and there was like a coffee table from old wood, and it was looking rusty, and there was a woman with cigarettes, a lot of them, sitting on that stinky old couch. She had eye bags, like dark and big. Her hair was a mess. She had long black hair. She was crying. Her makeup, her mascara was all over her face. She was crying, right? So I looked at her and I asked her, What's wrong? She sensed, like, a bad feeling from me, and I guess that that is what the whole point of the dream was. I was like a witch or something, but I just didn't know that. It seemed like only my father and my grandpa knew that I was a witch. And so I sat next to that lady, and she was really sad and angry and a lot of mixed emotions. And then she started showing me some letters from the mail that the government had sent her, saying how her husband will never return from the war, how they are keeping him there. And there were a lot of messy notes there. Like, she overwrote what they sent her with ink, and there were some graphiccons showing how he will never return, how they are taking him away from her, how her children will also be taken away from her. And she started saying that her daughter which isn't the truth, I'm not. And she was like, Then who are my children? She even showed me a color. Circle, palette, and I was like, I'm sorry, but what is this? And she's like, they sent me even this. They sent me diagrams. They sent me messages, all sorts of them. She was really angry, and I didn't know what to do. And she was, like, continuously smoking, and she was trembling like this. She was sitting, she was going back and forth, back, forth, back, forth. And I was really confused, you know, I couldn't help her, so I just left. I went to the restroom, I peed, and I went back to the stage. And then I saw that Megan, one of them, she was performing, and her performance sucked, like, really sucked. And people were pretty bored with her performance. And then I went to see my girls from the group, and I told them about the performance, and they were like, Oh yeah, like we're gonna be fine. And so we went to grab some ice cream before the show, ice cream cones. Daniela's ice cream cone fell down because for some reason she was holding it upside down, and then mine started to melt pretty fast. And then I got a call from my dad and he was like, Hey, can you come meet me at this and this location? I was like, What? But you're supposed to be here, you know. I'm next on the show, like, you have to. And he was like, yeah, but first, come here. And he was pretty angry. And, um, but this island also had, like, a huge amusement park. Um, so I wanted to go on a roller coaster, and the roller coaster was pretty scary. And as it started going, it went into, like, a cave or something. And, like, I had to get my father to go to the stage so that he could watch me perform, and I couldn't find him anywhere. And then in that cave, um, there was, like, no signal. But then I received a call from my dad again, and I was like, what the fuck how's there signal in the cave? The cave looked like catacombs because there were a lot of human skulls and the human bones and yada yada. And I answered the call and he was like, You're in the right place. Now continue this way. And I did, and then i started, and I kept going, and there was, like, um, at the end of the road, it looked like the end of the road. Then I started hearing someone calling my name, and then I noticed that it wasn't the end of the road. It was just a huge cliff. I looked down, and there were my dad and my grandpa down with some kind of machine that looked like a catapult and, like, huge guns. And they were wearing kind of dresses. They were black, black and ripped, and they had black smoked eyes. And they were pretty angry both at me i guess because I'm an Orthodox Christian, and they thought I was a witch. And, and so the fall was pretty big, and I was like, How do I get down there? He said, Just jump. And I jumped. I scratched myself. And he was like, You're gonna sit on this spot. They were planning on taking my limbs off as well, but gave up on that idea. So they just placed me in a catapult, and they had like a sinister laugh, a sinister smile. I was tied down in the middle of nowhere, and it was pretty scary. And then they started a fire in the catapult, and I, like, I went flying, bro, in the ocean. And I went far, far away. There was like a storm in the ocean. So there were a lot of waves, and as I landed in the ocean, the water, I went deep, and then a shark noticed me. It was a white shark, a great white, and somehow I managed to escape and saved myself. And then I went back again there to have a fight with my father. I was like, Why the fuck did you do that? And he was like, Because you deserve to perish. You don't deserve anything. You deserve to die. You witch, I will not let you survive. How dare you become a witch behind my back? I'm ashamed of you, blah blah, that he said. And I was like really disappointed. And he grabbed me again by my arms and my grandfather by my legs, and they placed me in a catapult once again. Then catapulted me again in the ocean, again with the white shark, and I escaped the shark again. I went back to the concert. I performed Hootie Fruity. Everything went well except that, and I guess I was a witch of some sort. And then after the show. I was like, guys, my dad just catapulted me twice in the ocean to drown. And then I saw a great white shark both times. And not just one, like many of them. But one was pretty focused on me. But I escaped both times, and I'm here. And then they were like, What the fuck? And then we went to the store, and I bought ten pairs of panties that were plain white. And I guess they had some secret powder in them, and that was the end of the dream.

31 Oct 2026

dream-about-feeding-horses-easter-eggs-and-cart-crash
Brakes not working
Best Friend
Explosion
Car
Crowd
Animal

Dream

We were on a ranch me and my best friend and we were told to feed the horses and animals but instead of normal food we had to like put them in ice bags and the food was Easter eggs. There were 6 stalls and it was really confined each one had a water thing but it’s was a rock and didn’t look like a normal water bowl. We were talking about were to but the bags of food in each stall and while we’re doing that the horses start to crowd the gate were they get let out. So we end up leaving the barn and told to do something so my friend drove the cart but when we stopped to ask the boy who maintains the barn and animals what to do she didn’t but the break on and we all jumped out of the cart while watching it go full speed hitting a car and exploding a port-a-potty, and even breaking the fence with the animals as I was running after it.

31 Oct 2026

dream-about-a-stuffed-animal-dog-throwing-up
Vomit
Crowd
Group
Puppy
Dog
House

Dream

Okay, so like I was at this, like I would say my sister's friend's house, and they had like two dogs or something like that. Long story short, all I know is that I was supposed to keep one of the dogs, like one of the puppies. And when I was going to keep one of the puppies, with me playing around with them inside their home, he was perfectly fine, and I thought it was like a real puppy. And then the puppy ended up throwing up, and I was like so, like shocked that the puppy ended up throwing up. And then when it was, but I was like, oh, it's okay. And then when it was time to go and I was already out, they were like, I was like, hey, like why doesn't this dog, like why is it only this or that that he does? And they were like, oh, that's not a real dog. It's a stuffed animal, but like you can pretend that it's a real dog and stuff like that. And then out of nowhere, like I don't remember, but like it was very crowded. And the, like it was very crowded. The girls were all over the place, and I was trying to find like a place. And then out of nowhere, and then they started talking about a group chat, like it had like 300 people and stuff like that. But like the most important one is literally about the dog. What does the dog stand for?

29 Oct 2026

Blonde hair
Friend
Group
Laughing
Rainbow
Shower

Dream

I was finishing swim practice at a place I’ve never seen before, I was in a locker room, planning out my day like I was going to eat and take a shower. Then when I was walking out, I saw Ålîyåh sitting on a bench on the sidewalk, doing some work on a notebook, and she had rainbow dyed hair in a bun (she has brown hair which she dyed blonde now). I went up to her and said hi and she was so friendly and nice and I said I loved her hair and she was happy and said thank you, and we started talking about our lives and updating each other. Then she was like we should join that group because they’re the most fun people ever. At this point I think we were in a mix of 2 places- the East Ridge HS cafeteria (which was just a generic cafeteria) and benches on a sidewalk outside. So we joined the group but only one person was left and he said the other people would come back soon. So I said I was getting food, and at the same time that guy asked what sport I do or something, and I said “I swim” while walking away, but then I realized I forgot my shoes and put them on while saying “I need shoes” and then Ålîyåh was like oh yeah and started laughing.

28 Oct 2026

dream-about-saving-belongings-from-house-fire
Chairs
Clutter
House on fire
Fire
Sadness
Tornado

Dream

I had a dream about being friends with some woman and I was at her house. And there was a tornado off in the distance that caused power lines to go down and spark a fire in a line of trees that quickly turned into burning homes down and we were in a rush to try and save things from inside her house but before we knew it the fire caught up to the house and we couldn't save anything. She also had a guest house that was newly renovated that also started to burn and it was really sad. And then I ran to my house which was like a gothic style gray shingle siding and black window trim and it was more narrow than wide and the fires were spreading quick and no rescue was coming to put out the fire and save people. But as the fire approached my house I took everything I could that I thought was important and put it on the curb across the street from my house. There was a moving van type thing that parked nearby and I started loading things I was trying to find that was important or sentimental and put it in the moving van. I was able to save different kinds of furniture. However the house starts to catch fire and I keep running into the house and finding stuff. I go upstairs and it looks like I lived in a hoarders house and there was stuff all over the floor that I had to step over to find and pick out the things that I wanted to save. People kept telling me to stop going in with all the smoke but I was desperate to try and save everything I possibly could. The last thing I remember was walking upstairs and opening the door to this old closet size room with a window but it was dusty and there was a rocking chair, some old bed posts, an old tube tv and some other nostalgic things. But I didn't take any of those out. I woke up right after.

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