Why do I wake up so tired after vivid dreams? |
Some mornings when you wake up, your head is fuzzy, your body is heavy, and you don’t feel rested. It felt like you were dreaming all night.
But did all that dreaming actually wear you out? Let’s look at what the science says.
We all dream, but not everyone remembers it
Most dreaming occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which makes up 20–25% of our total sleep time.
We have four to six rounds of REM throughout the night, with each round growing longer as morning approaches. We all dream, and most of us dream multiple times a night, whether we remember it or not.
If you wake up during or just after a REM period, you are more likely to remember what you were dreaming.
Whether you remember a dream can also depend on the emotional intensity of the dream and whether you briefly wake up in the night, as well as differences in how individual brains store memories overnight.
People who regularly remember vivid, emotionally intense dreams tend to have lighter, more broken sleep.
What happens in your brain when you dream?
During REM sleep, your brain is running almost as hard as it does when you are........