We Remember from Dream to Dream
Several of the types of dreams (recurring and progressive) that I identified earlier in this essay would seem to indicate that we do retain some memory of past dreams. My own sustained hypnopompic work on a fictitious essay or course I am supposed to be teaching would also require some memory of what I have already done on this fictitious task. My increasingly elaborated Starved Rock nightmares that repeatedly appeared during my childhood dreams would seem to require not only memory of actual daytime fear of the Starved Rock cliffs, but also memory of previous nightmare content.
On the one hand, we might dismiss this conclusion by suggesting that the “memory” comes not from some dream-source but rather from our waking recall of past dreams offering a recurring theme or progressive dream. There is also the very real possibility that the “memory” is just another one of the highly creative productions we have made inside the current dream. In other words, each dream can contain its own “reality” regarding memories of past dreams. These alternative explanations for the source of “memories” in our dreams are certainly warranted since, as reported by many biological scientists, no neurotransmitters are aiding in the storage of dream memories.
Yet, as noted regarding lucid dreams, there are significant neurotransmitter interplays with at least this distinctive type of dream. As I have already noted, it is hard to believe that there is no neurotransmitter involvement in the production (and potential retention) of “regular dreams.” I find in my dreams that there is very convincing evidence of retention from previous dreams. I find many dreams building on a theme or story from a previous dream (the progressive dream).
I “know” that the progression is not just made up for the sake of the current dream, because I have recorded the previous dream and can see the clear line of progression from that dream to the current one. I realize that I could be simply bringing my recorded dream (rather than the actual dream) into the current dream; however, the time gap between the recorded dream and the current dream is often quite large (perhaps one or two weeks). It is hard (though not impossible) to believe that the current dream is picking up this stored memory of the recorded dream.
I also have had many recurrent dreams during my lifetime, especially during my childhood. As noted in the research on dreams, these recurrent dreams were often nightmares when they occurred during childhood. As I shared at the start of this essay, I especially recall many dreams in which I was falling off a Starved Rock cliff located on the Fox River near our home in Illinois. While the memory might be based on my recurring fear of falling when I actually stood on this Fox River cliff, the recurring nightmare often “embellished” on the actual experience of standing on the cliff. For instance, I frequently fell off the cliff during the nightmare or was pushed off by some “evil” person (such as one of my siblings). I also imagined the reenactment of actual history. Starved Rock was named in memory of the Native Americans who were trapped on this rock and were starving to death. I imagined that starving Native Americans were jumping off the cliff!
I am not alone in reporting on the content of previous dreams appearing in a recurrent or progressive dream. These dreams are powerful and often haunting when recalled in the morning precisely because they are rich with content and seem to be “repositories” of collected and combined memories.
