Sleep experts explain why your dreams are so vivid that you remember them long after waking up

Dreams have had a powerful grip on the human mind for millennia. As soon as humans could start writing, they were documenting dreams.But for all of the tens to hundreds of thousands of hours we spend snoozing over a lifetime, we only remember certain dreams long after waking up. These are called vivid dreams.What makes some dreams so vivid and memorable may say something about the dream itself, what's going on in your real life, or a mix of both."It's normal to remember dreams and it's also normal not to remember them," said Jennifer M. Mundt, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Lab and Training Program at Northwestern University. Advertisement Sometimes, however, dreams can become so vivid and disturbing that they disrupt your sleep. When that happens regularly it can jeopardize your health.When you dream most vividly Whether we remember or not, humans dream every night during sleep.A typical sleep cycle lasts about 90 to 110 minutes and transitions between two primary stages: n...