According to researchers, our brains boast a “consistent molecular architecture”—so why do some people seem to dream almost every night while others claim they rarely or never dream?
A 2014 study reported that people who frequently remember their dreams show more activity in the temporoparietal junction of the brain, where information gets processed. This extra brain activity allows dreamers to focus on external stimuli, the study claims. It also suggested that “high dream recallers” had twice as many periods of wakefulness as “low dream recallers.” In practice, this suggested that people who remember their nighttime adventures are more responsive to sounds while sleeping, which may mean they wake up more than “low-dream recallers”. So if you’re woken up by your roommate whispering in the next bedroom, while your partner can sleep through all three alarms you set, you should count your blessings. While they catch some z’s, you’re far more likely to remember your dreams.