Is dreaming every night a sign of good sleep?

[upsman]

"Is dreaming every night a sign of good sleep?"

And a possible associated question..
Is forgetting that you dreamt every night a sign of bad memory ?

From what I’ve read, we all dream but 95% do not remember dreaming or what the dream was about. Generally, you will remember your dreams if you’re awakened while dreaming. An apnea event could cause a disturbance like that.

[progman]

Well that's an interesting set of response's - Thanks! Although I have been on the machine for nearly a year, I recently discovered this site and OSCAR because I began to realize that while there has been improvement, there is more to be done. Am also tracking my o2 and heart bpm with the CMS050F during sleep. Just looking at the bpm through the night reveals there are some funky goings on....happily all my dreams have been without emotion so far.

[CorruptAlligator]

I really don't know if it's always a sign of good sleep. It's a sign that deep sleep stage has happended.

Why I say I don't know if sleep qjality is good because I have nights with multiple types of dreams due to being waken up several times. I likely remember them due to being waken so many times and I don't feel like that was quality sleep. And then I have nights that I sleep without inturruptions, but don't recall the dreams.

But, I guess nights you remeber dreams is better than ones you don't recall the dreams and feel like you slept with many interuptions or didn't feel like you really slept. If you dreamt, that's a sure sign. It's hard because sometimes you may not recall the dreams (but probably doesn't mean you didn't dream), but it seems you recall when woken up during a dream.

Is there a way to find out if someone is dreaming with certainty? With brainwaves and rapid eye movement? Is it an exact science?

[progman]

I really don't know if it's always a sign of good sleep.  It's a sign that deep sleep stage has happended.

Why I say I don't know if sleep qjality is good because I have nights with multiple types of dreams due to being waken up several times. I likely remember them due to being waken so many times and I don't feel like that was quality sleep.  And then I have nights that I sleep without inturruptions, but don't recall the dreams.  

But, I guess nights you remeber dreams is better than ones you don't recall the dreams and feel like you slept with many interuptions or didn't feel like you really slept. If you dreamt, that's a sure sign.  It's hard because sometimes you may not recall the dreams (but probably doesn't mean you didn't dream), but it seems you recall when woken up during a dream.

Is there a way to find out if someone is dreaming with certainty?  With brainwaves and rapid eye movement?  Is it an exact science?

It's seems our sleep states are quite active....several 'stages' of sleep (light, deep, REM), and several cycles per night (roughly 90 minute cycles). I notice from tracking my heartbeat that it will be slow and uniform for some time and then it will raise and have lots of variability. Similar story with respiration rate. And that happens several cycles during the night. 

During my sleep study they did use sensors to determine REM sleep and reported the estimated time in REM. I think they were measuring some brainwaves but not sure if that really proves dreaming.

[DaveCar]

" you recall when woken up during a dream "

There was a TED or similar, where they said that dreams make it to short term memory but the brain realises (for most people) that it's not "real" and thus flushes that information out. If you wake up during a dream, its vivid as you become more aware of this new information but rapidly fades away (frustrating sometimes eh ? lol) as the brain does it's normal flush work. Sometimes you can hold dream info into long term... I still do remember a few snippets from nearly 50 years ago.

Eventually, they will probably be able to 'record' dreams. I'm not sure if thats interesting or frightening.