I see dreams as a cool down period for your mind. It reviews, cools down and eventually turns off at a certain level of sleep. Unwinding after your day and mentall reviewing your thoughts before you are asleep can usually prevent dreams from occuring and allow yourself better quality sleep. I usually sit in my chair for about half hour to an hour and just think to myself about my day, pressing issues in my mind etc. i generally don't have dreams anymore. of course i still have them occasionally, but not often.

Don't mistake not remembering dreams with not having dreams. The only way to stop having dreams is to stop sleeping longer than half an hour. It's generally accepted in the scientific community that everyone who sleeps dreams, every single night. The moment you wake determines whether you remember your dreams or not though.

What purpose dreaming really has, that's something nobody knows. There are several theories but I don't think any single one has enough evidence backing it up to discredit the others. Personally I think it's a way to process the things you experience during waking life but don't always realize consciously. Dreams are probably strongly tied in with the subconscious part of our brains.

It's weird that you stop remembering your dreams when you meditate on your daily experiences though. For me it has the exact opposite effect. If I take the time to drag subconscious information to my conscious mind and process it in detail, I tend to have more vivid dreams and remember them better. I also find my sleep more refreshing when I do remember my dreams and take the time to wake up slowly.

Rose: They carry over long enough. My mind tends to dissipate some emotions while I'm sleeping and I usually wake up feeling fairly neutral in comparison to the previous night. So it wouldn't carry over 3 days light Nightwolf.

Nightwolf: See above ^ : p

Yetaro: Many people don't take enough time in their day to just sit and collect their thoughts. They feel like it's a waste of time. Their loss.

Zan: Opposite effects regarding dreaming reminds me of when my grandmother gave my cousins and I dreamcatchers years ago. I don't remember if mine worked out, but my dreams were slowing down in the remembering stages by then I think. Everytime my cousin even saw his dreamcatcher he was guaranteed a bad dream that night : /.

Dream catchers are supposed to prevent bad dreams. Maybe he needed to turn it around

Yetaro: I always thought they begin at a certain point. Such as when you reach rem sleep, is usually when dreaming begins and might not last more than ten minutes or so, if I remember my psychology a bit correctly. Then again has been 4 years, so may be wrong

As for dreams, I do enough thinking to fill a sieve and even if it's just reviewing the days events, I rarely dream of what occured during the day. To my mind, most of it is trivial unless there's a very important thing, but even those don't reflect in my dreams. Reviewed or just falling asleep. Most of my dreams are of things I don't know, and often can't explain. Some mysterious, some like the dream emotions I explained where it leaves me very thoughtful, though my dreams move on, those stick with me. I did have a period in my life that I was dreamless, just a big black void of nothingness, but didn't feel a difference from none dreams to having dreams, unless they are the very vivid ones, which is about 2 or 3 times a week, depending on my mood. I suppose everyone views dreams differently. I think mine are a mix of my past, and present. Not really for reviewing, just memories that surface and piece themselves together and only significant ones stand out in my mind, though I have yet to understand any of them.

REM sleep is when you dream

as i have stated before my dreams are mostly random...as for dream catchers i had one in my room in hk...maybe it did prevent bad dreams but i didnt really notice a difference in my dreams before and after

I think dreamcatchers work like many wiccan or other forms of ritualistic magic tools, they are a focus for your mental self. It's not the tool itself that has the power to change things. The tool just makes it easier for you to influence paranormal or subconscious aspects, it makes it more understandable and materializes your desires. So a dreamcatcher doesn't stop bad dreams, not unless you truly believe it will and allow yourself to put your fears behind you.

That is what kept my nightmares away, facing and dealing with my fears. Ever since I did that I rarely dream badly anymore.

Besides most dreamcatchers are just tourist bait these days ... they're mass produced out of plastic and cheap resources somewhere by underpaid third world workers or machines and shipped off to stores without any of the care and ritualistic blessings that the native americans gave theirs.

that probably explains it...my friend gave it to me as a present and i just hung it from my door as decoration..never really gave it much thought or mental energy