Resting brain activity varies with dream recall frequency between subjects.
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology June 1, 2014 Jean-Baptiste Eichenlaub, Alain Nicolas, Jérôme Daltrozzo et al.
People who frequently recall dreams show higher blood flow in two brain regions—the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)—both during sleep and while awake, compared with people who rarely recall dreams. High recallers averaged 5.2 dream recalls per week, low recallers 0.5. The findings support the idea that these parts of the default mode network are involved in producing and encoding dreams, not just in recalling them after waking. Increased TPJ activity may also help orient attention to external stimuli and promote brief awakenings that aid memory encoding.