Structural and Functional Differences in Brain Mechanisms of Dream Recall
Handbook of Sleep Research January 1, 2019 S. Scarpelli, M. Gorgoni, A. D’Atri et al.
Dream recall depends on shared mechanisms between sleep and wakefulness for encoding and retrieving episodic memory, as well as on higher cortical activation. Individual trait-like structural differences and state-like functional neural activity both affect dream features, and brain maturation across the lifespan also explains differences in dream experience. Despite advances, a unifying theory of dream recall mechanisms remains lacking.