Why do some people remember dreams better than others?

Dream memories are fragile because they form during sleep, when normal memory encoding works differently. People are more likely to remember a dream if they wake up shortly after it occurs, especially from REM sleep. Stress, personality, and interest in dreams may also affect recall by making people pay more attention to them. Many dreams vanish quickly because the brain does not always transfer them into stable long-term memory. That is why two people can sleep the same amount but remember very different amounts of dreaming.