Why is it that there's no beginning of a dream?

I’ven’t is urban slang.

On the rare occasion I can recall any dream, there’s not a beginning or an end, just some random snapshot that’s over in a flash, weird really.

It could have something to do with the delta waves in regards to brain activity and levels of conscious while you sleep. It’s a great question I hadn’t thought of it before now. I often don’t like to remember dreams as they too are often disturbing to me. I put vivid dreaming and nightmares down to anxiety personally and not sure if even working them out helps to be honest.

First, answer this question: When, exactly, did now begin? You can’t answer that question about your waking experience, and your dream experience is no different. The dream world is just a different flavor of now.

In your waking experience you can look “backward” into memory, which gives the impression that there’s a beginning somewhere back there, if only memory could stretch back that far. In a dream you could also look back into memory, and the dream will effortlessly supply as many memories as necessary.

You have no long term memory in dreams. The only way to remember a dream is to wake up, remember it in short term memory and hope that it transfers to long term memory, now that you are awake. Short term memory only goes for so long. Perhaps you can only remember what happened recently, and that’s why your memory doesn’t go back to the beginning.

On the other hand, there may be something that has to do with nature of thought and time that contributes to this phenomenon. A beginning is an arbitrary thing. We usually just pick a point in time, almost arbitrarily, with which to start a story. Stories are primarily a conscious thing. Our dreams come from the non-linguistic part of the brain. It doesn’t “tell” stories. It just is. And being has no beginning and end.

Normally we impose a beginning on things consciously. It is not there naturally. But we have a hard time forcing our subconsciouses to conform to this way of understanding, and thus we can detect no beginning.

There is always a beginning of a dream, you may not remember it, but there is always a beginning. The ending of your dream may snap you awake, especially if the dream sequence was disconcerting or frightening. The key to your dreams can be found in writing them down, at least as much of them as you can remember. Every person’s dream images are unique to themselves (although SOME images can be universal). What you have to figure out is what the images are, that relate directly to you. Until you make the effort to do this, your dream images will continue to seem random to you.

I only remember parts of my dream and a lot of times I can’t remember anything.

I think it works the same way memory works. When you recall a past event, you start with remembering you are somewhere first, then the rest proceeds. You don’t begin your memory with I woke up, brushed my teeth, showered , got dressed and went out to wherever. Your memory and dreams delete what simply isn’t important.

I hadn’t thought of that before. Prior to being aware we are dreaming our brains are functioning and only when this activity breaks into our consciousness do we become aware of it. Like a swimming whale emerging briefly above the surface of the water. I’m not sure we are meant to remember our dreams. I know mine tend to evade capture when I try to recall them.

I don’t think it’s true there’s no beginning. It’s just that it’s so easy to forget it if it isn’t dramatic.
Without any training we’ll tend to remember the dramatic or intense part, memory of the rest fades faster.
But with some training (e.g. self-hypnosis) one can often remember complete dreams.

I usually remember my dreams and, if I think about it, they have beginnings. It’s the end that’s missing, because I wake up. I’m going to pay attention better tomorrow morning. Mine are often easy to figure out as far as why I’m having that dream. Once I had a series of dreams, like chapters in a book and one would start where the other had left off. That was kind of fun. . . .until I got to the end and I had failed! It didn’t destroy me, but I wasn’t happy about it.

Your answers made it possible for me to think, maybe the very moment that seems like a beginning is a beginning because it doesn’t matter whether or not there is a beginning at all in a dream, just like there are only arbitrary beginnings in everyday life!

Sometimes dreams even go backwards. I have had dreams where I’m standing somewhere and then I wonder in my dream how did I get there. Like one time I had a dream that I was at a family gathering and then I recalled how I had spoken to other family members earlier that week or day about who was coming and who wasn’t. Like a memory within a dream.

Last night’s dream was a familiar dream situation for me. I’m with my group of singers and we’re packing up and getting ready to get on a bus to go to a particular chapel on a campus to sing. I get distracted by something (I don’t remember what) and miss the bus. I’m stranded again in an unfamiliar place not knowing where I’m supposed to go. I’m invited to join another bus group, this one from from France, who will take me where I’m supposed to go. They are very friendly and want to be helpful. I wake up before we get there.
So there definitely was a beginning.

@dumitus “it doesn’t matter whether or not there is a beginning at all in a dream”
I hadn’t thought of that but I think that’s brilliant. The beginnings of dreams that I remember start pretty much out of the blue with a complete, unexplained context. Some aspects are instantly familiar, and some aspect or other will have your focus and attention.
– And it is like the arbitrary beginnings of everyday life.
I may have to cultivate dream recollection again and observe this arbitrariness intentionally.

@dabbler
It’s wonderful if you could observe your dreams that closely and consciously, it’s something I can’t and don’t want to do.. hehe.
One more thing that’s weird about dreams is that there’s a different set of…. existing
backgrounds(I don’t know how to call this in English, in Korean it might similar to a set up)
which didn’t happen in real life but are true in my dreams. For example, if I find myself living in a different house from where I’m living in real life, I don’t find it as surprising, I take it for granted and keep living. That’s so weird.

@dumitus Oh yes, the backgrounds and sometimes everything in a dream can be surreal (maybe that’s the word you’re looking for?). I find that fascinating as the dream lexicon (dictionary) is put together from any aspects of your life that make an emotional impression,

I used to have a pretty close rapport with my dreams many years ago, but have let that lapse. I never did get the hang of ‘lucid dreaming’ in which you are able to consciously direct what’s going on and take action. I’m always a spectator.