We spend a third of our lives asleep, and dream at least 25 percent of the time, but why can't we remember something we do every night? In Life Noggin's latest video, "Why Do We Forget Our Dreams?" the team explains the ability to remember our dreams is connected to how much time we actually spend awake and not asleep at night.

Most of our dreams occur during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycle, where our eyes move around, but the rest of our body is paralyzed. This stops us from acting out our dreams, though dreaming isn't just limited to REM cycles. Reports show sleepers can recall dreams even when they've only had non-REM sleep.

So, if we're able to dream in various sleep stages, then why do we forget most of our dreams? As humans, we innately filter out information that doesn't grab our attention, or isn't essential to store. However, researchers believe a neurological difference exists between those who do recall most of their dreams and those who don't.

In a 2013 study, researchers studied the brain waves of both types of sleepers — high recallers (those who remember their dreams almost every day) and low recallers (those who remember once or twice a month) — by playing tones in their ears with occasional and random first names. The oscillation in these alpha waves (8 to 13 hertz frequency) is associated with inhibition, meaning a decrease in amplitude is linked to a release in inhibition, and therefore increased excitability. The findings revealed the high recallers had a deeper processing of the first names while awake, but there was no difference between the groups during REM sleep.

In this sleep stage, the alpha waves increased and led the participants to wake up. In other words, the main difference between the groups was those who recalled their dreams woke up more periodically throughout the night. They were awake, on average, for 30 minutes during the night, whereas the low recallers were awake for 14 minutes.

The researchers hypothesized the time spent awake at night is what allows the dream information to be encoded into long-term memory, which helps us remember it the next morning. This suggests our ability to remember our dreams may increase if we're woken up immediately after having one.

This is only one of many explanations for why we remember (and forget) our dreams. The science is still out — for now.