The last person who told me that he sometimes remained conscious for the entire night, he subsequently developed narcolepsy. I don't think that clinical narcolepsy is a natural category, but a better one is having little or no sleep other than REM. In some people this eventually causes "excessive daytime sleepiness" and is diagnosed as narcolepsy. But most people with almost all REM sleep forget their dreams normally. If you do go directly into REM, you may find short naps very effective.
Hello LW,
There has been some interest around here about atypical mental phenomena such as synesthesia, blindsight, absence of mental images, and so on. There have also been sappy posts and requests for help. I'd like to discuss my personal quirks in the hopes that it is interesting and someone can help me.
I suffer from occasional hypnopompic sleep paralysis, which isn't uncommon. The unusual thing is that I remember my dreams every night, in extensive detail, usually several of them. Unfortunately, last night I vividly dreamt through what seemed like days' worth of having a severe hangover, all before I even woke up and had a real one, and it was a terrible experience. I'd like to be able to choose to drift into unconsciousness, as I occasionally do, to have a break from being mentally aware for such lengthy times spanning weeks.
Does anyone else have similar experiences? Has anyone read any scientific research on this subject? How do people not remember their dreams?