Typically people enter dreaming (REM – rapid eye movement) sleep four or five times per night. Research has shown that dreams can also occur during non-REM periods. This means we may be dreaming all night long. This may seem strange to most people because, according to the research, we only remember about one dream every two nights.
It is generally assumed that the dreams we recall more frequently are different than normal dreams in at least one respect, emotional content. Normal dreams are considered to be emotionally bland. Some researchers have found that in two thirds of the dream narratives they collected, no emotions were reported. These emotionless and often actionless dreams are usually forgotten but were reported here through the use of dream diaries which helped the research participants practice and get better at recalling their dreams. Dream recall gender differences also exist, more women (65%) recall dreams than men (53%).