I'm interested if there's a term for spontaneous dream recall. I will try to define the phenomenon I'm talking about.
Over 10 years ago, I started to notice that I can spontaneously recall dreams, and clearly label them as dreams. I may recall 3 dreams from the past night, then more dreams from weeks or months ago. Some of these dreams I have written down, others were "forgotten" upon awakening, only to be recalled much later. That's a lot of dreams. When in this state of spontaneous recall, I can consciously guide the recall process once the original dream is recalled and recall a number of additional dreams that may or may not be loosely connected to that one.
Just to clarify, these are not fantasies and neither waking memories. I can clearly distinguish a waking memory from a dream memory. The entire dream memory is recalled in a flash with all the details: place, action, characters present. All of this over a second or so, similar in duration to the Deja-vu.
I've looked up and found Cryptomnesia, which is defined as:
Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognised as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original.
What I'm describing is similar to Cryptomnesia, except that the memory is immediately recognized as a previously seen dream.
This phenomenon makes me believe that I do not really "forget" dreams. Normally, such memories are "blocked" from ordinary awareness, but can be recalled at random times of the day, or when laying in bed and preparing for sleep. Just to clarify: I calculated that I potentially see up to 1600 dreams in a year, and can recall many of them this way.
Is there a search term I can use to look at scientific literature that deals with the phenomenon of unbidden, spontaneous (dream)memory recall? Maybe there's something that deals with real memory recall that sounds similar?
