not recalled or not dreamed?

I'm seeing a pattern in my dreams where certain major details are not fleshed out. At first I assumed that I'm just not remember them, but now I'm wondering if I didn't dream the details to begin with.

Sometimes you have the feeling when you wake up that you know there was more to the dream than you can remember. Like it's on the tip of your tongue maybe. Or sometimes you recall the middle of the dream timeline clearly, but the beginning and/or end are vague, so you can assume that's a recall issue too.

But other times, in an otherwise vivid moment of dream memory, big details are missing. Typical example for me, I've dreamt that I was in a room with two people. The one I interacted with I remember, but the other two I know absolutely nothing about other than the fact they were there. Another example is I've dreamt of a conversation with someone, and I remember all of my side of the conversation and can therefore infer their side of it, but don't remember any of their words or their voice.

I can't think of any way to tell if I didn't dream it or didn't remember it, other than sometimes having a feeling that some dream detail is conspicuously missing. Like I can visualize some dream character's whole body except for the face. I'm also aware of a kind of "dreaming economy" where you cut to a future point in the timeline like a in a movie and you just sortof know what happened inbetween. Maybe dreams can also use "placeholders" for certain things instead of fleshed out details.

well, i don't know, but i do know that when that happens, particularly in terms of conversations, it can be very very annoying.

I experience things like that too, like, I dreamt last night that I met Luarance Olivier, but I don't even know what he looks like, I just knew it was him.