I have been consciously trying to remember my dreams for a month now and I must say my dream recall has improved. Still I do get the occasional “dreamless nights” where no matter how hard I try I cant remember a single dream. I have noticed that this usually occurs when I go to bed late after studying for an exam the following day. Do any of you pro-LDers once in a while get these nights, and if so have you noticed any similar causes? Take note that I do understand that every night we have dreams I just use this term because I don’t percieve the night to hold any dreams.
Although I’m far from pro-lder… or a lder at all 
I’v been practicign recall like you for about a month and I haven noticed nights were I just can’t remember anything at all, usually when I’m up extra late doing something. I guess when you study your just filling your head with thoughts of whatever you were studying pushing out your thoughts of dreams. 
It happens to everyone from time to time. But sometimes I even remember dreams even if I only sleep for 4 hours, so there’s still hope 
But I suppose if you have lots of things that you have to do during the day you won’t remember as many dreams as usual since you focus on other things or of you are stressed. Stress usually is a dream recall killer 
So Jarod, is there anyway of preventing stress from interfering with your dream recall? Or maybe a method of relaxing before you go to bed. I am always stressed with school work. 
I find trying to force yourself to remember a dream just doesn’t work. So, if you find you really can’t remember any dreams you’ve had that night, just don’t worry about it. There’s always the next night.
What techniques do you use to remember your dreams, LucidStudent ?
In general just relaxing and “forgetting” about everything that’s stressing you helps reduce stress. Maybe you could try meditating or just do something fun for a while so you don’t have to think about your stressing schoolwork. But if you have lots of schoolwork it might be hard to actually find time to relax.
When i go sleep late (1 - 2 am or later) i also have a lot more trouble remembering dreams. But something typical struck me during the past 1.5 years of keeping a DJ, which is that whatever i do there are just periods when my recall is great (most of the time) and other periods where it is less or close to zero (only for a few nights at most, and i still remember fragments then). These periods come and go whatever i do and there seems no way to stop it, so to me it seems almost like a kind of natural cycle or so. Anyone else had similar experiences?
[b]
Yes Xetrov I know what you mean. Though I have been only keeping a dream journal for a little more than a month I have been noticing patterns similar to what you are describing. For me though I cannot tell if this is a natural cycle or if its something in my life that interfering with my recall.
And answering your question, Basilus West, I pretty much combined several popular internet techniques to form my personal technique. I have a voice recorder that I use to record my dreams before I write them in my DJ the following morning. When I awake I typically wait a few minutes in bed in attempt to remember my dreams. I also set my alarm clock to ring at 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning. I have noticed my most detialed dreams and 1st lucid dream has occurred between 4 and 5 o’ clock. Of course I’m sure this is the same old stuff for you.[/b]
I can never Ld during the school year, just because i have to get up so early and not havbe time to write anything down.
BUt when its not a school night or something i usually remember like 4 or 5 dreams and go lucid, so i think you rproblem could be stress related and maybe because of lack of sleep.
When you wake up and don’t remember any dream, did you try the “association” technique ? You think about random words, for instance “dog… camel… car… roller skate…” etc. When it seems that a memory comes back, focus on it. It works about one time out of two with me. Of course, if after 2 minutes, you don’t find anything, stop and don’t worry, it will work better another time.
If you want to relax before bed I would suggest listening to music why you lay in bed.
It has always relaxed me and made me forget about my day.