Hello. Last time I was on this site was about a year ago. I kinda gave up trying to lucid dream after a while. I tried the talk to yourself before you go to sleep technique for months with no progress.
I want to get back into lucid dreaming, but I need some help. I’ll give details about my situation, and I’ll receive feedback based on that information because that usually works well.
My sleep schedule is a little wonky. On weekdays, I fall asleep around 11-12 and wake up at 6:30. On weekends, I go to sleep around the same time, but wake up anywhere from 7-9.
I don’t regularly record my dreams, but I don’t often remember mine, and even when I do, I remember only what the dream was about, but the visual aspect is usually very blurry.
Someone told me that taking naps helps with lucid dreaming. Anyway, based on this information what help can you guys give me? I’m looking for more obscure information or things that helped individuals, I already know about all the common techniques.
Thanks for the reply. You’re right, I definitely need to work on dream recall. Any tips for that because I seem to forget my dreams instantly? Also, I forgot to mention, once I’m awake I have a very difficult time falling back asleep, and I actually just have a difficult time falling asleep in general, no matter the circumstances, so I don’t know if that changes any of the advice you gave me.
I’m a newbie and not really one to give advice, but here are a couple basics about dream recall:
Keep your eyes closed when you wake up and think about what just happened, the idea is to not forget much about the dream by distracting yourself with real world stuff.
Use an object to remind yourself about dreams when you wake up. For example, I used a clock, I would intend to think about my dreams whenever I saw it after waking up, and seeing the clock reminded me. If you can’t remember to do this you can write something on a note and stick it to the wall or any place where you would see it as soon as you wake up.
Also it’s important to start small. I doubt most people recall much about their dream the first time they do it. But after a week or so of consistently doing it you may be surprised by the results. It’s important to write whatever little bit of information you remember.
Also, I can definitely relate to giving up. I have never been able to fully commit to lucid dreaming and journalling for more than two weeks at a time. Life just kept getting busy out of nowhere and taking away my attention for it… I’ve been doing it on and off for almost two years. I also used to have insomnia and it was miserable. It’s still there, but much more mild than it used to be.
I would say, if you don’t remember your dream right away, do lie in bed for a bit and see if it comes back to you. I don’t think you necessary need to keep your eyes closed (if I closed my eyes, I’d likely fall back asleep again). But you may want to go to bed 15 minutes earlier, and wake up 15 minutes earlier, if it means you won’t have to jump out of bed first thing in the morning.
I definitely agree you should write down whatever you remember. This means, if all you remember is you saw something green, you just write down “I saw something green”. And if it’s that you felt happy, you write down “I felt happy”.
If you remember nothing at all, you should write down that you remembered nothing. That way, you’re still consistently writing in your dream journal, and making a habit out of it. Over time, it’ll be easier to remember your dreams, though there will always be days that it’s hard to recall much. That’s alright, because the next night, you might recall your dreams with no difficulty.
Fair, if you fall asleep easily right after waking up you shouldn’t keep your eyes closed, yeah. Good idea to spare some extra time for it by adjusting your bedtime too.
Also happy forum birthday.
After you have got the habit to write down your dreams, analyze them and find their common patterns. For example, do you see pretty often dreams where people, or things are in the unusual context (for example, you interact with people who are dead IRL; you work with a school mate you have actually not met for 20 years IRL; you are in your childhood home etc). Or you try to use some things, but its very hard (for me dialing on my phone almost never works in dreams, I can try to press right numbers, but on the screen wrong numbers keep appearing, etc). Etc. Notice the patterns that often happen in your dreams, but what cannot be real IRL. Your mind starts to be more alertful noticing those patterns in dreams, so you increase the possibility that during normal dream you start to wonder is this real what is happening. And if you start to question it, then you probably remember to do RC, or realize that this is dream.
