Never recorded a dream until 2/15/08, yet...

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
1

…I am extremely good at dream recall. Last night I recalled 5 large, detailed dreams (possibly less, as some may have been links/fragments of on large dream, but even this points to an ability to recall an extremely large amount of detail from a single dream). The night before I recalled 5 large, detailed dreams with two small/medium dreams (the sizes are relative to how much of a page the take up in a word document with size 12 font and single space (not including the title) with large being about 1/3 to half a page or more). These were March 31st and April 1st (today and yesterday). The only other dream record I have before that is February 15th.

I also don’t have too much trouble with having a dream, waking up, going back to sleep, having another dream, THEN recording it all in one big chunk after having some breakfast. If I am losing any information or detail to these dreams, I am unaware of it (and I am usually aware of missing information if it was in my head in a past time but isn’t then when I am thinking of it, especially if it is soon after I was thinking of it)

Is this normal, having such good dream recall? Should I post an example of a dream for you? And, is keeping my Dream Journal in a word document a good course of action (I write incredibly slow, and it already takes me up to an hour to record my dreams while typing, and I am a very quick typist)?

EDIT: I also have pretty long, abstract titles for my dream records. Do you recommend shortening them? If yes, why so?

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First of all congratulations on the dream recall! That is very difficult for some people, but there’s nothing wrong with being able to do it naturally. Keeping your journal in a word document is fine, just make sure its easy to find individual dreams when you want to reference them later.
I’m sure quite a few people will disagree with this, but I like to keep dream titles short and concise. Just a few words that sum up the general idea of the dream. That way you can still search for certain dreams using the title, but the titles are still manageable.
If you feel that it takes too long to write down all your dreams, just don’t go into too much detail. I just have a basic summary of most of my dreams (main events, locations, and characters involved, etc), and only record long descriptions of really good ones that I want to remember.

3

There’s no normal amount of dream recall, it varies a lot from person to person, but being able to remember that much is a little uncommon.

Recording dreams in a word document should be fine, I certainly recommend you type it, since that’s much more convenient, and an hour is already a bit much to spend on recording dreams.

Unless you’re trying to remember more about a dream that you’ve partially forgotten, or it’s a dream that’s important enough to you that you want to be able to remember all the details well into the future, there’s not really much point in writing down more than a brief summary of a dream. You might want to just summarize a few key points in your dream journal for most dreams, so you don’t have to spend that long writing dreams every day. This will also make it easier to keep in the habit of dream journaling over a longer period of time.

4

Huh. Alrighty. My skill in weeding out important details from time to time. But I think I may give that shot and see if I like it as well as full dream documentation. To give an example, I’ll go ahead and post a dream with the title.

The War of the Scary Clouds (and the Death Dance of the 4-Legged BeastZillas)

[ND]Quite possibly the strangest dream of the evening (Note: I believe that this dream is linked to the Church dream and that my little flying session may have occurred between the two).

The first thing I remember of this one is talking to my dad in a building (MorganStanley?). I then look past him out a window and see an extremely massive cloud in the distance. I first believe this cloud to be a tornado as it was funnel shaped. I cannot describe how absolutely wicked the cloud looked. It was extremely dark and sinister, and had what looked like fire mixed in with it at some parts. But it was amazingly beautiful at the same time. When I saw it, I approached the window, and as my view of the skyscape grew, more of the ‘clouds’ came in to view.

Then I looked down. This is a little odd though, now that I think about it. I remember looking down, off in the distance, and there was a huge battle raging, and where there had been buildings and stuff before, there was nothing but mountains and wasteland. What makes this weird is, the ‘huge battle’ was fought with very few people/machines/animals. I saw a line of fire where everything was burning inward towards the city I was in, and maybe a few people running around and a few military vehicles.

But the strangest thing–giant, 4-legged animals. Extremely massive (about as big as the mountains I was seeing) llamas (I **** you not; huge ****ing llamas) and other animals (most were smaller, about the size of the military vehicles) were goring people here and there. But the strangest part (I just realized I’ve said "The strangest thing/part multiple times -_-), the building I was in was only about 5 stories high, yet when I saw the battle, it registered as miles away. But if I was only 5 stories up, the llamas really wouldn’t be too big, and the smaller animals would actually be the size of dogs or cats. Maybe smaller.

But, either way, I got out of there. The rest of the dream is rather fragmented and disjointed. I remember I could drive in my dream. I remember driving home, and I think at one point I may have gone to get my girlfriend to get her out of there before either of us got killed. I remember nothing else though.[/ND]

(edited for content, readability)

The way the details in my dream are, they’re focused on certain things. Like, not everything is highly detailed. Just some things. (and I just remembered a part that involved me escaping the MorganStanley building. Thanks guys :happy: lol)

EDIT: That is the dream that received the most extensive detail. In it I referenced other dreams that it may have been a part of, but I simply dissociated them in my head :razz:

It is one from April 1st (I date mine by the morning on which they’re recorded)

EDIT:EDIT: And, thank you for the responses and input. :happy:

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In my opinion there isn’t too much detail in the dream :content:
I think the important thing when recording dreams is to put in the things that feel important to you. So for some people it will be more like a summary and for others the information will be very detailed.
Titles … I think actually spending time to think of a suitable title sometimes makes you think about the dream content more. I think the title you chose for the example dream is good :happy:

(I moved this topic into the stuff forum since it was more about recall and recording dreams)

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Alrighty. Thank you for the input and moving it to the correct location! (I accessed it from the original posting location, so I hope this post goes to the right place >_>)

After sleeping for about 10 hours, I have more questions! (which may or may not be off topic since the thread has been moved, but I’d rather not create clutter with new threads).

Does being sick affect dream recall? Last night I only recall having two dreams, but I remember absolutely nothing about them, and when I woke up I felt worse today than I have the past two days of being sick.

Another different thing about last night – I made a conscious attempt to lucid dream through MILD. However, I did not tell myself I would wake up after the first dream, yet, I still woke up about 5 hours later. After waking up, I remembered having a dream, but no details at all. This is a very strange occurrence for me. I also felt very cruddy (extremely sore throat, lots of nasties on it, you know the drill >_>).

Since I had read that waking up after 5 hours is ideal for WBTB or attempting WILD, I thought I’d give those a shot (I’d fallen into lucid dreams through WILD a number of times during afternoon naps, but I read on the forum somewhere that those are more like 'advanced daydreams). For the life of me, I could not fall back asleep while concentrating. I got close. I lost complete feeling in my limbs and remained very still (though I believe I could have moved them if I tried; it was actually a very nice sensation), and I got that rushing, falling feeling occasionally that I normally get with WILD, but it wasn’t as intense as normal. I also got the ringing in my ears (which I believe was associated with the Hypnagogic state).

But it just wouldn’t come. I tried a couple different positions (on back, hands to side, feet straight out; on stomach with both sides of face pressed down (not at the same time of course); on my sides), but they yielded nothing. I was wondering if there was anything big we could contribute this to. (my sickness, perhaps my mattress or pillow, maybe even the fact that I was consciously trying to go lucid). I was attempting to do this for literally an hour (with a few lapses in consciousness where I must have stopped paying attention) until I gave up and just went to sleep. With no DR upon waking, again.

(I’ve had my mattress since I was in elementary school (probably 3rd grade); I am now a senior in high school and am 18 years old. I’m guessing this may be a contributer to my poor sleep quality)

My sleep quality is rather poor as well. Like, I slept for 10 hours last night (divided up, mind you, but still…) and I woke up feeling a little groggy and tired and I was unwilling to leave bed (though it wasn’t too intense). This holds true for however long I sleep, be it 7 hours, or 12 hours. But if I sleep 7 hours, I usually wake up feeling a little worse. But the only times I sleep that little are school days. Now, when I go to school, I am usually tired throughout the day and I sleep in class a lot, and when I wake up from small, 30 minute naps at school, I feel absolutely amazing.

The strange thing is, I dream in class. I don’t know if this is because I enter REM fast or because I sleep within an hour or two after waking up and I chain sleep throughout the day. And sometimes I wake up at school and experience SP (like, a lot more times at school than at home). Or so I had thought. Lately I’ve been thinking that I was just dreaming that I was having SP and that I was even slightly lucid in the dream (as I made a conscious effort to move my arm and nudge the boy next to me, and he was there then, but when I woke up, he had been absent from school that day; hard to explain…)

This is a huge post… Sorry about all that >_>

Summary:

Do I need a new mattress?

Does being sick affect dream recall?

Why do I enter REM so quickly at school (48 minute classes, and I don’t fall asleep immediately)?

Do itching, yawning, and noises that aren’t normally present (the thud of a cat jumping off a desk) affect the success of WILD?

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I’m not sure if you are saying your sleep quality is poor in general or if it is poor due to being ill. I tend to find I want to sleep much longer when I’m ill, I believe it’s a natural reflex to try and fight whatever illness you have. If it is poor in general, it could be that your sleep cycle is irregular. I got into a bad habit of staying up too late and messed up my sleep cycle, that was not a fun two weeks. :bored:

Well with the mattress, it depends on you I believe. If it is uncomfortable to you, then it will most likely affect your quality of sleep, but to be honest I had a mattress for some time too. It wasn’t the most comfortable, although I have to admit sleeping on the floor produced a more restful nights sleep, despite it being slightly less comfortable, so I can’t say for sure a new mattress would help. :confused:

Being sick most definitely can affect recall. It can also affect your dreams themselves too. I’ve always found my dreams become more random and extreame, this actually tends to improve my recall. Although I know others have had worse recall during sickness. I’ve heard that fever dreams can be more lethargic, I suppose that could cause worse recall too.

It’s not uncommon to enter REM more quickly during naps, especially if you are having to get up early and are tired anyway. Since you tend to be in a shallower sleep when you nap, in general, your recall and possibility of lucidity are increased.

As far as I’m concerned they can be a problem to overcome. They don’t mean you can’t WILD, but you might need a little practice to get used to dealing with them.

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Thank you for the information, Dragon73. :smile:

When I spoke of my sleep quality, I was speaking in terms of, “as long as I can remember (years).” I probably should have clarified this better. This is definitely not since I have been sick, but has been around for a long, long time.

I decided to go ahead and switch my mattress out for another twin we have that’s only seen about half the action of the one I had been using, but we’ve had them both the same amount of time. It does feel a bit better to lay on. I also grabbed myself a new pillow :razz:

I think the only question I can think of now is this: Does having something such as depression (left untreated) affect the ability to LD?

Thanks everyone for the responses. Good luck with your own lucid endeavors :razz:

EDIT: Might as well throw in a question about antihistamine sleep aids. How do those affect dream (lucid and otherwise) quality/recall(/occurrence for lucid)