Once you learn do you always remember?

I was wondering, once you learn to have lucid dreams and start having them fairly regularily will you stop having them if you stop writing a dream journal or stop making a conscoius effort to have them?

I think that if you stop trying consciously to have lucid dreams, then you will probably have them less frequently. Also, if you stop using a journal or making an effort to recall your dreams when you wake up, your dream recall will degrade, again leading to less lucidity.

Just keep putting in the effort, it’s worth it :smile:

I agree with Atheist. You have to be um… “more awake” in ur sleep. You cant always sleep really really deep and expect remembering a dream without putting in the effort.

I never really keep a dream journal (too lazy) but I usually can’t remember my dreams during the school week, because my alarm distracts me so much that my dream is lost in the shuffle. Recently my dream recall choked, so I consciously pushed myself (using the “Course on Consciousness”) to remember more dreams (even somewhat using my journal) and now have impressive dream recall on the weekends again (plus, thanks to the Course, my dreams are more vivid).

If you don’t put a huge amount of effort into LDing (my scenario), they happen rather rarely; I’m a lucky one, and get short-lived (still learning) LDs on a bi-weekly/tri-weekly basis. The best thing to do as a novice is WBTB (believe me, almost all my LDs have happened thanks to WBTB) and keeping that journal, so you can catalog dreamsigns to watch out for. Every single LD that I’ve had is either a sudden DILD realization, or related to a bizarreity (I STILL haven’t done proper MILD, such a naughty child I am!)

And whenever something odd happens to me (I’ve noticed that in my dreams, I often think of things and then they suddenly happen, so if this happens in real life I do an RC to be safe)

i second the WBTB method, it works very very well. especially if you get up and read LD stuff for an hour or so. when you go to bed you seem to be very much more aware and notice strange things in your dream a lot easier. i notice that i do, and so does Magus176, why wouldn’t you?

but i do MILD when i go back to bed from WBTB and I’m sure that can only help, never hinder. plus i do RC’s in the day and have a constant dream journal going. these are what work for me best personally. i just started and i had 5 LD’s in my first couple weeks! so i would have to say that LDing gets easier as you have more, but you still have to make a conscious effort to have them. they will wane if you don’t, but it’s definately worth it.