I have the same problem 
My last proper lucid dream was in February. Since then I’ve not made much effort to write my dreams down.
Come on, people. 
I can understand laziness better than most (as an avid procrastinator), but it’s really not that difficult to wake yourself up once or twice during the night with an alarm, and reach over to scribble down a couple of barely-legible words on your notepad. I generally set my alarm for about 5:30, then I’ll roll over, half-awake, and write a brief note to be properly translated in the morning. As an example, this morning I wrote “Terminator, mall, German class”, then dropped the pen and went right back to sleep. Later, after waking up properly, I wrote about 600 words in my Sea Life journal describing the dream, all from what I could remember upon reading back those few words.
If an alarm isn’t convenient (perhaps due to living circumstances), there are other ways to reliably wake yourself up at the 3/4 mark. As mentioned above, you can often get away with simply telling yourself that you’re going to wake up after each dream. Alternatively, you could drink a decent amount of water and let nature wake you up (hopefully before it’s too late). Back when I had a cat, I actually trained it to wake me up with a subtle pat to the face at almost exactly 5am each morning.
There are plenty of options!
Atheist
A+ + for creativity. 
He also makes a good point. Lucid dreaming can be learned by anyone but, you do have to put some effort into it. In my opinion, learning to remember your dreams is one of the most important skills you need to lucid dream. Fortunately it is also one of the easiest to attain. If you put forth the small amount of effort it takes to record your dreams every night you will see amazing results in a very short time.
I just took a look at some of my middle of the night notes from one of my earlier DJ and some of my notes were less legible than that. Yet I was able to remember hole dreams from just a few incoherent phrases. It is amazing how the mind works.
I just registered here because someone told me about this forum.At first I didn’t even know what lucid dreams were,but after reading these things here I’ve realized that I’ve been having these dreams for some time now. I’ve never been scared of those dreams,I don’t know why…most people I know look at me as if I were some kind of freak when I tell them about my dreams.And I was beginning to think of myself in those terms too 
That’s why I’m so glad to be here. It’s good to know that you can share these intimate things with someone who understands and doesn’t judge…
hi frances, welcome to the forum 
feel free to introduce yourself in the BIG “hi i’m new here!” topic in the Intro section i hope you will find yourself at home on ld4all 
Hey, I didn’t really feel like reading that whole thread, I just wanted to say something.
I’ve remembered 4 dreams in the past 7 days! Thats more than I’ve remembered in years. I used to be lucky if I remembered one dream a month. But, I found everyone here is right. Everyone said to keep a DJ, but I just dont have time for it. Plus, I’m too out of it when I first wake up to be able to think about writing a dream down. Also, when I was little, if I remembered a dream it would stay in my memory. Apparently thats no longer true. Tues. morning my alarm went off at 5:30, and I remembered to hestitate turning it off(it was just music anyway) to try to remember my dream. I immediatly rememembered it, hit the snooze and went back to sleep. When I woke up 8 mintues later, my memory of the first dream was really fuzzy, but I remembered a dream that I had just had in those 8 minutes(I guess I was still in REM). I hit the snooze once more, but when I woke up, all I could remember was that I had remembered the dreams…but my memory of them was gone! GRR 
Does anyone have any suggestions? I really only have time to keep a DJ on the weekends, or I can write down my dreams later in the day, but not when I first wake up and remember them. Please help!
Welcome to the forum:
You have to find the time to write down your dreams. That is all there is to. It is not that hard and well worth the little effort you use to do it. Commit yourself to recording your dreams.
Good Luck
Ok, I decided to make a good effort to write down my dreams. Yesterday when I woke up I didn’t remember a dream, but today I did. Only one problem: When I woke up, I remembered the dream, hit my snooze to give myself time to wake up, but fell back alseep. This is what I usually do, because I can’t just jump right out of bed. I HATE mornings. I’m a night hawk. Anyway, the thought that I should stop and record my dream didnt’ even cross my mind. I guess I’ll have to think of ways to remember to do it. I put a journal right next to my alarm, but I’m so out of it when I first wake up that all I can think about is going back to sleep cause I’m tired. I’m gonna keep trying though! Tomorrow will be good, its a weekend and I can sleep in and feel rested when I wake up…AND be alert enough to think about writing down my dream.
Actually, I find that if I set my alarm clock an hour or so early (I do this on weekends) I will have no recall, fall asleep again and have an REM period, then wake up and remember it.
Ok, I have a question that may have already been addressed in another thread somewhere…but…theres a lot of threads! If it was, please direct me to it.
How can you tell if you had two different dreams, or it was just one and you dont remember the change of dream?
Also, I’ve read in many places that most ppl can’t remember dreams unless they wake up in REM. Is this true? Can you, with practice, remember dreams from REM cycles earlier in the night without having to wake yourself up to remember them?
It’s not easy, given that you have absolutely no sense of time perception in non-dreaming sleep cycles. You may be able to recognize a distinct gap as one REM cycle ends and the next begins, but I wouldn’t consider it a reliable indication. Anyway, it’s not really that important what REM cycle a particular dream occurred within. If you’re able to wake yourself up between REM cycles (something you can train yourself to do), it becomes much easier to see which cycle a particular dream belongs to.
You don’t have to wake up directly from REM to remember a dream, but it makes it immeasurably easier. It’s commonly understood that memory functions less effectively when you’re asleep, so the more time that passes between the dream and your attempt to recall it, the more difficult it will be to retrieve the smaller details. With practice you can recall much more regardless of when you wake up, but it’ll always be a lot more clear the sooner you wake up after the dream.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Atheist. That was very helpful.
And this morning I woke up to my alarm at 5:15, earlier than normal, so I could try something that ppl recommended. I didn’t remember a dream, like expected. I dont think I was in REM. So I decided to set my alarm and go back to sleep for 45 minutes and see if I could have a dream and remember it. And it worked! I dont get enough sleep as it is, so I can’t make this a regular thing, but at least I found one way that works for my dream recall.
Whenever you sleep for more than 90 minutes, you have an REM stage. The earlier ones are shorter and (apparently) less vivid, so you’re more likely to remember dreams from later stages.
Im having rather a few problems in the remembering dreams department. I read books every night and im not sure if thats helping or hindering me.
The first time i tryed the dream remembering exercise (2 nights ago) i remembered something but since then ive had no sucess. Ill keep sticking at it though and ill try a few adaptions to it.
Also ive had this curious idea:
I compose music and i was wondering if somehow my dreams effected what i composed even though i dont remember what i dreamed about.
I have these big sudden flashes of musical inspiration sometimes and i dont have a clue where they come from. Maybe aswell as a dream diary i should try and write a song if i wake up and cant remember my dream.
Through a comination of working at the dream exercise and working at my sudden musical inspirations im hoping to be able to remember my dreams and eventually i hope to be able to use my dreams to inspire me to create good music.
Has anyone here tryed combining music and dreaming before? ide like some advice in this, i dont have a clue what im wading out into here.
I also have a question.
Everyone seems to recommend waking up after each REM cycle, and that it’s possible to train yourself to do so. I’ve read suggested mantras like “I will wake up after every dream,” but my mantras don’t work very well. I don’t think my mind recognizes that I’m dreaming when I am (actually, it probably does, I’m just ignorant of something somewhere).
Would someone please suggest some ways to wake up after dreams. Alarm clocks are out because I don’t want to disturb my family and I go to bed at different times each night.
Wow the mind truly is incredible. Even against my better judgement, I was skeptical that it was possible to wake yourself automatically just cause you told yourself to before you went to bed, but sure enough I repeated “I am dreaming. I will wake up after every dream,” and I actually woke up three times last night remembering three dreams.
Hopefully with more practice, this will become more natural and from there it should be a slightly smaller step toward successful WBTB MILD.
Wish me luck!
Good luck, Shadowless.
Sweetdreaminchic, I’m not sure if this is relevant anymore, but you said you could remember your dreams until the morning in the first(?) post. Sometimes it helps to remember the emotions you had in the dreams, just the general feeling of it. For some reason, those stick with you longer. You can’t remember a single event in your dreams, but suddenly you realize you were really angry in one of them, and all of the sudden it starts to come back to you.
I personally can’t get past the 1 dream average marker (the last dream). Even when I tell myself I’ll wake up after each individual dream, it only results in delerious, confused FAs. I’m so out of it, I can’t even think to do a RC. Then I wake up in the morning thinking I have 2 dreams down already, and lo and behold, it’s another blank page. 
Well, since i don’t really have a problem recalling my dreams, i guess i’ll post my sleeping habits to see what i’m doing or not doing that helps dream rememberance.
i sleep everynight around 11-12. I’m a VERY LIGHT SLEEPER due to having to wake up at 7 every weekday morn without the aide of an alarm since that button on my clock is broken. so when i’m sleeping, there’s always a reminder in the back of my mind to wake up. Usually i would wake up several times before 7 to see if it’s time to wake up, and when it’s not i would relapse. those are the times i recall having the most vivid dreams.
on the weekends when i sleep in, i dont’ seem to dream as much. i guess it’s because i’m not consciously alert to check the time. and when i do, i would go back to sleep, too much time will pass and i’d forget.
Maybe exerting too much thought of “i will remember my dream…” can be a hindrance since when u wake up…u’ll be thinking, “i will remember my dream…”
try waking up with your mind empty of thought so that the dreams can have space to come back to.
i hope this helps?=)
fleeting form - have you actually tested that?
Since you say you’re a light sleeper, have you ever tried to visualise something when you drop off to sleep in the morning? It may come into your dreams.
r3m0t, wat do you mean? do i tell myself to have a certain dream or to remember my dream, during my waking interval ? i’ve tried telling myself to become lucid b4 but hasn’t worked yet and i haven’t actually tried to visualze anything in particular. but the remembering part is what comes kinda easy for me.