Yeah, that’s true, I find it very hard to remember my dreams after waking up from an alarm clock or if it was noisy while I fell asleep, silence during sleep is very important.
When you first wake up, and don’t remember your dream, try not to just dismiss it and move on.
Sit in bed for just a second and try to remember, think of just dreams in general. Its funny how I can sometimes go from “Oh, didn’t remember the dream” to having a whole dream roll out before me.
If that doesn’t work, try to think of trigger words. These are random words that may have some involvement with the dream you had last night. These can be hit or miss sometimes, but they’ve helped me out a lot.
What to do: When you wake up, and don’t remember the dream, just start thinking of random words, (EX. Elephant, dog, vampire, computer, LD4all.) Words with no pattern of specific meaning. You could also think of places or situations, those work sometimes too. All the while trying to think of your dream.
The hope is, one of the words you think of will remind you of a fragment of the dream, then the fragment will remind you of the rest.
(EX, One of the words you thought of was elephant, and you suddenly remember riding an elephant in your dream, and then you remember your dream was about you going to the circus or something)
It might not always, work, but it’s worked for me, and it’s worth a try. 
Goodluck! 
I know this may be a dumb question but how are normal dreams suppose to be? Cause when I dream, it’s like wathcing TV with low brightness and contrast settings.
It varies from person to person. My normal dreams are very vivid and like real life.
Some experience normal dreams like you do. But it could be that you just lose some dream quality when having vague recall. Even if that isn’t the case … all dreams can be improved once lucidity is attained.
Ok so i have been waking myself up with an alarm two to four times a night for 3 weeks now, but this week ive done the same thing but cant remember my dreams. Maybe the problem is that most of the time i will just turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. But ive sat still right when i woke up every once in a while and tried to remember my dreams but still cant remember!!! What should i do???
Merged from a topic in General Lucidness. 
First off, dry spells in both LD’s and dream recall do happen, so try not to get too frustrated. First thing to check is that your alarm is set for 90 minutes intervals after you go to sleep, with the first interval coming no sooner than 4.5 hours into sleep. Second thing to worry about is how much sleep are you getting, anything less than six hours is terrible from most dreaming work, and 9+ is ideal. The reason is that REM period length drastically increases towards the end of the night. Third thing is are you telling yourself when you’re going to bed that you’re going to remember your dreams and write them down, or something of the sort. As you do, you should be thoughtfully considering the meaning of the words, a mindless mantra is no good at all. Finally, as soon as you wake up, don’t move; just lie there and see what comes to you. Even if you don’t remember a full dream, do you remember a fragment, some details, ot even just a mood or impression you’re left with. If so, write it down. Try not to move until you’ve recalled as much as you think you’re going to then go right it down.
Also, we have a nice guide already compiled on the subject that you might want to take a look at here: [Improving Dream Recall)
Hi,
Does anyone have any tips for improving dream recall? I’m just getting back into dream studies/lucid-dreaming after about 9 months of break. I used to remember an upwards of 6 full dreams a night, and for some reason I haven’t been able to remember anything from my dreams for the past 3 nights. If I recall, mugwort tea greatly intensifies the vividness of dreams… [tried this last night, same problem] But if anyone has any other tips, I’d appreciate it. And, for the record, I’m getting plenty of sleep and waking up naturally (which is rather important, I think.) I’m recording my dreams with a tape recorder when I wake up. That’s not the problem. I wake up not remembering any of the dreams, before I move or open my eyes or anything of the sort.
This has sort of bummed me out because I used to have several LDs a night and could fully remember tons of dreams… 
Thanks!
p.s. Perhaps I’m just in a rough patch, eh?
Merged into the BIG remembering dreams topic.
I figured this out. I’ve been taking St. John’s Wart which allows you continue releasing serotonin while your sleeping and it messes with your dream and sleep cycle. A lot of people who take SJ’sW or other similar drugs have problems with insomnia and such. SO, I’m going to take a break away from the stuff and see what happens… Even if I fall back into depression.
Hi!,
I’m new here about all this with LD’s and such. I’ve tried to remember my dreams two nights a row but I dont remember anything I use a mantra every evening bofore sleepnig: “When I wake up I remember my dreams.” Please help me with this 
First of all I use a simpler mantra (I will remember my dreams) because it is five words as opposed to your mantra’s eight.
Second of all if you want it too much it isn’t going to happen. Let the mantra be your last thought but just relax and let it come to you. If you want it too bad it is not going to work out as well. Concentrate and relax. (I sometimes use a breathing exercise of some sort before going to sleep to help relax which also sometimes helps.)
Speaking of Mantras,
Is anybody here familiar with sound intonations that give psychic affects? <Well that could be a whole different topic in itself, but I just want to share a mantra that is specifically to produce the effect of remembering dreams in the morning.
“RAOM-GAOM”
How to use this:
When you wake up in the morning, do Not move.
Close your eyes, Keep eyes closed
Now, internally, in your head, that is, repeat the mantra “Raom-Gaom” over and over until the dream images start to emerge “out of no where” into your mind’s eye.
Here is a video of how the mantra sounds out loud, but remember, it is actually meant to be chanted internally. The first time I used this mantra, I woke up and had the feeling, “Oh, I was dreaming something cool, what was it!?” then I remembered the mantra that I was taught. I closed my eyes and repeated it. After a few times, the dream came back and just hit me! like this> 
This mantra really worked like magic, and I can’t believe I sometimes forget to use it in the morning when I wake up not remembering.
I know other people who use this mantra and they say it works for them. I am one of them and I hope it can also help some of you too. 
Oh, interesting 
I think I’ll try that.
Maybe it works because it makes sure your mind won’t start to wander when you’re trying to remember your dreams. I know I often have that problem, I’ll try to empty my mind but thoughts keep popping up 
Such a sound will probably keep you focussed.
This morning I got “hit” by a dream as well I guess I just need the right thought to trigger the rest of my dreams.
Thank’s for all good answers! 
I’ll try that tonight (and in the morning)
Okay so I’ve been keeping a journal since the end of February this year and I’ve always been good at remembering dreams. In the beginning it was less consistent but I have made a big improvement in recall. Though in general I cannot remember more than one dream per night, and when I hear of people who can remember five dreams, I get a bit discouraged.
Though I’m not sure quite how to separate dreams. I’m not sure whether some things I dreamed count as separate from other things that night. For example last night I had two parts that were completely unrelated, would that be two dreams?
How can I remember five dreams per night? I have been waking myself in the night using autosuggestion and when I do it I usually cannot remember anything either.
One dream per night is a good base to build onto. It is probably a bad idea to just compare number of dreams. Length and quality should be considered too.
Counting/separating dreams is really a matter of judgement. There may be two unrelated scenes but you feel there was just a jump between them thus making it one dream: whereas another two dreams may have a continuous plot or be more connected but they feel like two different dreams.
Dream recall will go up if you just continue to keep a dream journal and keep motivated.
It’s not always fun to remember many dreams a night. I feel obligated to write every single one of them down, just in case I find something interesting about them later on, but writing down just two dreams in the same day can already feel like such a chore. Maybe I write them in too much detail, but then again, it’s fun to preserve the detail if you can remember it.
Thats definately true. I’ve been slacking majorly with my DJ. I’ve been getting better though 
I try not to worry about keeping it neat and adding details later.
Well, the way I go about writing my journal is that I take notes in the morning when I wake up, and later on I write a more organized, detailed version in my proper journal based on those notes. I’ve described my method more in detail in this post.
Often I do the neat re-writing in the evening in bed, it helps keep the act of dreaming fresh in my mind when I go to sleep and I think I have that habit to thank partially for my good recall. However, it sometimes leads to annoyance when I completely misjudge the time the writing is going to take and I start writing around 00:00 and aren’t done until 01:00…
I’ve found that my recall drastically changes based on whether or not I keep a DJ. Right now, I’m recording all my dreams in as much detail as possible. I still want more tips on improving recall, though…
Okay, so since school started I’ve been having quite terrible recall, only remembering enough to scribble down a couple sentences. At first I though it might be that I was getting a little less sleep than usual, but on Thursday morning I could recall an entire dream and I woke myself up at exactly 6 am, all after not getting to sleep until 1 am. I expected that I’d get some good recall out of the weekend, but that never happened. I haven’t wrote them down in my online DJ yet, but they’re just as short as the others and probably even more boring.
My thoughts when I go to sleep could be the problem. I’ve been going to sleep thinking that I will remember my dreams in the morning, but not so much in a mantra, I just say it a couple of times and forget it, eventually falling asleep.
Anyway, I was wondering what some of you think I should do. Should I get more serious with the mantras, forcing myself to keep repeating them, or maybe take a break? I’m open to trying something else, since what I’m doing right now obviously isn’t working.