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.
I’m remembering about a fragment a night, but I want to say, if you can’t remember anything for a long time, try sleeping elsewhere.
For some reason, whenever I sleep on the floor, an air mattress, at someone else’s home, or someone else’s bed, I always remember until I have slept in it for about a few weeks.
When I moved out to my dad’s, my recall was great, 2 dreams a night… but then I got used to the bed, and it turned into nothing… Maybe it’s just me, but someone else may agree with me here.
Hi again all Lucid Dreamers out there =D I’ve been taking a break from all this stuff but now i will finally start again but I got some problems with my recalling I’m thankfull for all tips and so on the best would be if somone had like a begginner tutorial with alot of tips. But as I said I’m very greatful for all tips =D
I kind of have the same problem, just with sleeping. I can easily sleep anywhere, but when I get used to sleeping somewhere I start having a harder time falling asleep. I don’t know about dream recall, as whenever I’ve slept somewhere else my mind wasn’t on remembering dreams. I might try this next weekend if my recall still isn’t good by then.
I believe I can explain why sleeping in a different bed can lead to better recall. When you sleep lighter, you have better dream recall, which is why sleeping in a different bed makes better recall, because your body isnt used to it and thus you sleep lighter. It works with other things too, I got new next door neighbors and their dogs barked all night, so the sound made me sleep lighter and I had better recall. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Thought that I’d just get back to you (no one in particular) on here and say that I had great recall last night, with the same thing happening as last time my recall was good. I did focus on saying the mantra over and over and I think that it did help, although I’m not really sure because it seems very odd in that both times I woke up early on my own without thinking of it.
Thanks for the tips it seems helpful. I’m going to test it tonight. I recommend it to other people too. =D see ya next time ;D
Hi there, everyone!
It’s been two weeks since I started training my dream recall. So far, I had made a wonderful improvement. Three days ago, I could recall two full dreams average per night, and even full dreams during my half-an-hour-long naps during the afternoon!
With that in mind, I decided to give it a try to WILD and MILD, but my dream recall became void. Zero dreams per night or nap. It’s been like that two nights in a row, so I’m still not 100% worried, but just a little.
Maybe I became a victim of the you-are-trying-too-hard trap? Or I got so into WILD and MILD that I stopped paying attention to dream recall?
Dry spells are common.
the key is … 'did you think you had ‘ticked off dream recall’ and could now ‘forget it’ and go on to attempting to LD? You need to focus on both.
Different efforts when going to sleep can alter the way you wake up, and make remembering dreams a little easier or harder. A thing to keep in mind is, despite what you may think at first, you’ve always dreamt something, and one way to recall would be just staying in the position you woke up in, trying to remember what you last did.
Good luck
Thanks a lot! Last night, I tried to forget a bit about WILD and MILD ans go on focusing on dream recall. I woke up at 8.30 and again I felt my head was blank. I tried to stay calm and in the same position and voila! Images started to pour in into my mind. In five minutes I had a fresh memory of one of my dreams (and a pretty complex one, full of dreamsigns!).
I guess the idea is to find a happy medium, right? As you guys said, not to take for granted your dream recall skill and divide your efforts between old and new skills .
Glad I could have been of help
About DR, it seems a conscious effort is always needed to remember dreams, no matter how many times you have done that, but it sure gets easier and lighter with practice and confidence, plus one way to skyrocket your DR is clearing your mind before going to bed ^^