I tried to start my first Dream Journal last night, but I learned something. My Dream Recall sucks. I can’t remember a single FRAGMENT of a single dream, and everyone says to increase dream recall to write in a Dream Journal, but if I have nothing to write down, then I can’t write it down.
What do I do to give my Dream Recall a jump start?
For start you need to want remember your dreams. Every night when you are in your bed tell yourself that you will remember your dreams… That should help…
Man. there should be a BIG dream recall topic…
Okay. dream recall. where to start, where to start…
How about this.
Set your intention. How many dreams do you want to remember a night? Start out easy. One, maybe two a night. Make that your goal for the next week. to remember at least one dream a night.
Now you have a goal, great, how do you achieve your goals? Set a plan.
There are many ways to increase dream recall. Usually, your expectations will play a big role in how successful you are at anything you do in life. So, expect to remember a dream.
There are some herbal supplements that will increase the vividity of your dreams, making them more likely to be remembered. I bought this tea “Lucid Dream Tea” which has done great things for my dream recall. It tastes like the canadian forest too which is very calming for me. Puts me to sleep in a few minutes that does.
Try repeating in your head “When I wake up, I will remember my dreams” focusing on the meaning of the words, really meaning what you’re saying. Picture yourself getting up to write in your dream journal while you’re repeating the mantra. Ideally you will fall asleep saying the mantra, but don’t worry, as long as your SC knows then you’ll remember.
Two hours before bed, do not use a computer, avoid artificial lights, that means no TV, no video games, no laptops.
Research has shown that on days that we are physically active we get more slow-wave sleep. It also shows the opposite, we get more REM (when we dream) sleep when we are more mentally active. So, try doing something that uses your mind, is mentally strenuating, like, play chess all day, or do math exercises from your old textbooks, or whatever you can think of. I read, personally.
Sunlight is another thing, this helps in the production of melatonin. There ARE melatonin tablets but these are really for people with jet lag, although they will work. As far as herbal supplements go, mugwort tea is good. If you have trouble falling asleep try drinking chamomile tea before bed.
There are some Tibetan buddhists who practice dream yoga, who say that dream recall can be improved by focusing on your throat chakra. however, I don’t feel like typing this procedure out (as I have typed it out already, several times.)
Another thing that has helped me is I personalized my dream journal. It has writing all over it saying things like “Are you awake?” 3 reality checks to perform just in case.
When you do finally write in your dream journal, write down the time when you woke up to write it (this will help later on, believe me), the date, and give it a title. The purpose of the title is because the same part of your brain that is creative is also responsible for remembering abstract things like dreams. The purpose of writing down the time is because later when you start doing your lucid dream work you will know at which times you have your most vivid dreams and what times you, in general, remember your dreams at all. For example, I am between 1am and 4am when I remember my dreams. I have 2 or 3 dreams between these hours. My personal goal for the end of the year is to remember all my dreams. I’m not sure if its achievable within that time frame, but having a short term goal and long term goals are important to keep you motivated. Short term goals continue to reward you while keeping your sights on the long term goals.
Finally, I know this has been a long post, but there is a lot of reading you can do about this subject yourself! There are a great many authors out there who have written an extensive account of lucid dreams and all their components. On the main page of this website even, there are some hints and tips about dream recall, so look through. Browse the topics here and you will find that this is about my 8th post about dream recall already, and I have outline more things in those topics than I have here.
Good luck.
Thank you dB_FTS, and thank you a TON Cosmocreator! You guys really helped me out a LOT
Click me. It’s in “The Stuff Dreams are made of” sub-forum as it’s DR in general, not only in direct relation to LD’ing. Few people go in there these days 
And great post, btw 
On DR I also recommend this link.
Heres what I did. Every morning when I would wake up I would write what I felt in my DJ. Was I tired? Did I feel sad for some reason? Angry? Happy? Write it down. Eventually, those feelings will turn into an image. “Hey, I was thinking of a bunny, and I was happy too!” Those images will turn into fragments (“There was a bunny in my school.”) and those fragments will turn into dreams (“I was at school, and the bunny was my teacher!”)
Good luck 
That’s an interesting way to do it, puffycloud!
Do you wake up in the middle of the night to do it, or is this something you do upon full awakening?