I’m currently working on my dream recall and I have a question. Right now it’s summer and most days I don’t have to do anything in the morning. But some days I have to get up early to do something, and when someone wakes me up, I can’t remember any of my dreams. Usually, when I wake up by myself I at least remember a fragment, but when someone wakes me up I can’t remember anything at all. Also, school is coming up, so I’m going to have to be woken every day. Is there anything I can do remember something when someone wakes me up. I’m gonna try an alarm clock and see what happens, but there has to be some other way to remember them.
Yo dude-with-the-funky-name-that-I-don’t-wanna-try-to-type:
I have the same problem. I think for me though if I’m woken up during REM or REM is interupted I have a hard time remembering. I dream every night, I know it. But there are mornings and days that I can’t remember anything! I’m just glad it’s not so bad that I’m one of those people who insist they never dream.
I’m not sure if I can give you any decent advice. Usually if I wake up and can’t remember dreams, I’ll be going about my morning (showering, making breakfast, etc) and a teeny blip of a dream will flash through my mind. From there I ask myself questions to back track, like “What was I doing? Why would I be holding (whatever)? For what reasons would I be in this setting…?” etc and can usually piece together the rest.
Also, if you don’t want to be woken up, don’t. Give yourself 8 hours minimum to sleep. So if someone would wake you up at 7:00 to get ready for school, go to bed at 10:00 (late enough, right?) You may find it hard at first after all those late nights partying during the summer, but your body will adjust. I find that if I train myself with the alarm clock after a while I’ll wake up minutes before it goes off every morning. In this way you can get your 8 hours of sleep, hit all the REMs, and have better recall.
I imagine that most people have trouble recalling dreams after being woken up by someone else, because they then have something else to occupy their minds with (telling the other person to get the heck out your room).
Hey guys, last night I set an alarm clock to wake me up and see what happened. Well I woke up like an hour and a half before the alarm went off and when it went off. In total I remembered 4 dreams (4 short dream fragments, but hey…who’s complaining??)!!! Hopefully, I’ll be able to remember more of my dreams, but I think this is a really good start.
