Why is waking up important?

[DanaN]

I'm wondering why waking up is important to dream recall? Is it just that if the dream occurs early in the night, it'll get buried by other dreams and by waking after each you can make note of each?

Also, do dream signs have to be natural to your dreams, or can you just make one up?

[Tron]

You basically answered your own questions :P

[Glitter]

Originally posted by DanaN
Also, do dream signs have to be natural to your dreams, or can you just make one up?

I am a new member in here, but for what it's worth, I've never seen a post or read an article that would suggest that someone has made up a sign of his/her own.
And even if that's possible, we as beginners don't have to worry our silly little heads with those advanced things that are soooo beyond us at this stage...

Baby steps my friend, baby steps =)

[irishcream]

exactly, i don't 'do' dreamsigns, i just realise i'm dreaming, and i can't explain it any better than that.

[Tsen]

Waking up in the middle of the night will help your dream recall because after leaving an REM cycle to a lower stage of sleep, your mind doesn't remember things very well. It's better to wake up and record the dream, in your memory or, even better, in your dream journal. Waiting until the morning lessens the chance of recalling dreams from early in the night. Also, waking up in the middle of an REM cycle gives an excellent opportunity to attempt a WILD, MILD or WBTB. Even if you don't attempt one of those, interrupting an REM cycle usually means that when you fall asleep, your mind will go more directly to deep sleep, and consequently, dreams. This helps because the conscious mind can hold on for the shortened amount of time between consciousness and a dream, which is the general theory of WILD, MILD and WBTB.

Dreamsigns can be made up, or can be obtained through watching your dreams. A dreamsign found through observation of past dream trends will be more reliable, however. If you choose to find a dreamsign, look through your dream journal, and find similar themes, settings, characters and other notable components of your dreams. Then, every time you run into one of those things in real life, ask yourself if you're dreaming and perform a Reality Check. That way, when you dream of running into that situation/character/etc, you'll perform an RC(Reality Check) and realize you're dreaming. If you choose to make a dreamsign, the best way is to do the reverse of finding one. Choose something you see frequently in real life, and every time you see it, perform an RC. Then, in your dreams, when you see it, you'll perform an RC and become lucid. This isn't something that will yield immediate results, so keep with it for a month or two before giving up on it.

Good luck!

[green1152]

the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage is the prime time for lucid dreaming, and when you wake up from that stage, it throws your mind back into gear. Once you go back to sleep with WILD, it will be more alert for becoming lucid. (I think)

A good time to wake up is after about six hours of sleep. In one of the later cycles of REM. I need to do this, but I just can't find the time or tolerance to spend 30 minutes of my precious sleep.

[eyeofgames]

Ummm I think that when I ask my self over and over "When I have a dream I will wake up and remember it" I do wake up in the middle of the night and I do remember it. If Im to lazy I fall back asleep and the next morning I dont rember it.I cant do that to night!!!! :(