I just can't seem to remember!

I've been trying to have a lucid dream for about two weeks now, but I'm having a terrible time remembering any dreams. I'm hoping that someone out there is going through or has gone through the same situation, because I could really use some help. I have remembered only 2 dreams and a few small bits and pieces in the two weeks I've been trying. Almost every night I try the MILD technique, but I havn't had any luck.

How can I remember my dreams better? I havea dream diary and I write down everything when I actually remember. Usually I wake up in the morning but I can't seem to remember. It's as though I instantly forget everything. Though, most of the time, I lack the motivation to sit and dig deep to find something. When I can't remember any images, I wind up saying "I'll wait until I remember an entire dream before I bother writing in my journal."

Someone help me please! I really want to make this happen, but I'm losing my motivation because I seem to be at a standstill. I've tried the WBTB method as well as the WILD method, but most of what I read suggests that getting a good habit of recording regular dreams is the first step. If there is info out there, please direct me to it. How can I increase my recall??

It's ok, we all start out weak at something and yours is a very easy problem :wink:

First of all, when you wake up, you might not remember any images, but you probably will feel in a certain way. You might feel kinda jumpy, maybe happy or maybe even sad. Elaborate, think about the feeling. Why do you feel that way? Once you manage to connect the feeling to anything, be it a face, a certain situation or perhaps another feeling, you're already started. You just have to start linking everything and you sometimes end up with a whole dream just out of a certain mood you woke up with.

Maybe you don't wake up with a feeling, or an image, but maybe there was a sound, a face, a place, it could be anything. Just try to connect it to whatever came first or try to place it in a certain environment. If it's nothing but a faint detail, right it down anyway! If you read it again later it might make you suddenly remember everything, trust me, it has happened.

If you happen to wake up and you remember absolutely nothing, try thinking about people you know, things you like, things you did yesterday, thoughts that constantly come to your mind and if you happen to remember, the last thing you were thinking before you went to sleep. Surely one of these things will bring back a dream scene or two. I always do this in the shower after I wake up. I start thinking: "my brother... no... school... no... my girlfriend... yes!" and there I have a person, I think a little more and I can place her in a dream scene, I think about the scene and what happened before or afterwards and I have a complete dream.

Right everything down! Even meaningless details can be of good use and even if you can't connect them to a dream, they still give you an idea about what you usually dream.

Don't give up hope! If you do these things I assure you, you'll end up having an awesome recall :wink:

Often i wake up and think "Oh, i can't remember it all, so i wont bother..." But i find that if i do start writing stuff down, often 40%+ of what i remember comes after i start writing. That's why its so important to write down something.

Also, don't stress about it too much. Nothing kills recall like stress...

Last night I set my alarm clock for 8:00 so that I would wake up and record my dreams. I also planned on trying the WILD method. Unfortuanately--and I actually said this to myself--I said "Am I going to get up right now? Nope." I was so tired that I simply had no motivation to wake up and record my dream, even though I actually remembered some parts and could have remembered more. At night before I go to bed and during the day I can get excited about trying to have lucid dreams, but in practice, I seem to forget that motivation untill later in the day. Obviously I regret beign so indifferent at night, and I am hoping someone out there has experienced the same phenomenon. What can I do to increase my motivation at night??

Unfortunately there is no magic trick to keeping a dream journal... you just have to force yourself to do it.

I know it's tempting to just tell yourself that you'll remember it all in the morning and that you'll write it down later... but the truth is you won't remember it all. I fight most mornings to make myself write down my dreams and when I lose that fight, I inevitably lose most of the details of my dream as well.

So keep a pad & pen or a tape recorder by your bed and take those few minutes to capture your dreams the second you wake up.. even if it's just a few key words.. you'll be glad you did.

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I was so tired that I simply had no motivation to wake up and record my dream[/b]

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I know EXACTLY how you feel! The other night I decided that I was going to wake up, record my dream, then try the WILD technique, but I found myself thinking, "Naw. Not tonight. Too tired." And then I turned over and went back to sleep.

Hey Keeper of the Grove,
I can relate to almost everything that you wrote. Setting the alarm clock was useless for me because it shocked me awake, leaving me with absolutly no memories. If you had an alarm clock stereo you could set it to play some nice soft music or something.

But as for increasing your motivation, try preparing your dream journal before you go to sleep:

When you make preparation for sleep into a habit or ritual you will concentrate your mind on the activity of dreaming. This also includes the preparation of you jounal, perhaps recording the date and time you went to bed, the subject you hope dream about and so on. Using affirmations to achieve lucid dreaming or to dream about a certain dream subject helps to train the sunconscious to respond to your needs rather than introducing material at random. Impressing on your mind that you will have a dream to record in your jounal is all part of that training.

I took that paragraph out of a book on Lucid Dreaming that i have been reading "Lucid Dreaming: And The Art Of Dreaming Creatively" - Pamela Ball. Which brings me to say that i find reading this book right before bed is great. It is filling me with information on LD's and all dream aspects, as well as preparing my way of thinking before i fall asleep, all at the same time making me sleepy because reading does that to me. Then i usually do my own version of the MILD technique/remind myself that i want to remember my dream after i awaken from it. When your mind begins to wonder, realize that, and again remind yourself of the task at hand. The last thought in your mind before you fall asleep should be something like "i want to remember my dream in detail upon waking from it" whatever works for you.

But dont worry about it to much, and stay positive, you are definately going down the correct path. You will find as time passes, and the more you practice, you will be remembering dreams every night. :)

Yeh sometimes I can't for the life of me remember any dreams when I wake up, but I find that I remember 90% of my dreams when I have my shower first thing in the morining. I think it is the movement and the 'thinking' state of mind that you are normally in when in the shower that triggers it.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I'll take all of the advice into consideration. I actually had some luck on Monday night. It was actually pretty incredible compared to my less recent experiences. Unfortunately, I got sick that night as well, and I basically have been out of commission up until now. I remembered a great wealth of images from a dream I had that night, and some parts were quite vivid. I actually woke up without an alarm clock, which works for me on occasion, and this dream cycle lasted close to 2 hours. I know that a lot of detail was lost because the most vivid memories were from right before I woke up. The farther back I reached, the fuzzier everything became. The entire dream would take too long to explain, but I'll share one part, which I used to title the dream in my journal.

At the end of my dream I was following a small group of boys down a trail in the woods. I knew one of the boys in the dream in real life from a long time ago. We came upon a cold stream and decided to stop and drink. This was probably something I could have singled out as odd since we had only been walking a few minutes. The water cascaded down a group of large rocks where we stopped, and there was a small pond that formed. There wasn't much sunlight where we stopped, but what happened next was very strange. Instead of drinking the water right away, we had to use "filter fish." Now, I have never in my waking life heard of filter fish, and in the dream I was even a little confused. One of the boys plucked a fish out of the water--and with great ease I might add. the fish was calm and soft. I didn't touch it but I could feel it with my eyes. The boy held it naturally and then placed it in with another bunch of fish that were floating in a permeable cloth that was creating a barrier in the water. The cloth was small and submerged, but it was shaped like a bowl so the fish couldn't get away. In the dream I tried to focus on what we were doing and I seemed to have a sudden epiphany. Of course! We use the "filter fish" to clean the drinking water! Fish filter water through their gills, so I'm sure it will work. I really had admiration that the boys all knew this and seemed to think it was common knowledge. When I thought about this concept while I wrote my dream down I realized it was kind of silly. The fish couldn't have actually filtered any bacteria or harmful substances out of the water, but in the dream it seemed incredibly logical and insightful.

A step in the right direction! Now that I'm not sick, I hope to have more luck in the very near future. But keep giving me tips because I would like to make sure I keep the momentum rolling.

The most useful tool for me to recover seemingly lost dreams has been (as laberge urges) to stay very still after awakening and let my mind wander. If I do get up for something and return to bed within a few minutes, my mind is often flooded with my previous dreams. This works especially well if i assume the position I had while dreaming.

Well last night was not good at all. I have practically nothing in my journal. :(

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The most useful tool for me to recover seemingly lost dreams has been (as laberge urges) to stay very still after awakening and let my mind wander. If I do get up for something and return to bed within a few minutes, my mind is often flooded with my previous dreams. This works especially well if i assume the position I had while dreaming.[/b]

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That's good advice, but if I'm using an alarm clock to wake up I have to move. Laying still is actually what I did to recall so much of the dream i described previously. It worked for me then, but I usually don't wake up easily on my own.

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Well last night was not good at all. I have practically nothing in my journal. [/b]

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Sorry to hear about that, im in a dry spell myself :( from what i have experienced so far it seems the harder i try the less results i get. For instance i had 3 lucid dreams in 3 weeks, this was when i first started recording my dreams and didn't really know much. Since then i have been reading and really focusing on what i want to do and i can only recall my dreams, barely once a night, and nothing lucid. Along with everything you are learning also remember to be laid back about it, and dont stress yourself out or try too hard, let it come naturally. A good balance of both is probably the key.

I still accept everything that happens in dreams to be perfectly normal, that is my main problem. I suppose that is where reality checks come in. Do you often do reality checks? this will help you to question those weird things you see in dreams like filter fish, :) that is awesome! It's so weird how our minds come up with things like that.

You are making great progress, so dont get discouraged!

Hi everyone. I've been taking a break from trying to attain LDs for a while to give myself a break. I actually have remembered several dreams, or at least parts of dreams, but I didn't bother to write them down. I kindof got disgusted with the whole process, so I think I'm going to try a more laid back approach. I was trying so hard. Perhaps having an LD is just not something one can force to happen. I appreciate all the advice.

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Along with everything you are learning also remember to be laid back about it, and dont stress yourself out or try too hard, let it come naturally. A good balance of both is probably the key. [/b]

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Thanks! Duly noted.

Do the same thing whne you try to have LD, when you repeat to yourself at night like "When I'm dreaming, I will be aware that it's a dream" or something like that, just tell yourself your having LD.

Do the same thing but repeat "When I wake up in the morning, I will remember all of my dreams". And you must really mean it. Self-hypnosis would be more effective.

I used a dream journal, and found that t greatly increases recall.... Though it didn't help with last nights dream... I can't remember a thing :( . I've only had one lucid in my life, and that was when I was drowsey, I had been doing reality checks for a week, and I was not stressed or TOO tired.

P.S. I have a question of my own... Has anyone had the same thing as me? Like you know you had a dream and remember everything (well, most stuff), but it feels like you havent really experienced it? Sort of like you were watching a movie of what was happening to you, but didn't really care about whats happening to you ..... It's hard to explain.

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P.S. I have a question of my own... Has anyone had the same thing as me? Like you know you had a dream and remember everything (well, most stuff), but it feels like you havent really experienced it? Sort of like you were watching a movie of what was happening to you, but didn't really care about whats happening to you ..... It's hard to explain.

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i have exactly the same thing.[/quote]

SOBB: I think I know what are you talking about, it feels like you haven't "lived" in that dream, but you just remember it. If you talked about this, it happened to me at my first lucid.

That is exactly what I mean! I don't feel like I've lived the dream, but I remember it. Like a memory that didn't happen.....

It's as if you forgot sopmething happened to you, someone reminded you, and you remember it, but don't really feel like you've experianced it.

Is there any way to change this? Any way to actually EXPERIENCE the dream? If there is please share it.

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Originally posted by SOBB
Is there any way to change this? Any way to actually EXPERIENCE the dream? If there is please share it.

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I think the only way is to work on your dream recall.