Thread: how do i attain memory of vivid dreaming? my dreams are not vivid at all

Think through your day backwards in fast-rewind mode within a few minutes before you go to sleep each night. It takes a little effort, dedication and concentration, but I promise that you will start remembering your dreams in exquisite detail.

thanks i'll try this out

Shaded1,

I am just starting up again, but I have done dream recall work before. The lucid aspect - I never 'tried' to be lucid it just happened (DILD). However, I kept a routine, kept a journal on my bedside table, and wrote in it every night a specific 'cue'. It trained my mind to wake after dreaming. The trick was once I woke NOT falling straight back to sleep. When I woke, I grabbed my journal and scribbled only key words - or the main idea of the dream down so that in the morning I could piece it together and trigger the full memory of the dream. It took a while but with consistency and the routine I was able to have vivid dreams and good dream recall. My dreams now are elusive but I have not been trying lately. You can check out the vividness of my dreams. Many are extraordinarily vivid and detailed. I have never been able to recall dreams every single night though - nor do I think I'd want to as you'll interrupt your sleep pattern often. I don't know - just my thoughts.

I believe to a certain extent that nearly all dreams are vivid, but it does depend on what sort of dream location you may be in at the time, it may be night time or you may be trying to run away from someone or something etc and so your mind is not necessarily focusing on visual details at the time. One thing I found in my own vivid dreams is that the more mundane or slow-paced a particular dream is, the more detailed it generally is, that may be that the mind is more readily able to take in the scenery and objects.

A dream journal is best of course at capturing any detail of a dream you've just woken up from, so please use one if you don't already, and try and remember every little detail you can from your last dream, that includes colours of items, textures, locations, peoples eye/hair colour, clothing, even floor tiles, carpets, you name it it's probably all there. Now of course, if these details aren't readily available to you after you have awoken from a dream then you're going to have to do some more work on your daily awareness generally. I have read about the ADA tutorials but have never tried them yet but they may be of help in this area also, but you don't even have to be that commited yet to get good vivid dream recall. I would suggest spending a few minutes at night just before bed looking around your own room, examining the objects there, maybe picking a few up to feel the different textures and surfaces and generally let your mind soak up all the details you see.

Now not all dreams are going to be 3D blockbusters like in the movie theaters, but here's a small example of how much detail or vividness you may be able to find within your own dreams, it's the tiny attention to detail that can make all the difference to a dreams quality overall.

One time I had a dream where I was standing right in front of a beautiful lady, you know, face to face, and whilst I was gazing into her eyes I noticed something I wouldn't normally would even in real life unless focusing on it directly. The thing I noticed was my own reflection reflected back at me from the surface of her eye! I thought this amazing after I woke up as I thought to myself.. why would my dreaming mind even bother with such a detail, but it is of course something that we should expect to see everytime we would look into someone elses eyes, of course you've got to be pretty close to the person to see that (literally) but I found it a great level of detail to include. You can try it in your own mirror in the bathroom at home and you'll see the same reflection (a miniature you) , not from the mirror but from your eye.

Sorry for the rambling post though, just my 2 cents worth!

I'm a fan of journaling dreams too, it really helps recalling several vivid dreams every morning.
My dreams are usually vivid, even when things don't go really well but I had weak and gloomy dreams when I was phisically ill, so I wonder if you enjoy good phisical health, good food and fresh air etc...?

Some of my dreams are non vivid near the on set of sleep, but more vivid near the end just before I wake up. There sometimes is a slow fuzzy area before I wake up. This where my memories of my earlier dreams can fade . I hated forgetting them until I practiced getting over this memory fade period.
Now I remember many vivid periods that I used to forget in dreams , so a DJ is a great start.

thanks everyone

yea i am a very big believer in that we have very vivid dreams, and many dreams, but it's just the memory that we don't have, leaving us thinking "oh i didn't really dream last night"

but yea i'll do the journal thing, and i have a question: i only remember dreams that happen before i wake up, when i'm 30-50% awake and the rest % sleeping, but the mid-night dreams that i have are very short memories and just glimpses, so my question is, is it possible to train myself some how to remember my deep-sleep dreams?

i really want to get back into this kind of thing heh, i really get inspired by my dreams and i'll do many things to help me have more fun dreaming

ty again

About remembering deep sleep dreams, I'm not saying it's impossible but I do believe it is very hard. Unless of course, you wake yourself up during that time. The only time I remember dreams before early morning is when I wake up around that time and write them down then and there.

but yea i'll do the journal thing, and i have a question: i only remember dreams that happen before i wake up, when i'm 30-50% awake and the rest % sleeping, but the mid-night dreams that i have are very short memories and just glimpses, so my question is, is it possible to train myself some how to remember my deep-sleep dreams?

I believe it is possible to train yourself how to remember your deep sleep dreams. It's just a matter of practice and patience. I'm starting up again but when I was journaling regularly, I remembered very deep and vivid, as well as long dreams. Now, not every night. I do think it differs by person too. So, what might happen for me, may not for you and visa versa. But I'd say be patient and don't give up. If you're getting recall that is a good sign, eventually, the deeper stuff will come and I am quite sure that somewhere on this massive site they have links for how to improve dream recall.

Originally Posted by shaded1

thanks i'll try this out

Did this end up working for you? have you tried it out yet??

I seem to have the exact same issue, at the moment im trying different lucid aids, vitamin b6, melatonin, apple juice etc.
But can't seem to recall an amazingly vivid dreams, alot of the are just normal dreams, haven't had a lucid for a while too which sucks but getting back on with my reality checks and trying some other stuff i've seen on DV's.
i always recall my dreams not 100% though, but as much as i can, been trying to do them in as much detail as possible also, but yeah sometimes i wake up and have no recall other times i can write half a page or a page even!! sucks how its all over the place for me anyway..

You know, I have this problem too. I can remember my dreams in length, at least most of the time. However, I find myself asking "Did that even happen?" because it just feels so distant and faded.