Best time to remember dreams?

Hello there!

A quick introduction, I'm Mattias and I just signed up on this forum, hopefully i'll learn alot from the members around and get some of my questions answered!

As I've somewhat rushed thru the first months of my lucid dreaming iv'e finally decided to slow down, and really go through the techiques and find the one that suits me best. I'm trying to improve my dreamrecall as I every evening write down the details of the day that passed, which makes it easier for me to remember my dreams. Iv'e also found out bout a site that predicts my sleepcycles, (not personally) but in general. What I'm wondering about is what time I should wake up during the night, in order to have the absolutely most effective dreamrecall possible. I usually set alarmclocks during the night, but I don't know what time i shud wake up.. Is it in the middle of a sleepcycle, or right after one, in the morning or after the first sleepcycle?
I also wonder when the best time to induce a LD with the MILD techique, the cycles during the morning or 90~ min after I fall asleep?

Thanks!
Mattias

Hello Procheus welcome to DV :)

Each sleep cycle lasts for around 90 minutes. As the night goes by, the amount of time you spend in REM during those 90 minutes increases. Ideally, this means you want to set up an alarm for 4:30, 6, or 7:30 hours after going to bed. The deal is this may require some tweaking depending on your sleep pattern. If you take a bit longer to fall asleep, you might have to drag the hour for the alarm a bit. It's all about experimentation, so work around until you find your "sweet spot". As you may have realized by now, having a regular sleeping schedule helps a lot.

About MILD, the best time to induce it is....always! MILD relies on your improvement of prospective memory, also known as your ability to remember to do something in the future. This means you can improve naturally during the day by setting exercises as simple as "I will remember to make a reality check whenever I arrive at a new place" or "I will question myself to see if I'm dreaming whenever I feel nervous". When you go bedtime, define your intention, knowing the more specific it is, the better. For example "whenever I see X person I will make a reality check" works great if you have someone who is a recurrent dream character. When you wake up at night, reinforce your intention and visualize yourself remembering it during a dream. The good thing about getting up in the middle of the night is that the time you spend awake is a optimal opportunity to boost your awareness and to strengthen your intention.

Good luck!

I wake up at 6 during the week because I have to go to school. If I start sleeping at 12 or 1 I remember my dreams and sometimes have 1 or 2 LDs that night without even trying. 5-6 hours is the best for me to have lucid dreams, but the longest was on a weekend in the morning after 10 hours of sleep

REM dreams intensify as the night progresses. Ergo, to attempt a WILD you would be better served to wait for up to 5.5 or 6 hours before awakening.