Thread: Sure Fire Way For Dream Recall?

I would say just start writing down your dreams in a dream journal. I've been keeping one for a little over a week or so now and I've gone from recalling one dream every week or two to recalling at least one dream per night. I didn't want to do this a few years back when I tried to get into lucid dreaming ,and I ended up giving up because I couldn't remember my dreams. It might be hard at first but when you wake up just start thinking "What was I just dreaming?" and lay there. You may only remember fragments of dreams or feelings at first but you should write those down too. Writing them down makes it seem important to you increasing your chances of remembering dreams after that. Good luck!

I have always heard that if you wake up from a dream, it is the easiest way to remember it. So change your waking/sleeping around until you are for sure hitting dreams with all wakings. I wake up like 4-6 times a night and write tags down for a DJ. It increases awareness and you can reset your technique. As most people are, they have the most general dream awareness after 7 hours of sleep, but all their state awareness (awareness that it is or could be a dream) is at the beginning of the night. Since the two don't cross, it is hard to get lucid. I call them micro WBTBs! When you start getting dreams, you should DJ them like this:
How to effectively Dream Journal

Good luck, let me know if you have any more questions!

@mattfly!
Writing down anything makes your mind think that it is more important and increases your chances of remembering it or more things like this. A common technique for remembering anything is just writing it down. You can even throw it away after you write it. You forget everything that you do not take the time to remember.

The key is to understanding your sleep cycles. You sleep in cycles, you'll dream then wake, then dream then wake. Although it's not apparent because usually when you wake you're not really AWAKE.

Ways to determine your cycles vary. I've video taped myself sleeping and the easiest way to tell a cycle is when I start/stop snoring! Also I've used alarms and even though alarms may not wake you at your cycle, your anticipation of an alarm will help you know when you're done dreaming (cycle).

Read up on REM sleep. Cycles grow longer and longer as you sleep.

Once you know your cycles, set alarms at first to wake up. Then remind yourself "what was I dreaming?". 3 hours later you may not remember. You may want to sit at the edge of your bed as well to keep yourself from just going back to sleep.

ALSO, intent is huge. Start your sleep with a mantra like "I will remember my dreams". It works like a charm.

If I want to sleep w/out remembering a dream, I can do it. It's all in INTENT. Having the intent to remember dreams takes energy and one reason why I take days off from dreaming.

I've recently resorted to audio taping myself so when I have a dream, wake from a cycle (w/out an alarm), I will shout out keywords to remind of the dream. The next day I'll totally forget and review the audio and say "oh yeah!".

If I have the intent, I can remember dreams every time. But it takes energy, one reason why if you're very tired you may not remember.