"Practicing" Dream Recall.

**RovaJ** · 04-13-2011 02:42 AM

So, I'm new to Dreamviews as a poster, but I frequently lurk the forums looking at journals and all that nifty stuff, but anyways I have a question that I hope could be answered, and I hope it's not stupid, haha.

I was thinking the other day, if the first stage of sleep lasts way less long than the later stages, what if I was to set an alarm and wake myself up, say every 1 hour and 45 minutes (To compromise for time it takes to go to sleep, and a 90 minute sleep cycle) and wrote down my dreams in my journal, and did this 4-5 times in the night to practice recall. Would it be a good way to practice dream recall or would it just make me tired and not work. Also, while I'm on the topic, how long does it generally take for one to be able to recall 4-5 dreams a night?

**Raphael** · 04-13-2011 02:53 AM

Some people wake themselves up at night to record their dreams, it's good practice but kind be kind of impractical. Waking up in the morning and recording what you remember is sufficient. I can't really give you an accurate timeline of how long it takes, but with practice you'll be able to remember multiple dreams from each night, if not all of them.

**RovaJ** · 04-13-2011 02:54 AM

Alright, thanks. :-)

**Arra** · 04-13-2011 03:06 AM

It took me about a week of writing down my dreams to go from remembering 1-2 fragments to 3 or so detailed dreams per night. But it's different for everyone. You'll probably find that every night you remember a bit more. Waking up after about 6 hours of sleep, writing down your dreams, then going back to sleep, might be a good idea. But I agree that waking up every 1.5 hours or so would be impractical.

**Matutinalbliss** · 04-14-2011 03:55 AM

Well I guess you could consider me a noob too, though I joined last fall. I've tried off and on to write things down and motivate myself to practice my recall. What I've found is that whenever I try to remember my dreams nightly for a week or so, I go from recalling fragments the first few days to having at least one full-out adventure-type dream by the end of the week. However, I would then lose motivation for what ever reason and forget my dreams all over again. My advice in that area is to make sure you make a habit out of it. Every night now, I set my open notebook on the side table ahead of time so that it's there for me whenever I wake up. I would advise against waking yourself through the night. That sounds like you're just asking for an abundance of health problems. Actually, as to waking up in the night, I found this morning that I actually woke up an hour before my alarm. Then I did the math in my head and I realized I had only gotten 5+1/2 or 6 hours of sleep before that, which is the time they tell you to shoot for in the tutorials. I realized that I actually do this naturally almost every single morning without knowing it. Try to make yourself aware of when you wake up. Personally, just thinking about dreaming before bed is enough to give me at least a fragment when I wake. So again, don't push it, but make it a habit. It will come quicker than you might realize if you just keep it up and think about it during the day at some point. Best of luck to you! I mean, I'm still working on mine so that's just what I'm noticing in the past few days.
Sweet Dreams.

**RovaJ** · 04-14-2011 08:17 PM

Alright thanks for all the replies, ^_^, however I have a problem which many people have adressed but I haven't been able to find a suitable answer for. I NEVER remember to write down what happens after I wake. I go to bed and every time I wake up I just never have enough time to sit back, and I don't remember to think about what just happend period. I do remember fragments as I go through the day and see stuff that may have appeared in my dreams however, and that can make me recall an entire dream. For example, I once had a dream with a bunch of stuff and I made Tea in it, and I saw my Tea and remembered. So, I guess my two questions are: How do I remember to try to remember my Dreams when I wake up, especially when it's a school day and I just don't have much time, and would remembering it the way I explained above be practicing recall, or would it just be a luck thing and not help my "real" recall.

**Arra** · 04-14-2011 09:53 PM

If you have to be somewhere like school in the morning, you need to wake up early enough that you'll have time to write down your dreams or at least take notes on them. If you have trouble remembering, maybe you could write a note on your ceiling or on something else you see when you wake up or get out of bed to remind you.

**RovaJ** · 04-14-2011 10:11 PM

Ah, alright, good idea. Thanks.

**Keitorin** · 04-15-2011 05:25 AM

I manage to wake up enough on my own to write down keywords, but when I wake up the final time I've forgotten the actual content. :/ I'm thinking of implementing a meditation with autosuggestion before bedtime, but I may try setting a loud alarm for one of the times I know I wake up every morning.

**ShinodaCM** · 04-16-2011 10:44 AM

This might sound a little extreme, but if you use a computer or cellphone to wake yourself up in the morning, you could always record yourself saying "Write down your dreams in your DJ" or something like that and use that as an alarm... kinda.stupid but might work!?

**hashmash89** · 04-16-2011 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by ShinodaCM

This might sound a little extreme, but if you use a computer or cellphone to wake yourself up in the morning, you could always record yourself saying "Write down your dreams in your DJ" or something like that and use that as an alarm... kinda.stupid but might work!?

I like that phone alarm idea. If i'm gonna wake up with an alarm it might as well be reminding me to remember dreams. Nice