Thread: How to go from long-time "zero" recall to "good" recall?

Well first of all some people have a lucid dream their first night they try so don't tell him he can't. He he wants to give it a go over the weekend tell him to MILD.

When I started lucid dreaming I had 0 recall as well. What I did was recall really old dreams and think about them as I fell asleep. I started having fragments and then recalling whole dreams. Simply focusing on dreams helps you recall them.

Also tell him to try waking up naturally. And then to lay in bed with his eyes closed and try to remember his dreams.

If he typically drinks have him lay off for one night because alcohol can suppress REM.

Congrats on converting someone to lucid dreaming.

So flexing the dream "memory muscle", even if you're only thinking about older dreams, can help? I was skeptical about that but after your post I'm starting to believe that can work.

Thanks for the tips, they will help a lot.

Hey it worked for me no harm in trying.

Glad I could help.

He can also try auto-suggestion, it might help if he had the intention to remember when he falls asleep.

I just started on LD/recall, the whole 9 yards, about 7 days ago. before that I haven't remembered a dream for months. Out of the last 7 days i have remembered multi scene dreams 3 of the 7 days, not the whole thing but a fair amount of scenes i think the most was about 5-6 scenes of the same dream. But anyhow I also in the past have had crap awareness, aka i walk around for the most part on auto mode. So I have been working on awareness also, also using both the dream and wake journal. To make it worse for me i also have the bad habit of flying out of bed almost unconsciously. But using the steps above along with just thinking about what i do remember over and over, even if its not right when i wake up has helped. Awareness and just pondering the dreams i think will help the most, even if its the smallest fragment and even if its not right when you get up. I also have been using that n-back or whatever brain game thing to try to improve my memory, i figure that cant hurt for both awake and dream life. Also the ones that i remember the best are the ones i wake up during it, especially those that shock you to the awake stake. Hope this helps some. BTW, i don't have good recall by any means yet, but its better than before.

Vitamin b6. It should make his dreams more vivid and easier to remember. I had 200 mg the first night I took it, and I had a lucid dream . Though I had been trying to for a while.

I have never practiced dream recall and do not write a journal. Most nights I do not remember any of my dreams. My lucid dreams are only WILDs so far, but I am successful more then half of my attempts. I can remember my LDs usually very well. Still my dream recall for the night dreams is unchanged very poor.
So I have almost zero dream recall but anyway very good LD recall.

Thanks guys. I told him about these tips, but he didn't follow them. Needless to say, he didn't exactly develop much more of an interest in LDing - I actually think it went away.

The NERVE of some PEOPLE :p

I know, right?

The best way to start from zero is to set his intention when he goes to sleep at night, then interrupt his sleep during a REM cycle, then record the dream. This should get things kick started. His sleep schedule is probably set up so that he never wakes directly from a dream.

It's sad that he went away. My 2 cents: when your father will get better at dream recall, he will become more interested, as he gets more interested, he will be more likely to practice. It's the initial step that will be hard for him to take. I also second the vitamin B6 (50mg) and thinking of dream recall techniques until he catches his first dream memory.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

The best way to start from zero is to set his intention when he goes to sleep at night, then interrupt his sleep during a REM cycle, then record the dream. This should get things kick started. His sleep schedule is probably set up so that he never wakes directly from a dream.

When you say interrupt an REM cycle during the night, are you referring to setting an alarm for REM Periods? Also how would you set a sleep schedule to help the sleeper wake directly from the dream?

What helped me was setting random alarms in the middle of the night. That is quite helpful, along with the other things people have mentioned.