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I'm always woken up at six in the mornings and I always forget to remember my dreams on such a busy schedule. I only get the gist of what my dream is about, but only because my recall is so reliable when I try. I've been drinking apple juice and eating bananas, but it hasn't been helping. Should I start a B6 Supplement, or should I try something more creative?
When do you go to bed?
I usually sleep for atleast 7 hours and I get out of bed 06.30 on the weekdays.
To increase dream recall you have to be aware of your dreams. Makes sense? awareness of something makes you remember it.
You have to understand that dreams are just your thoughts, if you close your eyes right now and imagine yourself playing soccer, well you are dreaming.
But when you are in rem and thinking something, (I don't know what happens) but your thoughts are vivid and you "experience" them.
And the dreams you are trying to remember are probably the rem/vivid ones.
I have no idea why it works, but if you say to yourself before you fall asleep that you will remember your dreams, it is likely that you will, with some pracctise remember that you dreamt something.
Although you have to have a strong intention to do so, so motivation is key.
Sit up in your bed so you don't fall back to sleep and try to recall your dreams.
When you remember something from a dream, try to remember something else, what happend before the thing you remember and after? What people were there and so on.
Even if you are not sure if what you now are recalling really was your dream, it doesn't matter you are aware of your thoughts NOW and you are pracctising your shortterm memory.
You can write these things down if you want, but if you don't have the time for it it's ok. (Although I think writing teaches the brain better, because we are raised that way =/ )
After some time you might like me, notice that your dreams are not a movie like story anymore, you are experiencing them as they happen and it feels like you are in someone elses body and that you are an observer. And sometimes you even get so aware that you get lucid.
And when you wake up you don't even have to recall the dream, because you already remember it, because you experienced it!
This is the slow way to get good and steady dream recall :D
The fast way is simple - WBTB (Go to bed set an alarmclock and remember a dream, then go to sleep - do this everyday.) Sleep for 6 hours then go up recall your dreams, then go back to bed.
Then one day you can try to skip the WBTB and see if your recall have improved.
I hope this what somewhat helpful, but I suggest that you keep drinking apple juice because it tastes so d*mn good :D But don't trust the supplements trust yourself.
I've the same problem. I get up at 5:45 AM on weekdays. What I do is when I'm up, don't think about anything else except for dreams/dreaming. This usually gets into a mindset in which I recall the dream I've had. I've heard it helps to have a mantra of sorts before you go to bed, something like, "I will be lucid tonight,". That has yet to work for me, but works for others.
keeping a daytime journal as well as a dream journal has significantly improved my recall. I just write the days events from start to finish right before I go to bed and use the same notebook for the dreams the next morning. I have a very busy schedule as well and this has helped me greatly. I believe that simply practicing the recall of information is what makes this effective. Happy dreaming! :D