Frustrated with dream recall

[SpaceCowboyDave]

I am getting really frustrated with my dream recall. I try to do everything recommended and I still can't remember my damn dreams. On weekdays my recall is hopeless. Hell, I can't even remember what happens in the early morning, let alone my dreams. On the two nights when I have some recall, I have very very limited recall and don't remember living them out. The dreams are usually in 3rd person, at least that is how I remember them. I see people on this site with detailed dream journals and I can barely remember anything. My dreams are like boring movies. People write in detail about how they are feeling things, doing things in dreams but if I am doing those things in dreams then I can't remember it. Sorry about the wining and complaining. Any "oh I was horrible at dream recall, then I did this.." tips?

[StaySharp]

First of all the good'ol dream journal, if you remember something write it down with as much detail as you have, however small a piece it might be. Shouldn't be too much work in your current condition. If your recall is that bad, depending on how good your memory is in waking life you might try improving that as well, I don't know how much of that improved memory will drift over into your dreams but I doubt it'll be nothing so it might be worth a try. Learn something for a language and see how long it takes to stick to your brain, or play something which requires a decent amount of memory, find something that puts as much training on your memory as possible without annoying yourself. You could also try to review your dream journal once in a while and try to remember the dream in pictures as much as possible.

[Raetin]

Right now, I have the same problem, but I only wrote like 5 dreams in my dream journal, so I'm not giving up. I think WILD may work since your going in a dream awake. I don't know anything about remembering a WILD though.

[quiktaco]

Well, there are many things that can help. First put emphasis on dreaming, and wanting to remember them. When you wake up, don't do anything but write in your dream journal. If nothing is coming to mind, then lie there for a bit...and then maybe a word or theme will come. I repeat that until I am able to write it down. I'll use that as a seed to get to other dreams. Often times I don't remember anything either, so ill write that I don't remember anything. Sometimes just the pen to the paper will help trigger something. Also, something that has been helping lately is making sure I'm fully hydrated. Drink 2-3 glasses of water an hour or two before bed. This may also help to wake between sleep cycles. That way you can write dreams after each sleep cycle. I used to remember a sentence or two a night if I was lucky. I've been keeping a dream journal waking a few times through the night to write my dreams. The last 3 nights I've had more than 4 pages each night. Last night was 5 and 1/2 pages. Hope you can figure it out. Seriously, just keeping your dream journal is the most important part. If you don't do that, and do it consistently, then you won't progress very much at all.

[Zoth]

Hey, I was horrible at recall xD This are some tips that helped me achieved what I consider a good recall (at least 1 medium/long dream per night) - Changing my alarm sound. My last one was really pinching, so the first thing I would automatically do when I woke up was turning it off. Ofc my dream recall suffered because of this "stress" when awakening. Now i've changed it to a really calm music, and I will change it soon to only play for 10 seconds because I can easily wake up. Also, notice that if you can't remember anything at all when you wake up with an alarm, is probably because you weren't in a REM stage. - Try to find a balance for sleeping schedule. For example, some days I would leave work at 4am, others at 1am. What I did was I decided I would always go to bed at 4:30 am, no matter what kind of schedule I had. If you have the possibility to wake up late during the day, you should try this. - Doing ADA, meaning All day Awareness, you can find a great guide for it here. How would ADA help you? Just because you would be more aware, and if this habit carries into your dreams, you will notice far more details. More details= more chances to remember the dream! I use this when I'm absolutely in a bad streak of no recall and it always worked - When you wake up, stay several minutes trying to recall your dream or anything that pops into your head. I thought that if you couldn't remember the dream in 2minutes, then it was lost forever. This isn't true. Sometimes I would worry remember a single thing like "It was me and my friend". When I go to sleep and wake up in the morning, many times I'm like "oh wait, me and my friend were doing this!" Take your time for recall! - The last one, involves quite actually some effort, but at least me it works. For example, I leave work, take a bus home (like 30-40minutes trip), walk, etc etc, and when I reach home, I grab paper and pen and write everything that happened to me in the last hour. That way, I'm performing a reality check and I'm also making a effort to remember past memories. No need to write it though, just thinking on what you've done in the last hour helps Good luck!

[Choi]

Say a mantra while going to bed "I am aware of my dreams" the next morning when you wake up stand up and imagine a dream that you remember and visualise that you are dreaming it again. The important part is not to recall them, I never recall my dreams I am aware enough to remeber that I have experienced them. But in the beggining you might have to recall them, but do the exercise I wrote above. If you find that you can't remember more than 2 dreams by doing this. Try to incorporate a WBTB or really a WTS (Wake Back to Snooze) as I like to call it. Just wake up with an alarm in the middle of the night and tell yourself again that you are going to be aware of your dreams, and go back to sleep. Write notes of every dream you remember. So have a pen and paper near your bed, Good luck! Ps. My dreams felt like low-quality movies too at first, but when I became more aware they felt more and more real, and my lucid dreams did too. So there a more than one way of being "aware"

[yuppie11975]

I find "I will remember my dreams" is more effective, because it goes straight to the point

[DrowZeeMe]

I find "I will remember my dreams" is more effective, because it goes straight to the point this is my mantra

[Robot_Butler]

Your example about not even being able to remember your weekday mornings is a good example of why a dream journal is needed. Our memories are pretty terrible unless we make a point of stopping to be aware and lock things down. You have to figure out a way of making this the first thing you think about in the morning. As soon as you wake, you should be writing in your journal. Writing forces you to translate the memories into words, which solidifies them. How do you normally remember to do things? Treat your dream journal the same way you would treat anything in your schedule. Make it a priority. Even if you don't remember any dreams, write the date and "I did not remember any dreams."

[UnrealReality]

I noticed while taking choline supplements, my dream recall got better. I've always had on-and-off periods of really amazing dream recall and absolutely no dream recall. As everyone states above, a dream journal even if you SIMPLY say "I have a feeling it had to do with being in..... etc etc" any detail you remember, write it down! I don't know the science behind it other than exercising your memory just like you would with anything else in real life. The more you work it, the stronger it will be I guess. The second I remember one little dream, I write it down. In the days following, I will dream. I've noticed as soon as I don't have the time to write down the dream, it goes the other way again and I won't remember for days or even a week following

[Pops715]

I noticed while taking choline supplements, my dream recall got better. I've always had on-and-off periods of really amazing dream recall and absolutely no dream recall. As everyone states above, a dream journal even if you SIMPLY say "I have a feeling it had to do with being in..... etc etc" any detail you remember, write it down! I don't know the science behind it other than exercising your memory just like you would with anything else in real life. The more you work it, the stronger it will be I guess. The second I remember one little dream, I write it down. In the days following, I will dream. I've noticed as soon as I don't have the time to write down the dream, it goes the other way again and I won't remember for days or even a week following I've gotten kind of lazy, mostly out of frustration, about keeping my dream journal lately. It's mostly because I used to have no problem with dream recall. I could remember them as vividly as if they were a waking memory. But it seems like the harder I try to have a lucid dream, the worse my dream recall is becoming. It's gotten to the point where when I wake up, I can only vaquely remember whther or not I had a dream at all. I don't knnow if it's just a dry spell or if maybe I'm just trying too hard. But it is frustrating.

[Stirred]

I wake myself up around 5 hours in, then go back to sleep. Sometimes I set an alarm clock, other times merely visualizing the time I want to wake up to set a sort of mental alarm is enough. The result is that instead of going directly into deep sleep after REM periods, there is a brief moment of waking consciousness. Here, I get up and write the dream down, then go back to sleep again. Sometimes I am able to write down 3-4 dreams a night. Another thing that helps my recall is that when I am lucid I tend to try to memorize things in the dream.