Need Some Input about DR

[TheGrimRose]

Well this morning and a few other mornings, i had 3 dreams that I recalled. I recalled them by setting my alarm about 5 hours after I fell asleep. When my alarm sounded, I remembered some parts of the most previous dream, I then fell asleep and naturally woke up remembering the most recent parts of another dream i dreamed. I then continued that process one more time. Until my final wake up at about 10. Every time I woke up, I recorded the most I could remember in my dream journal. The thing is though, by doing this, I feel like I am cheating myself out of actual DR skill since I am not actually remembering any dreams from deeper in my sleep and none of them have actually been really vivid. My question is: is what I am doing actually an effective technique in DR and if i do continue this process, will i get better and more vivid recall as time passes? Or is there other techniques that I could do to further increase my skill in DR? Any input would help. Thanks a lot!