bad dream recall

i know this doesnt relate directly to attaining lucidity, but it helps.

i have very bad recall, since i started trying to LD, i remember 3 dreams, the third was lucid, and was on the 7th day of me trying lucids.
i keep a dream journal, yet since that lucid, i havent been able to remember a single dream.

I've always had bad recall, cos i was one of those people that said they didnt dream.
I go to bed at 9:45 and get up from 6am to 6:30am, sometimes 7am.
on weekends i go to bed at the same time, but usually wake up from 8-10am.

i know that dream recall is important/vital to have and to remember lucid dreams, but i can't seem to remember anything.
i feel confident that i am going to LD and remember my dreams, and i put off any negativity , but i still wonder why i can't remember them.

any help will be much appreciated.

You are right to be working on your dream recal, as it is important for lucid dreaming. Check out this tutorial. Happy dreams:)

Practising dream journal everyday is a good way to begin, so you're already on the right track. And you need to believe that you have dreams every night, it's only a matter of remembering them.

Don't be too eager to get out of bed the moment you wake up, lie around for a while and try to recall what's the last dream you can think of. If you're one who wakes up several times in the night, keep your phone beside you so you can briefly describe the dream you might just had in your phone.

If you need to be out of your bed the moment you wake up, continue to recall what's the last thing you might had seen in your sleep. I've recalled forgotten dreams when I was walking around and suddenly spotted a thing in real life that appeared in my dream and my whole dream gushed back.

Try your best to at least squeeze out one dream per night even if you have problems recalling, no matter how brief or detailed it is. Keep it up for a month everyday and I will think your recalling will be pretty decent.

when i fall asleep though, the thoughts in my mind disappear gradually, and then i wake up. i don't remember anything. i'm not trying to hard like i originally was, im taking a casual approach so if i don't remember my dreams, i just think oh well, life goes on. i'll remember next time.

the Dream Journal isn't helping much, because i haven't had even an inkling of recall since the first lucid dream i had.

i may be stressed cos i have had loads of exams, last one is on wednesday, so maybe then i will be more relaxed mentally.

This isn't one of those threads where the poster makes an excuse to give up on LDing after a few weeks, im not going to stop trying LDing, if i remember my dreams, throughout my life, i shall life more years than i have lived in reality. rather than 12-14 hours awake per day and the rest sleeping, i will get more hours in my life during sleep. just reading or writing about LDing gets me pumped, looking forwards to tonight even more now!

The thought of you giving up on LDing had never crossed my mind. It just seemed like a question asking about recall. Focus on your exams first, once you're done with it, get more sleep and hopefully more chance of having dreams and an increased chance of recalling them too.

I would think if you're serious in recalling your dreams, try to stress yourself over remembering them, bash yourself up mentally if you can't even recall a fragment, I do that to myself too so my recall is pretty decent. Once you get the hang of recalling, you can loosen yourself a little. You'll need to put in effort to have results right? :wink:

And dream journals are not magical item that boosts your recall the moment you write it. Dream journals are something that encourages you to attempt recalling your dream. The more details there are in your recall, the more vivid your future dreams will become.

yeah i just hear that too much effort harms the chances, but i guess if i try harder, my brain will adapt and assume that it is important, meaning it might remember it. good point.

I'm on day 11 or 12 of my dream journal and it's pretty much 1 decent dream a night and once 2 dreams. Before that 1 a week if I was lucky. They are magic to me haha.

problem is, that the DJ isn't working, because i can't even remember them when i wake up, let alone write them down. i keep waking up at night with unexplained emotions, so i reckon i may be waking up from a dream, but i just can't remember them to even put in a DJ

Well, as I sugest in a tutorial I linked for you, write in your DJ anything, even if it's just an emotion. And mantras about your memory being good and recall getting better. :)

head stands might be an answer?