Any tips for regaining dream recall?

[Baradrim]

Hello. I was busy a month ago and I lost all my dream recall. Any tips for that? (Don't say about dream journals because I have no chances of writing anything if I forget it the moment I wake up.)

[ryman]

Hello, I had taken a break from lucid dreaming and such for a little while to focus on school and such. I had the same problem with recall. What I did was start telling myself often that I will remember more dreams. Just as mantras work for lucid dreaming. I would do this usually before I went to bed and some before I fell asleep. Then, when you wake up try not to move at all if possible. Try as hard as you can to remember any small dream fragment. Anything you can remember even the smallest detail(e.g. "I walked into a store"), write it down. If lying there for a little bit with absolutely no recall, try rolling over into a different position and try again to remember. The reason for switching positions is that it is easier to remember a dream when you lie in the position you were lying in when you had the dream. I know you said nothing about dream journals, but like I said any slight detail, fragment whatever, you must WRITE IT DOWN. That is the key to building your dream recall. Hope this helps, good luck.

[gab]

Despite of you saying not to recommend DJ, that's what I'm gonna recommend, because that's the best way to get your recall. Try what ryman says, good advice. If you don't remember anything, write "my memory is great and recall getting better every day". Have intent/use mantras to remember your dreams. Drink water before bed and every time you wake up. Good chance you wake up right after dream is over and then you remember. Write down everything, or at least keywords and then everything in the morning. ***Moved to Dream Signs and Recall***

[justme]

Just think about dreams more during the day. You're on this forum right now so that will probably help. Also I do understand if you don't remember anything a DJ won't help but I would still write down something like January 15th didn't remember anything because then when you do have a dream you are already in the habit or writing something down. If all else fails wake up a different times. You usually remember your dreams if you wake up directly from it so maybe you need to shift your sleep schedule a few times until you start remembering stuff again (unless that's too much trouble). Good luck. ^_^

[Zoth]

First of all, get a good sleeping schedule. I hope that "busy month" didn't mean a bad sleep month too! If you want to develop good recall, before anything, you want to get (if possible) a regular sleeping schedule. It's the most effective way to increase it, because if know when you're in REM or not, you know what's the best time to wake up if you want to recall a dream. You can try to fit your schedule into a 8 or 9hours one, which will give you plently of chances of waking up during REM, even if we take into account the variations of your physical self (being more or less tired, food eaten, etc etc). Secondly, the best way to increase dream recall is having a good wakening. There's no use to wake up in REM if your alarm is metallica or Slipknot. You can always set 2 alarms: a) First alarm has a very low tune, preferably turns off by itself after a few seconds, and it's designed to wake you up gently. There's apps for this if you possess a iphone/android, but any alarm works if you can change the tune. b) Second alarm is loud and requires you to turn it off. It's used to wake you up, so you never have troubles getting up if you need to head school/work. Set it to a few minutes later than the first alarm. This way you won't stress yourself if you wake up with short time for your dream recall in the morning. Until you hear your 2nd alarm, you got all the time in the world to perform your dream recall, and your body indeed gets used to this queue. And finally, consider laying in bed for some more minutes. Many times I think I can't recall anything but if I just let my thoughts wander I can always find at least a dream fragment. By simply drifting into "apparent" sleep, you may relax enough that you can actually recall previous dream memories. Good luck!

[dreamer7]

please try sleeping on your back, it works every single time for me i remember 2-3 dreams every time it has never failed me in a year would like to know if i have some how trained my brain to remember dreams if i sleep on my back.. or if it works for everyone

[oneiroer]

I have bad recall too but whenever I remember to ask myself what was I dreaming when I wake up it usually works even if I can't remember the whole dream.

[Mancon]

Everyone's advice is good. I also recommend you setting and alarm for the middle of the night (or drink a lot of water before bed to naturally wake up) and trying to remember then. If its the middle of the night I remember my dreams better. If you remember them then jot down a few quick notes and go back to bed. Also make sure dreams are the first thing you think about when you wake up. I recommending putting a sticky note where you will see it right away. Good luck!

[Dawson980]

I'm having the same problem except when I remember at all it's multiple dreams or a really long one that ends up going in a completely different direction than originally