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For some reason for the past maybe 2 1/2 weeks maybe three I have had no so good dream recall. Most of the days I wake up with only the feeling of knowing I had a dream. NOTHING ELSE. I don't know what to do. Do I really just write "Nothing" in my dream journal?.. Can anyone please help me. I'd really love to start remember my dreams again. I was remember 2 a night for about week and then it's just gone downhill.
If you remember one image, anything at all, one half of an image, a quarter of an image, write it down. If you don't even remember an image, then just write down "No recall." You might also write down any emotions you feel after waking up, but it's not necessary.
Do you have much stress? Do you worry about things in your waking life? This will drastically affect your recall.
Do you get quality sleep? Around 7-8 hours?
Did you change anything in your diet?
Try focusing on some of your older dreams during the day. Read your old journal entries and try to recall, actually re-live some of the very vivid dreams you have had.
When you first wake up, remain completely still and try to think about your dreams, even if you don't at first remember anything. You're still sort of in a dream like state when you first wake up, so, its easier to remember them.
Having a consistent sleep schedule can be pretty vital. Do you sometimes sleep for 5 hours a night, only to get 10 hours of sleep the next night (or something along those lines)? Try to get the same amount of sleep every night. Going to sleep early can also help. Sometimes I'll go to sleep past midnight and no matter how long I sleep, my recall will be awful. But if I go to bed sooner than that, my recall will be much better, even if I don't sleep in as much. But as Empedocles said, getting about 7-8 hours of sleep will definitely facilitate the process.
Also, do you wake up after about 4-5 hours of sleep to write in your dream journal? (Or whenever your REM cycles end, if you've managed to figure that out.) When you do this, make sure to go over all of your dreams in your mind before you move around too much. Only sit up and turn on the light to write in your dream journal when you've remembered as much of your dreams as you think you can possibly remember and you've gone through them over and over in your mind. Using an audio voice recorder to record your dreams can be pretty handy in this process, as you won't have to turn on the light and wake your brain up if you've set the recorder down on a bedside table and know where it is.
Everything that everyone else has said can be very important to help Dream Recall. You could use mantras as you go through your day and as you fall asleep to help you out as well.
"I wake up and remember my dreams," or something to that effect could be helpful here.
*Moved to Dream Signs and Recall
Major change in life, stress and especially change in sleeping schedule can be the cause, or it can be just random, either way it will eventually be back, and think positive, not just write "Nothing" or "No recall", but something like "No recall today, but it will be back soon!". :zzz:
Also to add to what everyone else said, general memory practice can help recall as well, try to recall what happened through the day before going to sleep. :)