I cannot remember for the life of me!

[MilesPrower]

Ive been having the hardest time vividly remembering my dreams. I mean I know what happened in them, but it's the details im after. Whenever im in an ld I take a minute to look around, and Im thinking, "yeah, this should be really easy to remember when I wake up, I can memorize it now cant I?" but a few minutes when I wake up it rapidly fades from my memory, I dont even have time to write in in my dream journal. I am not very interested in the plot, that much I can remember, but when I recall them they seem shorter than they were and I know theyre not, they just missing large pieces. Thanks.

[FryingMan]

If you can remember to do it, you can try ~Dreamer~'s technique of mentally journaling the dream while she's experiencing it. Sort of narrating what you're seeing/doing/experiencing while you're still inside of it. It's something I want to try, I think it will really help. Can you easily remember with details the same sort of situations in waking life? I often realise that I do not remember waking life much better than dreams, in terms of all those tiny details that you're demanding your mind to remember from dreams. It would be great practice for remembering dreams to pretend you're in a lucid dream while awake, and work to build the memories and reinforce them, and see how well you can remember them a little bit later on.

[Hitokage]

Based on my experience it's just about amount of time and focusing you give into it. When you wake up, don't do anything else just go back in your memory, calm down and go over the dream again and again, keep realizing all the details and connecting all the dots together. Don't give up, just dig and dig in your memory ^^

[ageofthunder]

What I do is when I wake up I tell myself the dream in my head as if I was explaining it to someone, multiple times depending on how long it was to make sure I remember it. Even if it was just a little fragment that I barely remember, and then I write it down. You will notice over time that you will begin remembering more and more. Also, the slower you get up the more of the dream you will remember (so if you get up and lay there for a second you will remember more as opposed to if you sit up quickly in bed and turn off an alarm, placebo or not it worked for me)

[Djaxup]

I just keep still in the position I wake up in and rethink the dream, try to relive it a few times. If I can't remember parts, I just ask out loud "what did I just dream?" and believe it or not, that usually does the trick.

[FryingMan]

I just keep still in the position I wake up in and rethink the dream, try to relive it a few times. If I can't remember parts, I just ask out loud "what did I just dream?" and believe it or not, that usually does the trick. Yes I find it is critical to review dreams mentally several times to make sure the memory survives moving to reach for my phone to voice record. I also give each dream a word or phrase "tag" or summary. The benefit of doing this is that I generally do not need to refer to the voice notes and can journal in full detail when I get up later in the morning. The journal notes are an important backup, sometimes I entirely forget some scenes. Doing this on a regular basis really improves recall. I spend probably at least between 15-30 minutes altogether every night reviewing dream memories.

[ThreeCat]

Moved to Dream Signs and Recall.

[InnerVision]

Most of what has been said here is very accurate, but I would like to add that I get the impression from your post that you're trying really hard. It is of course important to make the dream recall important to your subconscious and you should definitely have a mindset of wanting to remember your dreams, but from my own experience I found that overconcentrating on a dream can ruin the memory completely after waking up. Try to let the memory come naturally, don't push it too hard. A general advice that seems to work really well for me is to imagine a scene of the dream you can remember quite well, then ask yourself the question 'what was I doing before this?'. Lastly, try to keep dream recall on your mind during the day. Events or people you run into during waking life may suddenly spark a lost memory that connects the fragments of your dream.