Dream Recall - Week 1

**JustASimpleGuy** · 01-11-2015 04:26 PM

This has been my first week working towards lucid dreaming, and my main focus has been dream recall. From the first night I recalled anywhere from 2 to 4 dreams a night, about 1/3 being fragments and/or fuzzy and 2/3 being more complete and detailed. I woke up multiple times, usually recalling 1 dream but a few times recalling 2 dreams. I was using a simple mantra 'I remember my dreams with good detail' as I fell off to sleep. I have a dream journal and record some basics and details of my day and then the dreams I remember.

I have fairly static and stable sleep habits, generally in bed by 10 - 11 and waking up between 6 & 7. I set an alarm for 7 but almost always wake up before it goes off. I also fall off into sleep relatively fast, even after waking up during the night. I sleep on a baffled semi-waveless waterbed and in a dark and quiet room.

So yesterday I was hyped and did a lot of research. Read a couple chapters of EWLD and read all the guides here in DVA. I have been doing basic RCs during the week but modified them yesterday to wrap Puffin's SAT technique around them. I also meditate daily for 30 minutes between dinner and bedtime and on weekends I try to get in a 45 minute sitting sometime during the day.

Aside from the research and reading yesterday, I did two things differently. My meditation practice is mindfulness, either attending breath or awareness but yesterday I introduced a mantra (I dream with waking awareness) into my daytime sitting. I also used the same mantra while falling to sleep last night.

Long story short, I woke up about 4:45 this morning and had a very fuzzy perception of a dream floating in my head. I kept my eyes closed and remained still, but it slowly faded. I was also very congested and had a stuffy nose, so I tried to get back to sleep for about 45 minutes but was too uncomfortable and gave up.

Sooooo...

A lot of things were going on yesterday.

1) I was very psyched because of my perceived success at recall during the week. Prior to last week I would remember dreams and sometimes in great detail but very sporadically. Maybe once or twice a week?

2) I probably spent a good couple of hours digging through all the guides and such on this site plus reading the first two chapters of EWLD.

3) I changed my mantra and also included the same mantra in meditation.

4) I awoke in a less than comfortable state with congestion and stuffiness.

I suppose any one or combination of these could explain why I slept almost straight through the night and with no real recall, so my approach for today and tonight is:

1) Less researching LDs. Aside from this post I think I'll just read the next chapter or two of EWLD and that's it.

2) No mantra in my daytime meditation.

3) Go back to the mantra 'I remember my dreams with good detail' when I go to bed tonight.

I'm also thinking of using the water technique tonight. Yesterday I also read about introducing light during sleep might be beneficial for both dreaming and recall in the Dream Recall Compendium by StaySharp.

What do you think? Sound like a good plan or does anyone have some other suggestions?

**dolphin** · 01-12-2015 01:59 AM

It sounds like you're on the right track! You should start analyzing your dreams and look for major patterns (dream signs). These are very useful in that if you keep them on the back of your mind, the dream signs can hint to you that you're dreaming when you see them in your dreams.

**JustASimpleGuy** · 01-12-2015 03:21 AM

Yup, I'm using a standard composition notebook for my dream journal and I reserved a few pages at the back for dream signs.

I have three long-term recurring dream themes I've had for well over a decade I've recorded. Haven't had any of them this past week but I know I've had all of them in the last year.

1) Going back to high school to get my diploma. I graduated high school in 1977! Two sub-plots in this one are I misplace my class schedule so I don't know where I'm supposed to be at a given time and I can't remember the combination for my locker.

2) Quitting my job and going back into the Air Force. I discharged in 1984.

3) Tornadoes.

This past week water seemed to be a recurring theme. About half of the dreams had water in some form or another as part of the dream. East River and NY Harbor, Atlantic Ocean, lake, stream, swamp, rain. The real interesting thing was emotion. Very strong and visceral. I don't remember emotion being that intense in the past.

**JustASimpleGuy** · 01-12-2015 01:11 PM

Well... Looks like I overdid it on the water! I had a couple cups of tea in the hour or so before bedtime and then a glass of water right before going to bed. Needless to say I had to make a couple of bathroom runs and didn't fall to sleep for about 1.5 hours! Doh!!

And the light thing didn't work for me either. It woke me up when it came on about 2.5 hours after falling asleep (would have been closer to 4 hours had I fallen to sleep normally) and I had no recall whatsoever. I disabled the timer and turned the light off.

The good news is I did wake up twice after that, remembering a small fragment of one dream and later a fairly detailed dream from beginning to end.

I suspect that's the result of going back to a mantra of 'I awake after each dream, remembering it in detail'. I think I'll just stick with that for now.