Thread: Can you still improve dream-recall when your trying to get a sleeping pattern?

Sleep pattern can definitely play a role in your ability to recall dreams, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying to improve it.

Getting a better sleep schedule is a good way to help with recall. I would recommend always be working towards more recall and more awareness.

So you can get the idea, there's 2 categories in dream recall improvement:

Directly controllable: not moving when you wake up, association exercises, to give two famous examples.
Indirectly controllable: waking up without alarm, genetics (some people have naturally better dream recall than others), brain chemistry.

The thing is that factors in the first category are more easily achievable, because they are directly controllable (and involve very specific actions). But from the scheme of things, the factors in the 2nd category seem more determinant to a good recall, and they don't necessarily mean you can't improve them, just that they take a more diverse range of circumstances in place going on (example: waking up without an alarm is not something you do directly, but a product of your sleep quality and the degree of which your circadian clock is attuned).

You won't make near as much progress in my opinion if you don't get that consistent sleep schedule. Whenever I mess up my sleep schedule consistently, I barely remember any dreams at all. Whenever my cycle is consistent and normal, I remember almost all of my dreams. I personally think that you should find a way to get a good sleep schedule. If I may ask, what is stopping you from doing so?

During my first attempts at LDing I was working the most unregular shifts ever at work. But that didn't keep me from eventually having a recall of around 7 to 10 dreams a night, not to mention the fragments.
I even got a LD or 2 during that time.
Although it probably took me a bit longer then most people who have a regular schedule.

As long as you give yourself some time when waking up to remember your dreams. If you can get some decent and relaxed sleep it will work out just fine.

But if there's no reason to not have a regular schedule it's definitely worth getting.