Did I mess up my dream recall because of this?

Hey, just a quick question because I'm a bit concerned. Last night, I had a dream and then I woke up at around 1:00 in the morning. I was thinking about writing it down in my dream journal but I was so tired that I just fell back asleep, and I couldn't remember the second dream I had. I only had memory of the last scene of my first dream so I at least wrote that in my dream journal. So my question is, did I worsen my recall by not getting up and writing down my dream instead of just falling back asleep? :puppydogeyes:

Replies would be appreciated. Thank you.

You have messed up big time. Oh dear, oh dear. What an amateur mistake to make. Failing to record your dreams can lead to all kinds of issues. It's hard to explain but imagine it like you're running a bath. You have to let the water out sometimes or it will overflow. Recording your dream is like letting the water out. If you fail to do this the whole house will flood, although it will be your soul that is flooding, not your house. This leaves you open to all kinds of dangerous spirits from the astral realm.

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Originally Posted by fluffbutt1

... did I worsen my recall by not getting up and writing down my dream instead of just falling back asleep?

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It's not always possible or practical to record all the dreams we have. But it's preferable to do so. More we think about our dreams, better our recall will be. This includes thinking, writing them down, recording on a voice recorder... Sometimes all we have time for is to jot down few keywords so we can recall the dream later and write it down.

I just woke up from a WILD nap. I thought I didn't get lucid, so I just turned to the other side and slept some more. I woke up next and I suddenly recalled a lucid I had before first awakening. I thought I'll just tell the dream to myself and I won't forget it and I went to sleep some more. When I woke up and got up, I barely had any memory of a lucid or how I got lucid and now I'm kicking myself for not writing it down. I don't think this messed up my recall, but surely will give me another incentive to write it down next time.

Our recall mostly depends on our intent to remember our dreams, on quality of sleep, how long we slept and so on. occasionally there is a "dry spell" which is normal. Just use your dream journal as much as you can and set your intent to remember your dreams.

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Originally Posted by DreamMaster27

You have messed up big time. Oh dear, oh dear. What an amateur mistake to make. Failing to record your dreams can lead to all kinds of issues. It's hard to explain but imagine it like you're running a bath. You have to let the water out sometimes or it will overflow. Recording your dream is like letting the water out. If you fail to do this the whole house will flood, although it will be your soul that is flooding, not your house. This leaves you open to all kinds of dangerous spirits from the astral realm.

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Thanks,
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by gab

It's not always possible or practical to record all the dreams we have. But it's preferable to do so. More we think about our dreams, better our recall will be. This includes thinking, writing them down, recording on a voice recorder... Sometimes all we have time for is to jot down few keywords so we can recall the dream later and write it down.

I just woke up from a WILD nap. I thought I didn't get lucid, so I just turned to the other side and slept some more. I woke up next and I suddenly recalled a lucid I had before first awakening. I thought I'll just tell the dream to myself and I won't forget it and I went to sleep some more. When I woke up and got up, I barely had any memory of a lucid or how I got lucid and now I'm kicking myself for not writing it down. I don't think this messed up my recall, but surely will give me another incentive to write it down next time.

Our recall mostly depends on our intent to remember our dreams, on quality of sleep, how long we slept and so on. occasionally there is a "dry spell" which is normal. Just use your dream journal as much as you can and set your intent to remember your dreams.

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Ok, I think I understand. Thank you :) The next dream I have I'll be sure to write it down instead of just blow it off like I did last night.

I know it is hard to find the motivation to write in your dream journal when you wake up in the middle of the night. I personally struggle with waking up early enough to write in my dream journal in the mornings before work as well. What I have found is easiest for me is to grab my phone off the night stand and send myself or my boyfriend a text message with a few super short notes in the order they happened in the dream. It doesn't require getting out of bed or even rolling over if I wake up in the right position, and it only takes a quick minute. Then, through out the day I look back over the notes when I have a free moment and try to recall what I can of the dream in my head so I can get around to writing it all down that evening when I am home and have time. If I texted them to my boyfriend then I get the added bo ous of retelling the dream to him as well to help drill it in my brain. The dream journal concept is just for us to remind ourselves of the dreams, relive them if you will, so that we can program our brains to keep them in memory when we wake up. It isn't necessary to write every detail down as soon as you wake. You just need enough to remind you. You'd probably be surprised at what you remember later that you didn't remember when you first woke up.

My notes are super short, like one from last night was: "People in purplenglass fortress hlasted by aliens, force didnt kill, farming and rebuilding, tomatos in a row tied toneach postx hidint under wines, friendly alien, pregnant wife water break, alien spaceship instead of car" no doubt it looks like gibberish to anyone else with all the random words and typos, but after looking at it a few times today I remembered little details and its a fairly long dream journal entry lol.

I will warn that for some people looking at a bright screen in the middle of the night will make it difficult to go back to sleep, so if you find yourself in that situation maybe the extra time for pen and paper and a dim lamp would be better.

My approach is similar: When I wake up remembering a dream, I grab a voice recorder I leave lying next to me and just ramble off everything I remember. I can describe a lot of details quickly and with little effort this way without light, though it might not be a good option for people who sleep with others. As I got used to recording dreams immediately upon awakening, it became easier to do, and nowadays I tend to wake up naturally right after many of my dreams, allowing me to continue doing so.

(Since voice notes are unwieldy for permanent records, I later play them back when I get up and rewrite them in an actual journal, which gives me the chance to organize them properly. It's not uncommon to initially recall the dream's events way out of order, and sometimes I even have to in order to remember the full dream. Also, I notice a lot of interesting patterns and relationships that I didn't catch the first time, and the second pass helps burn the dreams into my memory better.)

I have the same issue sometimes. It's even harder with a partner next to you in bed. Turning on a small light is a no-no (she wakes up from that), so I actually have to get out of bed to write it down.

A little trick is drinking lots of water (not unhealthy lots ofc) in the hours before you go to bed. Works for me as I usually have to go take a pee when waking up to write something in my DJ. So I write it down in the bathroom where I can turn on a little light . If you lack willpower, this is a nice way to forcing yourself to get up and out of bed if need be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gab

It's not always possible or practical to record all the dreams we have. But it's preferable to do so. More we think about our dreams, better our recall will be. This includes thinking, writing them down, recording on a voice recorder... Sometimes all we have time for is to jot down few keywords so we can recall the dream later and write it down.

I just woke up from a WILD nap. I thought I didn't get lucid, so I just turned to the other side and slept some more. I woke up next and I suddenly recalled a lucid I had before first awakening. I thought I'll just tell the dream to myself and I won't forget it and I went to sleep some more. When I woke up and got up, I barely had any memory of a lucid or how I got lucid and now I'm kicking myself for not writing it down. I don't think this messed up my recall, but surely will give me another incentive to write it down next time.

Our recall mostly depends on our intent to remember our dreams, on quality of sleep, how long we slept and so on. occasionally there is a "dry spell" which is normal. Just use your dream journal as much as you can and set your intent to remember your dreams.



Please keep joke posts to the Senseless Banter forum. They have no place in on-topics, as our members rely on help from other members. If you don't know the answer, it's ok to say so, or just not reply at all.

Thanks,
-admin

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YES! Voice recorder and key words work wonders. Later when I write it down, I always remember more. :)