How to lengthen dream recall?

Hi everyone,

I am just getting back into lucid dreaming after a few years hiatus and am currently trying to increase my dream recall. I actually have decent recall in terms of frequency (I usually remember 2-3 dreams a night on average). My problem is that all of these memories are very short, usually just snippets of a larger dream, and I am finding it difficult to trace these short bits back to the full dream. Does anyone have any tips for lengthening my recall? Is it just as simple as keeping up with my dream journal or are there other secrets? Could a mantra help this?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Jay

i found it helpful for this to sit or lay down at the end of the day and to recall the complete day in as much detail as possible backwards from the moment back to the start of the day.
i noticed an advanced and more gapless recall.

Sounds like a good exercise, thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try tonight. I had originally planned on diving straight into an induction method, such as DEILD, but I think it's probably a better idea to take my time and strengthen my recall before I go into something like that.

I would suggest that after you wake up make sure that you don't move a muscle, go over the nights dreams like this before you get up to write them down.

This is a method I have picked up from a book on Chaos Magick. Write down something like "I will remember my dreams", remove the repeating letters, then with the remaining letters construct a simple figure that can be easily visualised. So the theory goes the unconscious more readily accepts symbolic images over words or sentences, since this is how dream images are formed, i mean by free association and symbolism. Visualise this image while going to sleep, one can also repeat a typical mantra a long with it.

It's mostly about practice and consistency over time: reach for recall every single time you find yourself awake after sleep. Practice paying attention to and remembering all your experiences, waking or dreaming. Don't set up the night as different from the day or vice versa: be a person who 24x7 pays attention and remembers. Setting intention to notice every waking during the night and recalling dreams at each one is a great way to get a lot of experience quickly.
More details: FryingMan's dream recall tips

Really come to love and treasure your dreams and all your experiences. Make remembering them a big part of your life. A mindful life is so much more rewarding than a life of mindlessness/distraction.

More about attention: FryingMan's Unified Theory of Lucid Dreaming: Pay Attention, Reflect, Recall -- Both Day and Night

I am in exactly the same position as you Jay! Just gotten back into it and feel like I'm starting from scratch again!

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, saves me having to make a similar post :) Only luck I've had connecting the dots to the larger dream is to just keep thinking about it throughout the morning, the eureka moment will often come in the shower or something that unlocks a huge portion of the rest of the dream.

RelaxAndDream, I tried the 'retrace your memory' exercise, except I hadn't paid close enough attention to your post and accidentally did it from the morning forward to the night. I feel that even this was helpful in my recall, but I think it would be better to go from the current moment backwards, because this would be similar to having a memory of a dream and tracing it backwards to the beginning of the dream. I'll switch the order and try it tonight. Even so, I awoke many times last night with the sense I had just woken from a dream. One of the times, I laid there for about 10 minutes in the dark, searching my mind, and surprisingly a dream came to me. I feel that this mental exercise is good for strengthening dream recall.

Valis1 thanks for the tip. I usually try to have minimal movement upon awakening because I feel it disperses the dream. And FryingMan, I'll check out your link to dream recall tips.

moSH, I know how you feel. I want to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible, and the prospect of being able to induce lucid dreams and have adventures at will makes me restless. But we must have patience if we want lucid dreaming to be sustainable for us. I think a slow and deliberate approach will give a strong foundation and prevent loss of motivation (which is what happened to me several times in the past).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JayTabes91

I want to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible, and the prospect of being able to induce lucid dreams and have adventures at will makes me restless. But we must have patience if we want lucid dreaming to be sustainable for us. I think a slow and deliberate approach will give a strong foundation and prevent loss of motivation (which is what happened to me several times in the past).

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Couldn't have put it better myself :P

Think I should mention that not only did RelaxAndDream's technique lead to increased recall and vividness last night, it may have been what led to be getting my first lucid since coming back to lucid dreaming! Didn't last long because I acted stupidly when I found out, but thought a thanks was in order :)

i am happy to see that it works for you guys