Thread: My Dream Recall is so inconsistent

This is getting maddening. I haven't been able to remember a single dream at all over the last three nights. Luckily my Christmas holidays are coming up, so attempting to wake myself up every REM period won't cripple my work the day after. But the first week or so had me remembering three or more dreams a night. Nothing major has changed, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Originally Posted by Ocelot

This is getting maddening. I haven't been able to remember a single dream at all over the last three nights. Luckily my Christmas holidays are coming up, so attempting to wake myself up every REM period won't cripple my work the day after. But the first week or so had me remembering three or more dreams a night. Nothing major has changed, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Most people get a dry spell now and then. Once in a while I have zero dream recall for several consecutive days, and I find that it usually correlates with some kind of stress in my life. I think that you shouldn't get too worked up about this, because that just creates more stress for you. There is something called "the law of reversed effect" which means that the harder you try, the less likely you may be to succeed. So I think if you just take it easy, confidently expect recall to improve, and write down whatever you remember, then recall will naturally improve.

You are also wondering if eight hours of sleep is sufficient, but that's very individual. A good indicator that you are getting the right amount of sleep is that it takes you 10-15 minutes to fall asleep when you go to bed. If it takes less than five minutes, you are sleep deprived.

You were right it seems, it must've been a dry spell. I woke up this morning with a couple of dreams fresh is my head