Thread: I've discovered something that has DRAMATICALLY improved my DREAM RECALL

What if you put it on with your eyes closed, and never open them when it's on, wouldn't your body think that you wouldn't have it on because last time it checked, you could see?

Ok.
So, just woke up from my first night with a sleep mask.
Well, my first night was a success. Had a much clearer dream recall that i have done for some time! Which is fascinating.
Now i'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet, but I have a huge respect for dreamqueen and know that she dosn't just share these things without being pretty sure of them for herself. And we all know the power of placebo etc.

Here are my thoughts on the whole matter:

Firstly, part of me is worried that this may just be a case of the unusual impacting our dreams. Such as how we tend to dream more when we sleep in another bed etc. It's just a worry, but time will tell as I get used to sleeping with the mask. Hope it's not the case.

Secondly, this is really handy for hypnogogics. I found that i was far more able to visualise as i drifted off wearning a sleep mask. Suddently i could see the darkness before me as a "space out there" rather than "the back of my eyelids", and being a "space out there" i could identify with things appearing in that space much easier. IN fact quite a few times throughout the night, after a brief awakening, Id be laying there, and suddently the lights would be on, and I'd be seeing THROUGH the dreammask. Clearly impossible, so a nice reality test built into it.


I think dreamqueen could have stumbled upon something fundamental here. And in some ways, if you think about it, really really obvious - yet no one really gave it any thought! Our sleep cycles are generally controlled by daylight, so It makes sense that the visual cortex being overloaded by light, after a night of darkness, is going to activate all the pathways in the mind for waking, and push aside our dreams. Waking activity will always take priority in the mind over dreaming, so this sudden rush of input, is like a tide washing away words written in the sand. The sleep mask allows us to wake in darkness, and allow ourselves to establish these memorys before the wave of light comes to wash them away.

Thats my personal theory anyway.

Still, I'm cautious to be to pleased too soon, as I am quite aware of myself being aware of the mask during the night, which in itself could have been enough to keep me more alert than normal. I normally find it takes about 3 days for the mind to adjust to something new, so more testing is needed. Still, I'm pretty confident in the idea, and it seems to make sense when you try and logically understand why it would work.

Nice Idea DreamQueen.

Thanks spaceexplorer! I'm glad you seem to be getting a positive result. I'm pretty confident most people will because the daylight effect should be the same from everyone. I agree with everything you said about our sleep cycles being influenced by light. That's what I figured too. It makes total sense.

I love your analogy of a tide washing away words written in the sand. That's just what it's like when your dreams slip away. The light totally wakes you up, hence the reason people generally don't turn on a light when they get up to use the bathroom at night. You certainly wouldn't put a 200 watt bulb in your lavatory

Just as an aside, another thing that I noticed really wakes up my brain if I get up to go to the bathroom in the night is speaking. My husband and I have an agreement that if we both get up to use the bathroom we don't speak because even a simple "you okay?" immediately arouses our level of consciousness making it much more difficult to go back to sleep.

Well, hopefully I really am onto something. I can't wait to hear how other people find their recall wearing the mask.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now as it's 1.30am here

EDIT: Oh and yeah, I've had a FA where I could see through the mask. Unfortunately I just lay there wondering why I could see through the mask and why the light fitting on my ceiling was different lol. What a dumbass

Thanks for the review, explorer. I was hoping someone would have left their two bits after using the mask as I don't yet have one and wanted to see if this worked for someone else. But I'll be able to pick up a mask today. And thank you dreamqueen for sharing this great idea!

Right before I got to bed last night, I put on a nice black elastic-band sleep mask that's been lying around for a while, reminded myself to remember everything, do RCs, etc, and fell asleep fairly quickly.

At around 5 AM, I woke up. The mask was gone.

Yeah, I toss and turn way too much in my sleep for this to be effective. Actually, the fact that I had lost it somewhere was distracting enough that I couldn't remember anything last night. I'll have to glue the mask to my head... either that or attach myself to the bed with bungee cords like a wolfman.

This seems to work, more so in a specific way then any other, but I'm definitely going to keep using this (if I can).

When I'm using the mask, I clearly remember the dream I was having as I'm waking up. This is great because there have been plenty of times where I woke in the middle of an awesome dream and just couldn't remember any of it. I woke a total of three times last night, each time clearly remembering the dream I was having.

I've experienced the power of placebo, suggestion, etc so I'm not going to call this a shining success until I try it out for a full month and see how things pan out. My initial reaction, however, is wonderful. We all know you're supposed to keep your eyes closed when you wake up, but that's damn hard to do! Now we have a way to force that behavior, as well as clearly demonstrate how effective it actually is compared to waking and immediately opening our eyes.

Hmmmm... I'm just in the middle of a WBTB so my post may not be 100% coherent but...

I just tried my expensive mask with the cut-out spaces for eyes and when I woke up I had just started recalling my dream and then I opened my eyes inside the mask and POOF! The dream was gone. Even though it was almost pitch black inside the mask. I couldn't get it back. So, that indicates it could be crucial to keep one's eyes shut.

However, I've only had four and a half hours sleep so I wouldn't have been doing my longest, most vivid dreaming.

Still, when I go back to bed I'm going to put on one of my other masks that forces my eyes to stay shut.

So if you're going to buy a mask I'd start with one like that.

If you don't own a mask a temporary solution could be to tie a dressing gown tie-thingy around your eyes with the knot at the front.

Okay gotta go get on with my WBTB routine now...

Yay! Got lucid from DILD after my WBTB

Come on people- More Results !

Yay first post... Allah! lol

I didn't try but this morning when I wanted to recall I just couldn't stay still so I barely remembered anything...

ah Yeah..... Ants in the 'ol pants

Originally Posted by b3vcard

ah Yeah..... Ants in the 'ol pants

I may as well try this, A sock and a few rubber bands tongiht I suppose

I have sh1t dream recall so far, so this could be good.

1080p Matrix Revolutions tonight should help

DreemQueen
Well, this is interesting. Another your exercise was really helpful (though not for getting lucid dreams but for making them more complex in plot). It went good with another two exercises which I adopted for developing dreams' vividness. If this one will help to recall them it will be rally great. My current problem is that I see rather long and interesting dreams but when I woke up I have to be really fast to grab my voice recorder and say something about this dream.

Originally Posted by Phantasos

My current problem is that I see rather long and interesting dreams but when I woke up I have to be really fast to grab my voice recorder and say something about this dream.

I find it's best to lie still and focus on recalling my dream thoroughly and only when I have remembered all I can do I reach for my voice recorder.

I took a nap this afternoon, using a slightly different mask (my wife had several) that was infinitely more comfortable. I didn't get a DILD out of it, unfortunately, but I did clearly remember several dreams, including the one I woke up in the middle of. I also woke with my eyes closed, which was what I was hoping for.

This is looking pretty good.

Originally Posted by DreamQueen

I find it's best to lie still and focus on recalling my dream thoroughly and only when I have remembered all I can do I reach for my voice recorder.

Yes, that's right, but seems like opening the eyes works like trigger to forgto dream, and it is hard not to open it when wake up . Tomorrow I will try to buy sleep mask, and then try out this method. If this resolve problem with recall, my toolkit (methodkit? ) is fully set.

Sock didnt work, mainly because it hurt with the rubber bands.

Anyone wanna donate a sleepmask for the cause ? Cant buy anything round here. I really need a cred card.

Originally Posted by b3vcard

Anyone wanna donate a sleepmask for the cause ? Cant buy anything round here. I really need a cred card.

Rather funny, I went today into esoteric shop hoping they will have it but they did not. It is strange, considering that half of occult practices is based on lucid dreaming. And they did not have primary magic tool!

Well, to get back to topic, having no mask I tried not to open eyes after woking up.

You can pick up sleeping maks pretty easily, and for cheap too.
Mine only cost £2.

Any shop that sells good for travelling is where to look, you know like travel alarms, passport holders etc.

Try drugstores, Large stationary shops (in the UK WhSmiths do them). Hell, even try the stores near your local train station.

They are mostly used by travellers who want to be able to sleep on trains, planes etc. So think along those lines.
They arn't expensive. I found mine in a local "bargain" shop, £2 including an inflateable travel pillow!

I've tried the sleep mask thing a couple of nights now. The first night was a failure because when I woke up, the sleep mask was on my forehead. But the second night it stayed on, and I had one of the most vivid dreams I can remember having in such a long time! I remember the temperature outside, seeing the bright blue and cloudless sky. I remember detailed thoughts I was having in the dream. I remember conversations, albeit short ones. And I remember feeling like it was more real than most of my other dreams. Still not lucid, but if this sleep mask thing keeps working out, I'll keep using it. Thanks for the great idea!

You're welcome, paradox! Yeah it's fantastic isn't it? I'm surprised more people aren't raving about their results to be honest.

Just remember everyone, you still have to put in the effort to recall your dreams it's just that having the mask on makes them much more accessible.

So glad you're having such success paradox! That's great! I find my dreams a lot more vivid with the mask on too

Awesome, I'll have to give this a go tonight. Although tonight might not be the best time
to try, seeing as I have to get up quite early for work tomorrow. But I'll still give it a go.

Got some time off next week, so that should be a good time to really try this out.
I'll report back here if it improves my recall.

I am going to go buy one now, because I already understand the concept behind it. I just recently because interested in LD's again as I am turning 40 this year and had an 'event' that has me want to explore more. I tried learning lucid dreaming when I was in my 20's and of course at that time, no internet, but I did find a few books.

When I was 20, I was totally obsessed with dreams I was having about Vampires and wanted to find an explanation/etc. Some of them were so real, and I also had a repeat dream of me flying but I could never get more than a few feet off the ground.

Anyway, I can usually induce what I dream about, and have found that when I do wake up to keep my eyes closed so I can 'rewind' the dream I just had, and if it's the middle of the night it has helped me get back into the dream. I have even gone as far as going to the bathroom with my eyes shut so I have the recall and can try to get 'back in'.

There is so much information on this site and I still haven't had a LD yet, but it was amazing to read DreamQueens comments, and have it twig, wow, I can already do that.