Questions on Dream Recall

[billfloyd]

I posted this on the newbie forum before I knew this topic existed somewhere else. I figured it'd a good idea to repost it here.. I hope its not against the rules. I'm new here, and started my dream journal two nights ago. I've been pretty proud of myself for a few things. I tried repeating the mantra "I will awake from my dreams and remember them completely" in order to wake up mid-night with a dream ready to record. To my surprise, it worked both nights. I woke up at 3:30 am the first night and about 5:00 am the second night, with memories of some dreams both times. (I normally wake up around 11, so it is odd for me to wake like this.) I've recorded quite a few seperate dreams in these past 2 nights, having remembered things in the middle of the night as well as in the morning. However, I do have some questions. When I am "experiencing" my dreams, they always seem hazy and lacking many details. Is this just a result of bad dream recall? Are my dreams hazy like this when I experience them simply because I don't remember the details? For example, if I continue my dream journal, (which I plan to) will my dreams become noticably clearer. And how many nights of recording dreams does it take? I ask this because when people discuss their lucid dreams on this forum (I've read through quite a bit, as well as the site's guide to lucid dreaming), they always seem ridiculously clear and realistic. Do the dreams become suddenly clearer and sort of "rooted in place" as soon as they become lucid, or are they clear for these people as a result of good dream recall? Thanks for dealing with these (probobly old and common) questions!

[XeL]

I posted this on the newbie forum before I knew this topic existed somewhere else. I figured it'd a good idea to repost it here.. I hope its not against the rules. I'm new here, and started my dream journal two nights ago. I've been pretty proud of myself for a few things. I tried repeating the mantra "I will awake from my dreams and remember them completely" in order to wake up mid-night with a dream ready to record. To my surprise, it worked both nights. I woke up at 3:30 am the first night and about 5:00 am the second night, with memories of some dreams both times. (I normally wake up around 11, so it is odd for me to wake like this.) I've recorded quite a few seperate dreams in these past 2 nights, having remembered things in the middle of the night as well as in the morning. However, I do have some questions. When I am "experiencing" my dreams, they always seem hazy and lacking many details. Is this just a result of bad dream recall? Are my dreams hazy like this when I experience them simply because I don't remember the details? For example, if I continue my dream journal, (which I plan to) will my dreams become noticably clearer. And how many nights of recording dreams does it take? I ask this because when people discuss their lucid dreams on this forum (I've read through quite a bit, as well as the site's guide to lucid dreaming), they always seem ridiculously clear and realistic. Do the dreams become suddenly clearer and sort of "rooted in place" as soon as they become lucid, or are they clear for these people as a result of good dream recall? Thanks for dealing with these (probobly old and common) questions! First of all, to DV! The lack of details that you experience is indeed an very common effect of a beginners dream recall. Your dream recall will automatically improve by just keeping a dream journal, however, there are a few other techniques apart from that to improve your dream recall. What I do is: As soon as I wake up I close my eyes and I go through the whole dream in my head (this is hard for some people since they fall asleep again). By doing this you move the memory of the dream from your temporary dream memory into your real memory. Don't stress if, lay there for several minutes if you have to. Try to remember all details, even if it's just fragments, like a face or a hat or whatever. Try to think really hard in which order everything happend. Once you are sure that you can't remember anything more, write it down. For me it took me around 7 days before I got a really detailed dream where I could remember almost everything. It might take you longer, it might take you shorter but with determination you will get there eventually. Best of luck!