How does recording your dreams help you with dream recall and lucid dreaming?

[Merro]

How does recording your dreams help you improve your Lucid Dreaming? What does recording your dreams in your Dream Journal help you with? I know they help you remember your dream but what does this actually help you with? Some where I've read you need to set your alarm clock for a 30 minutes or something, Then you have to go to bed and dream and while you wake up you have to write your dream down in your dream journal or something. How does this dream recall work and what is it for? I really don't get the whole idea on the whole dream recall and recording your dream thing means. Can anyone help me out? I could be wrong about the 30 minute thing. I think you have have to go to bed early around 9:00 PM or something and set your alarm to 3:00 AM and when you wake up at 3AM you write down your dream in your dream journal... I don't know I'm confused. Can someone help me out? What does this actually help you with? And can someone tell me what the dream recall does? Sorry if this sounds confusing to you. I'm still learning.

[Samael]

In my experience, writing your dreams down truly does aid in recall. My hypothesis is: you get used to writing your dreams down (and therefore remembering them), and you remember a little bit more every morning. If you remember just a little bit of a dream - a vague memory of flashing lights, the idea that you might have been in your childhood home, etc. - write it down. You'll remember more the next night. Just keep at it. I think you have have to go to bed early around 9:00 PM or something and set your alarm to 3:00 AM and when you wake up at 3AM you write down your dream in your dream journal... These are specific techniques used to aid in dream recall. They're not necessary, but if they work for you, go ahead and try it. Personally, if I wake up at a ridiculously early hour of the morning, I'll jot down a couple of keywords and expand on them when I'm properly awake. I go back to sleep, have more dreams, and still remember the dreams that I had earlier that night. How does recording your dreams help you improve your Lucid Dreaming? If you can remember your dreams, you start to notice things that occur while you're dreaming. On DV, they're known as "Dream Signs". Reoccurring places and events, numbers that don't add up, and time shifts are all common dream signs. If you remember your dreams, you start to notice which ones apply to you specifically. For example, I was in the middle of a nightmare when I realized that my inability to dial 911 was a dream sign. (I was dialing 901, 119, 991... it was pretty ridiculous). At a certain level, you can also recognize the feel of a dream, and recognize that you're dreaming by being aware of your surroundings. tl;dr: Improve recall so you know what you need to look for to realize that you're dreaming.

[MisterHyde]

My dream recall sucked until I started keeping a journal. Now I still lucid more or less every night. But if I stop recording the dreams, it fades and goes again. It becomes habit and your body adapts to that habit.

[Clyde Machine]

To keep things simple: Dream recall is remembering your dreams. Dream recall, like most anything in this world, can be improved by practicing. Practicing dream recall is paramount for use of a DJ. This helps you recall your dreams better and become more aware of the signs within them. Without dream recall, it is very difficult to induce lucidity. Without dream recall, it is possible to forget a lucid that you've just had. Dream recall is good and practicing it makes it that much more useful.

[Supernova]

Try an analogy. Dream recall is like a muscle. Use it or lose it. Going back and bringing up everything you can about your dream and recording it is like doing push-ups for your dream recall.

[yumester]

If you cant remember your dreams, how are you going to remember your LUCID dreams? Dream journalling improves your recall by having you think more about your dreams than you normally do. This improves your recall over time. Once your recall is better, it will be much easier to have lucid dreams

[FifthElement]

Know thyself or you will remain unaware of your nightly stories. A dream journal helps you become familiar with both your dreaming self & "normal" awareness. You will begin to recognize your own re-occurring signs that let you know you're in the dream state <- that is one first step to lucid dreaming + the pre-requisite of dream recall.

[mdream]

Like 2 years I ago I started recording my dreams and I started remembering them very well, then I stopped doing it I dont know why, and slowly I started to forget dreams. Then this year I started again, and from 0 to OCCASIONALLY 1 dream, I now remember 1-4 dreams DAILY. So yes, it works, and it's really cool to have all your dreams and never ever forget them, and have a laugh when you read them again. I have been recording them on an iPod Touch app, then I e-mail them to myself and put them on the DreamJournal 2.0 program

[Buddah]

writing down my dreams has definitely helped me remember them. i also set an alarm to wake me up after about 4-5 hours of sleep. i usually dont remember dreams when i wake up in the middle of the night, but in the morning i do. before i started waking up in the middle of the night, and writing down dreams when i get up for the day, i barely remembered 1 dream a week. now i remember 1-3 dreams every night.

[MasterMind]

When you recall you dreams you are open yourself up to the dreamworld for some reason I become more aware of my dreams and almost get lucid by doing nothing and when you remember your dreams and are VERY aware of your dreams you begin to wake up after each dreamcycle AWARE and can DEILD, WILD or MILD. And yeah you can analyse your dream and such but I don't do that...