Thread: Spontaneous dream recall during day, before bed and even in dreams...

I don't know any official terms for it, but I think it's pretty common to remember dreams/ fragments throughout the day, and in the time before going to sleep.

I did a few more experiments with this kind of recall before going to bed, it is quite remarkable. I'm familiar with recalling dreams, and this is quite different. On at least 3 occasions I paid conscious attention to this phenomenon. It is like a narrow band radio station that I can tune my mind into. While in this narrow band, dream recall is effortless. I can hop from dream to dream and recall them clearly regardless of when the dream was taking place. Dreams are understood/felt very rapidly and I can hop to the next one within a second or two.

It seems that my rational mind is slower than these kinds of recall, and it is hard to follow them and analyze them at the same time. I don't know how many jumps from dream to dream I make before I "tune out". I lose count after 7, and the whole effort of counting is counterproductive to the experience.

Qualities of the experience:
-Found, not induced, a state of mind that can be maintained consciously
-Immediate, complete recall of a fragment of a dream
-Understanding of a dream faster than it can be recalled while awake
-Doesn't seem to be affected by time since the event (or it is "repaired" well enough to not appear so)
-Rapid jumps from dream to dream
-Rational mind is slower and seems to interfere with the experience.
-Random dreams from weeks past that I never recorded in a dream journal, but recognize once they are seen.

Anyone knows what's the name of this?

Yet one more update. The spontaneous recall continues. It's a very rapid succession of dream fragments. Focusing the mind on the particular fragment breaks up the flow. Yesterday I compared it to "normal" dream recall. Normal recall felt slow and deliberate, like constructing a series of "and then I...." statements with some images. The spontaneous recall is almost all images.

My attempts to analyze or remember more interfered with the experience.

This makes me think - do I ever completely forget my dreams or do they just cluster somewhere deep within the mind?

PS. the state of mind felt different from the baseline.

Originally Posted by Ev

Yet one more update. The spontaneous recall continues. It's a very rapid succession of dream fragments. Focusing the mind on the particular fragment breaks up the flow. Yesterday I compared it to "normal" dream recall. Normal recall felt slow and deliberate, like constructing a series of "and then I...." statements with some images. The spontaneous recall is almost all images.

My attempts to analyze or remember more interfered with the experience.

This makes me think - do I ever completely forget my dreams or do they just cluster somewhere deep within the mind?

PS. the state of mind felt different from the baseline.

Personally I think that people forget plenty of dreams- significant ones (in one way or another, not always obvious) are stored in your subconscious. Specific cues such as visual or mental may bring them to the surface.

Hmm.. this is interesting. I may have slipped into this state of super-memory before, like hugging your subconscious, but with memories, not dreams. Some times while trying to fall asleep I'll recall LOTS of past memories from childhood etc that i had forgotten for years, and it's like, memory after memory. Flowing flowing, and im like, woah woah at each memory and its in detail, as if I had lived it yesterday. Imma try slip into this state to recall dreams, maybe I'll be able to, maybe not. Nevertheless it's interesting.

As I was sitting in the classroom today, a boy in my class walked into the room, and suddenly a image of him popped into my head. he had different hair, but it was him. apparently I dreamt about him last night, and when I saw him this morning I remembered. but only that one "picture", I have no idea what the dream was about.

I've hit this state of mind, before. I'm always suspicious of the memories. Are they really memories? Or just dreamlets that feel like memories? It has a similar feeling to deja vu, for me. Like intense, but suspect memory.

It's good that other people experienced a similar state, this means I'm not crazy

Marley, sometimes I slip into memory recall too, completely random fragments of memory recall from a long time ago. Although this usually confuses me, and the state stops, as I start to logically think dream/not dream and start to try to guide the state.

Kanutte, you are describing how this state starts. For me, it starts with a random clue triggering the first recall (can be visualization, etc). After that the recall continues on its own.

LonelyTurtle, The interesting thing is that these are completely random dream fragments of no apparent significance. They are just dreams, and the sheer number of them makes me believe that they are random dreams from nights before.

I don't suspect these memories, although an interesting dynamic is that in that state I can 99% sure identify my recall as either a dream or not dream (as long as I don't interfere). As if each memory has a "dream/not dream' switch assigned to it. With rational recall I used to have to do some thinking ("Have I ever been there?", "Do I know that person?", "Do I even have that thing?", etc). Here I just know.

This makes me think: unless it is the property of the memory or recall in this state, maybe I am subconsciously aware of my dreams being dreams. Next time I'm in this state, I'll try to get a better hang of this "dream/not dream" feeling, maybe it will help with lucidity. An alternative hypothesis may be that these dreams are all remembered in a similarly shallow kind of sleep.

This describes exactly what happens to me every once in a while,
and I think that although it feels exactly like remembering dreams it might be novel dreaming, that is mistaken for a memory. How do we know something is a memory to begin with?

another aspects that qualify my experience:
-its very non verbal. While normal recall can be recounted, like a story, i find these fragments to be very hard to put into words
-very hard to hold on to.When i recount dreams normally, i can retell them many times. These i can't remember- once experienced, and i move on to the next fragment, i can't remember what the previous one was.
- it can happen any time, but i noticed it happens more when i am zoning out, like swimming or driving.
- it is involuntary, it feels external. i can't decide when it will start or stop. It can be long, lasting for many minutes.
- when it rains it pours: some periods of my life it happens multiple times a week, otherwise months can go by without it happening.

I actually find it a bit unpleasant.
i know it's an old thread, but i just found it and am amazed to hear it happens to others too. no one i've told about it knew what i meant.

otherwise, i am a vivid dreamer, not many lucid experiences though.

Yes i had the same happen to me today while waking from a nap i remembered last nights dream which i had a bad recall from, and suddenly i get images play back. I also was daydreaming at the moment.