Tips for dream recall?

A few years ago, I was able to remember 7 - 8 dreams in an 8 hour period easily and lucid whenever. But lately, I can't do that anymore. I fell out of habit of remembering my dreams and stopped caring about it (I know, how stupid can I be) but I went through a really rough time with sleep and for awhile there, just cared if I was going to be ABLE to fall asleep, let alone dream, so I lost my habit.



Now though, I want to dream again, yet I can't. I'm operating under that black veil again. You know, the one that hides your dreams from your waking mind. You remember a little bit and it's like light is cast into it, then some more and if you're lucky you remember the whole dream in a flash. I can usually recall pretty long dreams if I only sleep for an hour or two sometimes but not all the time. I have a dream journal I write in, even the two second nothing dreams to help recall, and I have a voice recorder so I wake up, talk into it, fall back asleep and listen to it when I wake up later and write it all down. This doesn't help as much as I want it to though. This is getting really depressing and frustrating, I want to dream again! I think I'd even kill for a really long, vivid nightmare right about now.



Anyway, if anyone can share some personal tips for helping with dream recall, I'd be really appreciative, but please, be spare on the "take this food" or "take this medication" tips as I'm not exactly rolling in money and can't just go out and buy whatever I want whenever.

Also, if I sleep for any serious amount of time, like 5 - 6 hours, I usually don't remember any dreams, if I'm lucky, I'll remember vague parts of one but rarely a whole dream.

It sounds like you're going through a recall dryspell. I got one a while back and it was awful.

Start at the 'lucky' part and work your way up. You can take vitamin B6 supplements to increase dream vividness, therefore increasing the chances of recall. The easiest way, however, is to simply remember as much as you can from each night; eventually, your recall will rise.