Thread: Is there a routine that helps you memorize dreams?

You know, that reminds me... I can remember my dreams by just lying there and building the details up (usually by going backwards) but I find that when I sit up and just move, something will pop out at me even though I think I got out all I was going to. If I'm not prepared I can't grasp onto it long enough to start building on the details. It's fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

On the other hand, sometimes I'll just find myself, say, opening the fridge to get something and will remember that I had a dream about running out of pop. Sometimes the memory seems so realistic that I almost think it happened in real life.

I love my showers, they're great for relaxing and slowly easing into my day. It'd be cool to remember my dreams then, maybe I'd take more care in writing down the details.

Yes!

Now that you mention it, I too happen to recall dreams like that, often when it's late at night - at this time, I'm usually taking a shower too. Maybe it's because my brain is starting to go into "sleep mode" and wants to shut down, so it's throwing dream memories at me, or making them easier to recall. But why the shower in particular?

Originally Posted by Puffin

Yes!

Now that you mention it, I too happen to recall dreams like that, often when it's late at night - at this time, I'm usually taking a shower too. Maybe it's because my brain is starting to go into "sleep mode" and wants to shut down, so it's throwing dream memories at me, or making them easier to recall. But why the shower in particular?

I'm not sure why, maybe it's just an unconscious trigger. I believe that in my case it's because when I shower I'm always thinking. I just let my mind wander (and when I take them in the morning I'm half asleep so It's usually just whatever pops up in no particular order). But if you're anything like me I remember my dreams by piecing it together. I'll remember one detail which leads to another, and another, etc.

Same with me; I'm always thinking in the shower too. Then again, my mind wanders at many other times of day. Perhaps it's because you're able to relax the most during a shower.

Sometimes I remember dreams by putting together fragments, but often I remember the whole blob of dream at once, then work down and remember the smaller, smaller, smaller details...

i remember key scenes in my dream as if it's being rewound - i then start to link together the key bits by remembering more insignificant parts of the dream which happened in between, it gets really hard to memorize when you have a really long dream, some can feel to be reallly huge dreams and i get amazed my mind can recall that much detailed information about architecture, people, weather etc etc

I hardly remember my biggest dreams as soon as I wake up. I remember smaller, dream fragments though. Things I do throughout the day trigger the biggest dreams, like getting ready to go somewhere or doing a certain action that I also do in a dream. Sometimes nothing even triggers them, I just suddenly remember dreams at random times during the day lol. It's like my subconscious is constantly working behind the scenes to remember my dreams.

Showers also help me to remember dreams or more of dreams than I am able to in the morning. I think it's due to a combination of two things: 1. the hot water relaxes, getting into a pre-sleep state (I guess that's how to word it), and 2. when I shower, I keep my eyes closed the entire time (it may sound weird, but try it sometime ) which I find allows me to get HI or even sometimes construct a world/scenario of my own, though not as detailed as in a dream. So I think between those two, my mind enters a sleep state, and as Puffin said, it begins "throwing dream memories at me, or making them easier to recall".