Thread: Poll: How good should dream recall be, before trying to achieve lucidity?

I voted 7-10 because that's what I get, including fragments.
But to answer the actual question, I would say 4-6 should be a minimum requirement! It's no use lucid dreaming if you can't remember them!

At my highest lucidity rates, my recall was about 2-3 dreams per night, or 14-21 dreams a week. The lower the recall, the less I remember whether I was lucid in a dream or not, along with even remembering as many dreams as I probably could.

For simply achieving LDs, I'd say at least 7 a week, or one good recall per night.

I also went with 7-10, even without looking at the results. If I'd count my fragments as well I would be beyond 15 easily, if only at least small dreams it'd be around these 7-10.
However I personally don't think that a bad dream recall necesserily affects wether you remember lucids or not as they aren't normal dreams. I remember all memorable moments I know quite good and lucidity counts into that. As well as I can always recall my periods of awareness including dreams. Hence I'm very sure I'll take notice of being lucid. This might be different depending on the person, but I don't think everyone needs a good dream recall for lucidity. Not saying to ignore dream recall of course, the better your recall is the higher quality your dreams will have.

I have to disagree; I've went through some patches of (really) rough recall, and would end up waking with the slight memory of a lucid, maybe remember doing one small thing... I'd have this nagging feeling, knowing the rest of the memory is there but I just can't seem to access it. When I'd go to bed that night, I might get another small fragment or "half-memory" but nothing more.

I suppose one's opinion of whether recall affects the ability to remember lucids is affected by their own experiences.

7-10 because someone should be remembering at least a dream every night. If you wake up half of mornings and can't remember any hint of a dream, you probably haven't been practicing your recall enough. Unfortunately I'd fit under the 1-3 category now, and just started today to try to write down my dreams again.

Originally Posted by Puffin

I have to disagree; I've went through some patches of (really) rough recall, and would end up waking with the slight memory of a lucid, maybe remember doing one small thing... I'd have this nagging feeling, knowing the rest of the memory is there but I just can't seem to access it. When I'd go to bed that night, I might get another small fragment or "half-memory" but nothing more.

I suppose one's opinion of whether recall affects the ability to remember lucids is affected by their own experiences.

Well as I said, I'm pretty sure it depends on the person. Different humans can have drastically different types of memory, that counts for pretty much all possible aspects of memory. I had a big share of scientific knowledge as well as personal experience and the observation of others before coming to this conclusion.
I agree that most people might risk losing an lucid dream through bad recall and that under any circumstances it's worth it to improve recall, but I think that the risk might be higher for some than for others.

Nearly always when I recover a few vital parts of a dream I'll be able to recall it from start to end, not in awesome detail because my memory is generally lacking quality but the rough story is always there. Except of course when the dream simply is as short as it seems. For any odd reasons I usually always know things about my dreams that didn't even appear in an indirect way inside of the dream. Not always but often enough I will as well simply know where the dream started and where it faded.

I said 4-6 but more would help.

at least one dream a day is my advice. That works for me, at least

I would say at least a detailed dream plus some 1 or 2 fragments per day. Minimum!

Though dream recall certainly helps (in all things, I feel), do you really need it before trying to achieve lucidity? After all, LD'ing is an act of awareness based on the "here and now," the only real memory you would need is a memory that your real body is asleep somewhere else, and the one you are in is just a DC. That, and perhaps a memory of your intentions for the night. Both don't require any dream recall at all to operate.

Also, so what if you don't recall an LD? Does that mean you didn't have one?

Plus, since lucid dreams are waking consciousness events, and generally very exciting (especially the first few times), won't you tend to remember them, upon waking, in a different, more permanent way than you would a regular dream?

In other words, dream recall is a very good thing, but it is not a requirement for LD'ing. In my mind (and yes, I understand -- probably not a lot of other people's), you don't even need it to remember actual LD's.

It helps to have good recall at the moment as you risk losing a couple of LD's that aren't very long or exciting. It's the memory of the experience that counts in my opinion. You can wake up feeling great without recalling that wonderful dream you just had, but that feeling isn't something you can "hold on to" as you have no idea why you feel like you do. Sure you might be in a good mood the rest of the day but if you actually remember the dream, you might have a memory for life that you can relive over and over.

Dream length, detail and amount of dreams seems to go hand in hand most of the time. Atleast that's how it is for me, and the better my recall is at the moment, the higher chance of getting lucid not only because I get more tries, but because I'm reminded of those awesome things I can do when having cool non-lucids and I get extra motivated to acheive lucidity.

As there was no zero dream recall option, I did vote 1-3. Even when I usually can't remember my nightly dreams, I do not have usually problems remembering my WILDs. Only when my LD gets very weird, then it will be difficult to recall.
So everyone can try to attain lucidity, independent of dream recall.

I voted the highest amount one

I would have to say it isn't so black and white.

you can start training yourself for doing dream checks while starting up dream journals at the same time. i think they're almost two completely different skill sets.