Something's been bugging me...

[OwenLucid]

Okay I'm wondering, how can LD still feel so real but sometimes you can't recall them in the morning?!?! Im only saying this because for my two LD's, I awoke after them immediately and so all the feelings and sights were still so vivid. It seems impossible to me that u can just forget it. It seems to defeat the purpose of having a LD at all to me. Please give your two cents

[Mystycal]

I think it has something to do with your brain putting Lucid Dreams at the same memory priority as other dreams, since the only difference in them is that you're aware. So your brain just kind of treats an LD like a normal dream and some people have trouble recalling LD's.

[Jackst09]

I think it's something to do with just your ability to store dreams, you become more conscious and remember them when you create a diary, which I need to do myself. I have only just started again, when I was a child I could do it at will, I have been experiencing more at the moment, the only trouble I have is remaining lucid and 'spawning' things into my dream, flying is easy. I had multiple dream layers last night and that was very strange but exciting.

[Elegy]

That's what happens to me, i think i can remember the dream but later on i forget. It's why people write them down or type them up immediately after waking.

[OwenLucid]

I just can't believe that something so AMAZING can happen but then you just forget it?....

[Elegy]

I just can't believe that something so AMAZING can happen but then you just forget it?.... Yeah but dreams can be so vague, plus the brain doesn't think logically while sleeping, but with practice that can change.

[OwenLucid]

Yeah...I just hope that I havent had any LD's but forgotten!

[Sageous]

Owen, I'm going to throw you a little curveball: LD's ought to be remembered just like waking life memories, because they are waking-life memories. Your instinct was correct; you should remember those two dreams, just as you would remember any interesting waking life moments. When your waking awareness is with you in a dream, your experiences should be recorded, and saved, just like any other waking-life memory (as opposed to regular dreams, which, with the exception of extremely exciting or interesting ones, tend to be tossed out of short-term memory upon waking). So what happened? Could be a couple of things. First and least appealing: you may have only dreamed that you were lucid, and didn't really have your waking awareness with you in your dream. This still happens to me, and I've been doing this for a very long time -- you want to have a LD so badly that you tend to create a powerful expectation in your unconscious mind about it and, sure enough, it accomodates your wishes and gives you a dream, utterly non-lucid, but feels just like a lucid. It also could just be that you're new to this, and might need a little practice relaxing after you wake up and not letting the excitement wash away your memory. But I'm not so sure about that one. That's what I got. Most people here disagree with me and I usually keep my yap shut, but when someone mentions that they were sure they'd remember their LD because it was a "normal" waking moment, I have to chime in with agreement, and maybe some brief encouragement... Don't be alarmed, you very likely will remember when you have LD's, even of it's just the vague memory you note above. So take it or leave it....

[Supernova]

Your brain is programmed to erase dream memories while awake, that's why you have to work so hard to maintain good dream recall. This filtering is applied to all dreams, lucid or not; you just have to learn how to resist it.

[faceonmars]

I concur with Sageous. When you are truly lucid your memory is functioning as if awake. It is an amazing experience. However, if you were to ask me if I can positively , 100% state that I remember every lucid dream, I would say this : How could I prove such a thing? I would like to think I do... but can't say for sure.

[OwenLucid]

hmmm it is all so interesting to think about...what Sageous says makes sense though...I wonder if I even had Lucid Dreams at all!?! or if I just dreamed them non, hmmm

[Sageous]

... if you were to ask me if I can positively , 100% state that I remember every lucid dream, I would say this : How could I prove such a thing? I would like to think I do... but can't say for sure. That question can be applied to waking memories as well, I think: Can you 100% state that you remember every waking moment, or perhaps just every important waking moment? I doubt it. Memories of LD's may be the same as waking memories, but by the same token they share all of waking memories' deficiencies!

[Sageous]

I wonder if I even had Lucid Dreams at all!?! or if I just dreamed them non, hmmm That could well be, but you know what? It's much better, expectation-wise, to believe you had LD's and simply forgot them in your excitement than it is to think they were False LD's. However, if this keeps up, even after you've made some effort to remember your LD's (writing them down immediately being the best bet), you might have cause for concern. .. I have a feeling you'll remember your next LD, though, if only because you're giving it all this much attention!

[Sivason]

Here is a big part of the problem for me. I work a grueling stressful 14 hour job and need Ambien to get enough sleep between shifts. Ambien seems to cause amnisia. I forget that we have watched an episode of a show on netflix. I will start "the next" episode, only to have my wife laugh and tell me we just saw it the night before. I sometimes have two or three LDs a night, but so little of the memories stay intact it is not worth thinking about. How could I forget multiple LDs in one night? How can I forget a show I just watched? So a special case, me and ambien. Even when not sedated my level of recall seems to fluctuate. I have great recall if I am working on it and spacy recall if I am not focussing on LDing. After thousands of LDs they no longer strike me with an intense thrill, so they stand out little more than normal dreams. If I do not work on recall activelly I may or may not bother to remember an LD.

[Robot_Butler]

Memory is fickle, in general. Dream memory is even worse. Incredible events can be just as hard to remember as anything else. For example, I can barely even remember the last time I went skydiving, even though it was a thrilling experience. My dinner last night felt incredibly real and vivid, but I can barely remember it, now. Even when I'm actively trying to memorize something for a test, I fail. I think the problem with dream memory is, we don't have a chance to process it. Unless we journal it, we don't have a chance to translate it into memory. Think about the last time you had to study for a test, or memorize something. You don't just look at a flash card, and immediately remember it. It is better to close your eyes, and imagine the flash card in your mind a few times. This translation locks the experience in your memory. I think dreams are hard to remember, because they are already only happening in our memory. There is no separation between imagination and reality to allow for translation. It is all imagination. It is only when we wake and review it that we can begin to create lasting memories of the dream. Even better, is to journal it. Translate it to words, and it suddenly blossoms. A good exercise to explore this relationship is trying to use your imagination while in a lucid dream. Anytime I try to visualize something, or remember something, it just becomes the new reality. It is very taxing to maintain a separate line of thought or imagination while in a dream. You can't really daydream while dreaming.

[Sivason]

A good exercise to explore this relationship is trying to use your imagination while in a lucid dream. Anytime I try to visualize something, or remember something, it just becomes the new reality. It is very taxing to maintain a separate line of thought or imagination while in a dream. You can't really daydream while dreaming. Interesting, I will have to try this. From what I can make out reviewing my dream past, your statement seems like it is likely true.