Thread: Naps and recall?

Okay so lately as I work on getting my sleep schedule back on a consistent level again, I notice my recall being absolute crap during normal sleep. Like I can usually wake up only remembering a fragment or so. Journaling in my dream journal consists of typing one or two sentences out lol. But today, as there was nothing better to do I stayed up at 6am, then went back to bed at 9am because I was tired. I just woke up at around 1pm or so and remembered the most vivid long dream I had in a long time. It was amazing. So I'm wondering why my recall could be so good during naps but crap during regular sleeping times. I'm thinking it's because naps send me right into REM and I wake up right after it or at least in the middle of it, where as regular sleep consists of N-REM, REM. And dreamless sleep. Or so I'm told. Is there any techniques I can do to increase my recall during the night besides keeping the obvious dream journal? I read about drinking lots of water before bed so that my body could naturally wakes me up at the end of a REM cycle to go use the bathroom. Is this a good technique? Sounds sort of like what would happen during a nap. You know, waking up after rem and all.

P.S. if remembering such vivid dreams during naps is normal, than I'm gonna do it all the time now. Going to get my recall up speedy quick lol. Especially since its summer.