Need tips on how to recall long dreams

[luffy28]

Hi, Every once in a while (may 2-3 times a week) I have long dreams and a lot of the time I can't recall them. Sometimes a dream might seem like a while like 20/30 mins to an hour in the dream / recall world. Does anyone know any techniques / ways to get most of the dreams. Also sometimes when awakening from an alarm (google astral projection alarm technique) I sometimes go straight into a dream / dream recall experience. Some books would be good too. Thanks.

[cooleymd]

I suppose only practice can get you to recall that much dream. I usually only recall like 15-25 minutes at most. But more often only am able to dredge up 3-6 minutes or so (often from no initial recall but then trying to remember). Even in a Lucid dream if I have been in it for like 15 minutes I might ask myself a question like how did I become lucid and if I can't remember then I am already losing dream, so If I find that to be the case I wake myself up. (I have only had half a dozen lucid that long tho) I suppose the best way to remember more is to spend more time on recall, to quickly try to work forwards and backwards thru the dream and then to fill it in afterwards with lots of detail. But since I wake many times per night I don't have time to do this I don't want to spend 25 minutes trying to type stuff up each time I awaken. If you do have the time then you could try sketching out places in the dream, recording first places, then dialogue, then feelings, colors etc going back thru and adding all the detail you can remember. (Don't forget to focus on recording inconsistencies and transitions in the dream too, as those are likely to be better for triggering in subsequent dreams if you noticed them)

[duke396]

A lot of times after I've recorded my dreams I'll spend time going over it several times, trying to analyze each part. Sometimes I'll suddenly remember more from the beginning or end... I'm with you though, there are many times I know there was more but I just can't pull it through to the waking world. It can be very frustrating. I think Cooley is right, practice is probably the only way. I have this problem much more than I used to; there was a time when I'd remember more dreams in a lot more detail. Back then I also made it a point to write down anything I remembered as I woke up throughout the night though, which was pretty much after every dream. Also I think a lot of dreams are not as long as they feel. Some dreams seem to jump around from "normal time" then skip to a later time where we just "know" what happened between, and that can make things odd too. I think it's not necessarily that we actually know what happened between, but that our mind makes us aware that something happened and doesn't always get specific on what that was, but we accept it during the dream. I hope that makes sense. I could also be wrong on that, but it's the way it seems to me.