Remembering Dream Goals

So I've managed to establish a routine (RCs during the day, WBTB and MILD at night) and am having LDs somewhat frequently (about 2-3 a week) however I've stumbled into a problem I didn't have before, which is remembering dream goals. Sometimes I remember them but recently I've just started coming up with weird things and thinking they're my dream goals. For example, I had a lucid this night and tought my goal was finding a huge tree with a door on it, altough I've never had any goal like that. So I've wondering how I could improve my memory and remember more goals.

My current routine goes like this: I do RCs randomly through the day and also whenever I enter my bedroom or bathroom (both are frequent dream scenarios). Them during the night I naturally wake up (usually twice a night, can be more on nights where I have lots of LDs) write my dream and do a short 5-10 minute (still experimenting which amount of time works better, if I stay up too long I have trouble sleeping) while repeating a mantra like "I'm dreaming" or "I'm lucid in my dreams" then go back to bed and repeat the mantra for a while, while visualizing myself getting lucid and doing whatever my current goal is. I repeat this vizualisation about 3 or 4 times because I don't want to wake myself up too much, then I go back to sleep. Is there any way I can increment this routine to remember my goals more?

Hi Cookino. When I first started lucid dreaming I could never remember in dream goals. I have a bad memory when awake and the dreaming me is 100 times worse. I found a trick to help me to remember lucid goals. The idea came to me while in mid real-world reality check. If I could remember to push my finger through my hand in waking life AND in dreams perhaps I could use my hands to remember lucid goals. I chose three important dream goals and assigned a goal to three fingers on my left hand. Pointer finger was goal 1. Middle finger was goal 2. Ring finger was goal 3. Whenever I reality checked while awake I also named each of my goals off on their respective fingers. It took about three weeks for the habit to transfer over into a lucid dream but when it did it worked like a charm. I easily named off my three goals and went after them. I am getting reacquainted with lucid dreaming after a few years and I am going to use the same method to remember lucid goals. I have not chosen three goals yet but when I do I will also list them in my dream journal to reinforce my intent. Hope this technique may be of help to you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Olorin

If I could remember to push my finger through my hand in waking life AND in dreams perhaps I could use my hands to remember lucid goals. I chose three important dream goals and assigned a goal to three fingers on my left hand. Pointer finger was goal 1. Middle finger was goal 2. Ring finger was goal 3. Whenever I reality checked while awake I also named each of my goals off on their respective fingers.

---

This is s a really good advice! Pretty sure I'm not forgetting any of my LD goals anymore either thanks to this. I always relied on intention when it came to remembering my goals. This could also be used with remembering to remember, stabilize, calm down, anchoring yourself to the dream etc.

Thanks for pointing out the technique could help in other ways as well. I never considered such other useful applications. :goodjob2:
I truly think that if the technique can work for someone with a memory as horrible as mine it could work for pretty much anyone.

Thanks for the advice Olorin, I'll start doing that everytime I do a reality check, soon I won't be forgetting my goals!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Saizaphod

This is s a really good advice! Pretty sure I'm not forgetting any of my LD goals anymore either thanks to this. I always relied on intention when it came to remembering my goals. This could also be used with remembering to remember, stabilize, calm down, anchoring yourself to the dream etc.

---

That's a good idea, I'm going to try that too. I think I'll use two fingers for dream goals and the last one to remember to stabilize and calm down.

If you want to remember something in a dream, you need to be able to recall it while awake with ease. Practice recalling your dream goals during the day, until you can recall all of them perfectly the very instant you think to remember them. If you practice recalling them frequently throughout the day, you'll most likely be able to recall them fairly easily in a dream.

The way to build/improve your memory is to use it. Practice remembering your experiences every day. For example, in the evening while preparing for bed, recall/replay your experiences of the day. Just as in the morning, you recall/replay your dreaming experiences of the night. You can also set specific targets during the day (something particularly interesting, or even something very mundane), and use a mnemonic system for remembering them. Then at the evening day-recall, go through your mnemonic targets and see how many you can remember.

This is working so well! Iv done this in all the lucids Iv had after reading about this. Thanks again for sharing this technique Cookino! It's super!

I usually go with Stop - Remember - Dream goal.

The goal-finger assignment idea already mentioned seems like a good idea. I might try it too - but usually I just think about my dream goals and visualise myself carrying them out, or remember the intention. One thing I do other than intentions (if my intentions feel weak at some point) is to remember why I want to carry out those dream goals (the desire I have for carrying them out) and imagine being satisfied with the result to up my motivation.

I also keep a written list so I can keep track of exactly what dream goals I wish to do and can check them off when I've completed them as well as add or take off goals once in a while (because editing and tweaking my list brings my motivation for my goals to the front of my mind), but I don't carry it around with me constantly and frequently rely on it so I can practice prospective memory. If I'm constantly keeping a written list I'm not exercising my prospective memory as much.

If you're having trouble with dream goal intentions currently then it's fine for you to try something else since you should find something that works for you, but if you struggle with intentions then it may be due to the strength/level of your prospective memory, so trying to improve your prospective memory might help you and you might find your intentions easier to remember/become more effective. Prospective memory is our ability to remember now to do something in the future. If you improve prospective memory, then intentions may not seem as difficult and you might actually warm up to using intentions. Or, if you'd still rather try something other than intentions, then improving prospective memory can help you with remembering dream goals in general, whether you try to do so by constant intentions or not - since most efforts to help you remember dream goals will involve your prospective memory or aiding your prospective memory to some degree and in some way. This might help:

In "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", Stephen LaBerge explains how MILD requires good prospective memory (since you're trying to remember to do something in the future - you're trying in waking life to remember to become aware in your dreams later on when you go to sleep). Normally, prospective memory is something that we are only average at (or some even bad at) - because if we want to remember to do something in the future we often make a physical written reminder instead of relying on our own internal memory to remind us to do it later (when it needs to be done) and if we are not motivated to do something later on, or don't care about it, then we're probably going to forget to do it when the time comes. In the book, LaBerge gives an exercise that helps improve prospective memory for the sake of aiding in MILD (and remembering in you're dreams the intention to become aware that you set before while you were awake), but since remembering to do a dream goal in your dreams that you set while you were awake is also prospective memory, this exercise can also help improve prospective memory for remembering dream goals as well.

Basically, for every day of the week you have a certain number of targets provided (in the book there is a list of the days of the week with four daily targets for each day) and you try to, throughout your day, remember to notice your targets as they happen (eg. let's say my daily targets might be "seeing red cars", "hearing someone call my name", "getting a phone call", and "hearing someone speak in a foreign language" - I need to remember to recognise and notice when these things happen - when I see a red car, I need to remember to notice it happen and take note of the red car, but without keeping the list of targets on me and reminding myself to look out for these targets simply using memory.)

I'm not sure if I want to give you the list from LaBerge's book (which would make this reply even longer), but you could write down a list of four daily targets or more for each day and then, at the end of the day, count up how many times you saw the targets - the key is not to remember that you saw the target AFTER you saw it because you forgot about noting the targets at the time that you actually saw the target (for eg. let's say, I see a red car at lunch time as I'm crossing the road but forget my target and thus take no notice of it, but then at dinner hours later that night remember my target and go "oh! I saw a red car at lunch time, didn't I?") because that is retrospective memory (remembering back on something), you need to remember the targets so you notice them as you encounter them (prospective memory). There is an existing thread about this exercise that also gives a list of daily targets, but I don't know where it is a the moment. If I find the thread, I might come back and post a link to it.

Although it may not seem directly helpful to straight up remembering your dream goals, if you improve your prospective memory than remembering your dream goals will at least become gradually easier.

I just repeat them as I'm falling asleep for a WILD. I imagine how I would do them.

What really worked for me is to actually act the goals out. Just pretend you just got lucid and go through the motions of your goal. I call it muscle memory, although I know it takes more practice to actually get that. But for some reason when I get lucid, I just go through the motions as I practiced them during day. Just stand up and swing your sword, hatch from an egg, jump up and fly... get nekked...

I actually write down on a piece of paper 100s of times my dream goal to help me remember, when I am really determined.
Typically, I just repeat my goal to my self as I go to sleep.