How long do you continue digging for recall of a dream?

I was wondering about the specifics of how you fellow dreamers go about recalling dreams. As a relative novice dreamer, I've been really pleased lately that I've gotten into the rhythm of being able to recall several paragraphs of dream content each night. However, the dreams are still a bit fragmented and I just know there are lots of missing bits. There are plenty of gaps within the dream plots that I haven't been able to fill.

I'm wondering whether you all have experienced something similar and, if so, how you've overcome this and fleshed out your dreams more. Is it simply a matter of laying there for a longer time and continuing to dig and dig until you've got everything? I've found that it can take an extremely long time to do this and sometimes if I try to keep digging I'll lay there for a while and I still won't be able to fill all the holes. I wonder if there are other methods besides this "Brute force" method. Or maybe if I force myself to dig for longer, it's a way of training myself to recall more, and in the future I won't have to dig for as long? I'm not sure what the best approach is. What has been your experience?

After about 10-15 minutes of laying in bed, I will let it go. You never know, sometimes a dream memory will come back later in the day. But usually not. I figure, there's always tomorrow night :) And plus, the more you practice, the more and more you will recall next time.

If you really want to, you could practice dream re-entry. That's where you go back into a dream you already had. It's a shamanic practice I think. If you're interested, google it, and also "Robert Moss," he describes the process pretty well.

10-15 minutes sounds like a reasonable timeframe. I guess after a certain amount of time, you hit a point of diminishing returns and like you mentioned it's better to just wait until the next round of dreams so that you can try again :).

I only strive to recall a fully detailed dream if it is either memorable or lucid, or the last dream or two before waking up. And even then, I only aim to recall during the first minute or two, and immediately start writing. I've noticed it is easier to reconstruct the dream from any part you know did happened. Then, as you continue writing, the earlier/later parts of the plot resurface. It's better to start writing immediately than waiting to remember the whole dream's plot beforehand. And if it is a dream I've woken up from in the very early hours of the night, I write maybe a quick line or two then go back to sleep (unless lucid/memorable).

Oh cool, I never actually tried that. I've always laid down and just tried to reconstruct it in its entirety before writing it down (one downside of this is that I sometimes fall right back asleep, or spontaneously forget the dream while trying to recollect it). I will give this a go tomorrow and see if it works better for me.

Yes, that is great advice. Start writing right away. Man, I don't know how many times I've waited just a couple minutes, then fallen back asleep and forgotten my dream.

You could use a voice recorder too, if you don't have time to write in your DJ.

One piece of advice I've read a long time ago that really helped shorten the length of recall is to not prioritize recalling/recording events in sequence. Get all of the easy memories first, then cycle through the important bits, before you finally go back to sorting everything.

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Originally Posted by RelicWraith

One piece of advice I've read a long time ago that really helped shorten the length of recall is to not prioritize recalling/recording events in sequence. Get all of the easy memories first, then cycle through the important bits, before you finally go back to sorting everything.

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Yep, that is good advice. I like to add, if I may? I think if you start with your five senses first like those certain smells, visuals, emotions, textiles, or sounds than the better off you will be. The more you utilize your senses, I think, you will get better at recalling your dreams. However, it will take some work, time, Patience, and discipline. (IMO)
I mean, from my experiences this is what worked for me when I can not remember them easily.
Also, note: There may be times where you can't remember your dreams. Also, don't expect that every night going to be the same amount of recall, it's alright to have some off nights. This is the same with lucid dreaming.
Keep on working on it! Even the best dreamers can NOT always recall things.
Hope that helps or makes any sense?

Really good advice given above! I do two additional things that might help:

- Think about often recurring dreamsigns.
- Briefly consider the most common locations, people and activities you encounter in your life.

For me, this really helps. In many of my dreams I am driving a car; in even more, I am at my workplace, or with my family. Just thinking about these locations, people and actions often sparks memories of new dreams or adds to dreams I already remember. On average, I would say this gets me around 4-5 extra dreams per week.

Building strong recall has definitely been one of the most rewarding aspects of learning to lucid dream for me. I love my NLDs and remembering them means every night there’s something to look forward to even if I don’t get lucid. So here’s my tips to recall based on my own experience.

1. Learn to wake up naturally after dreams in the night. This I think is crucial and didn’t take as long as I thought it might to learn. Simply setting the intention to wake up and remember my dreams before bed was enough for me to start waking regularly in the night. If you wake straight from a dream it’s much easier to remember so noticing those brief awakenings in the night is key. I usually have 2 - 4 wake ups in a night and I can usually recall at least 1 decent dream per session. (11 has been my record in one night). If this doesn’t work for you then sure alarms do the trick but I find I wake up groggy and unfocused after alarms and if you sleep with someone next to you it’s not always convenient.

2. When you do wake up stay completely still with your eyes closed and try to remember where you just were a moment ago. If you’ve just come out of a dream it will usually be right there ready to recall and you can almost sense it’s presence as if you’ve just been somewhere and done something other then lay in bed asleep. Once I’ve unlocked the memory I then move into a less comfortable position (for me laid on my back) so I don’t fall asleep too quickly. I then try to remember the dream in as much detail as I can. I try trace my steps backward and forward from the moment I can remember to see if I can recall more of the scene. As I do this sometimes more dreams I’ve had emerge. I do this for maybe 10 - 15 minutes and try recall as much as possible.

3. Of course keep a dream Journal and record the dreams you’ve recalled. Now obviously getting up and writing them down straight away is the best thing to do but if you’re like me and don’t want to wake your partner I sometimes try to remember them by giving them a memorable title and picking 1 clear image from the dream to recall in the morning rather than the whole thing. For example the title may be ‘Pig flies by my window’ and the image could be the winged pig flying across the sky. If I can recall this image and title in the morning I can usually remember the rest of the dream including what occurred before and after. This method is a bit risky for obvious reasons and you can forget details or entire dreams occasionally but sometimes it’s not convenient to be writing them down at 3am whilst someone is asleep right next to you. I find it works quite well for me though.

4. If I struggle to remember anything then I cycle through my recurring dream signs. They may be locations, characters or themes (Regular characters work best for me). Also think about things that happened yesterday or before bed. What did you watch? What did you talk about? What did you read? These things quite commonly pop up in dreams for me. It’s almost like trying a bunch of keys in a lock and hoping one will open the door. If I can’t recall anything then I don’t over do it and go back to sleep or if it’s morning wake up instead. You can spend as long as you want trying to remember a vague fragment but that time might be better spent getting an extra 10 minutes of sleep and having an even clearer dream! Sometimes throughout the day things can trigger your dream memories as well so there’s still the opportunity to recall them after you’ve got out of bed.

I see recalling dreams similar to recalling any memory. You can usually remember the exciting bits and images quite easily but a lot of the in between bits and details can be discarded and easily forgotten. Dreams also like to jump around from one scene to the next in a split second and can make recall confusing and make it seem like you’ve forgotten more then you actually have. Recall is always a bit hit and miss for me. I don’t think there really Is some amazing recall hack (If there is Id love to hear it!) Working on your memory and waking awareness I’ve read can help but the best thing I’ve found is simply making sure I wake up after or in the middle of my dreams with a clear head and recalling them doing the steps above. I also find recall really suffers if I’m over tired as it makes it hard to focus. So making sure you’re getting enough sleep also helps. Overall my recall varies from one night to the next but I’ve seen nothing but improvement since I began practicing. So I think the key is, get plenty of rest, train your mind to wake you after dreams, don’t over do it if the dream doesn’t get any clearer after 10 - 15 minutes and finally keep practicing. (Sorry if this was a bit long and I repeated points from other members, I started writing and just couldn’t stop!) 🙂

'if I dont document the dream within about 5 minutes, I'll forget most of it. I definitely think certain things trigger dream memories (accidently?). Seeing specific things you dreamt in real life. You dreamt about a convertable or a woman in a blue dress. Seeing this in real life the next day may pull the unconscious memory out. Even for a split second.(similar to deja vu) This happens to me frequently.