One question I couldn't answer...

[Mes Tarrant]

Someone asked me: If you are truly conscious in a lucid dream, why is the likelihood of you remembering one the same as the likelihood of you remembering a regular dream? Now I don't know, maybe you are more likely to remember LDs than regular dreams, but it got me wondering why you can ever have LDs that you don't remember if you're truly conscious? And are we truly conscious in dreams? What does it mean to be conscious? Any thoughts?

[Moonbeam]

Well I can't answer all of those deep questions, but I can tell you my experiences with remembering LD's. I know I forgot one completely, because I remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking, "That was the coolest lucid I've had so far!" (FILD.) I didn't write it down, and in the morning I had forgotten almost everything, and the little bit I remembered slipped away like a regular dream, fading even as I struggled to remember it. Another time, I had been up for a while when something reminded me of a lucid that I had the night before, and the whole thing came back to me. That one would have been lost forever, if something hadn't triggered the memory. So for me, lucids are just like regular dreams--if I don't get up and think about them, I'm likely to forget them. That always scares me into trying to practice good recall, because I don't want to forget a lucid. Luckily, I'm usually really excited and motivated to record a lucid right away when I wake up from it, instead of going back to sleep like I do sometimes with regular dreams. I don't know the answer to what it means to be conscious... hope I answered a little of what you were asking, now that I look back at what you were asking I'm not sure. I know what you mean...why are lucid-memories just like regular dream-memories? Why don't they stick better, if you are using your "conscious" mind? Why do dreams fade so easily, anyway? I can feel them leaving sometimes, and I can't hold on to them. In a way, it's like you remember something other than the real dream, you remember your thoughts about it instead. But I can picture things from dreams so clearly sometimes, that can't be right either. I don't know.

[pj]

I'm sure I've "lost" lucids, especially when they occur earlier in the night. I've had more than one come back to me long after waking. For the most part, though, lucids are so exhilarating that they are super-easy to remember. When I wake directly from a lucid, I'm very excited and am relishing the details, which makes remembering it all that much easier.

[CrazyInSane]

Well when someone is knocked out cold, they often forget the 5-minute period prior to the knock out, even though they were fully conscious during that time. I think the forgetfulness has to do with not being conscious long enough AFTER the event (in this case a lucid dream) to remember it accurately. I think if you wake up right after a lucid dream but go right back to sleep for like 3 hours, you're liable to forget because of the long periods of unconsciousness in between. But if you have an LD, wake up right after, and then get up and walk around enough to think straight, you will definitely remember it the next day clearly. Hope you're getting what I mean. I sometimes confuse, heh. But anyway, I've never had trouble remembering lucid dreams, even if I didn't wake up right after one (as far as I know of). So I dunno.

[Mes Tarrant]

Thanks for the replies. So it tooks like for some lucids are easy to forget while for others they aren't. I was wondering why people say to keep a dream journal and practice dream recall in the first place if lucids are often much easier to remember because you're conscious in them.. but CrazyInSane, you make a good point that I haven't considered yet! In fact, I was conscious all of yesterday during waking life but don't necessarily remember every detail. Hmmm. Yes. I think I'm getting somewhere.

[Alprazolam]

Well when I have a true lucid, there really isn't anything to REMEMBER I'm conscious, just as I am now, and as the dream ends, my state of mind doesnt change....I don't really mentally "wake up" for I'm already awake. My physical body awakes. There is nothing to remember, i just shift back into reality. BUT there are those LDs that you sort of remember after awaking or later on. I say you'd have more chance to remember them, for emotion forms strong ties with memory. LDs produce alot of emotion and are often a focal point for many people on a regular basis.

[pj]

Keeping a dream journal provides multiple payoffs. One of them is the work on dream recall. It lays the necessary groundwork for doing DILD, which is probably the most common way to enter an LD.