WideEyedChild's Workbook

I've been practicing LD'ing seriously since the beginning of August this year (after 10 yours of being interested). Lately I find it harder to do the needed work during the day and at night, and it has gotten to the point where even my dream recall is not what it used to be when I started. So I'm starting this workbook as an incentive to bring my focus back to LD'ing. I'll set a goal each week and I'm planning to write an update daily.

My goal for this week is to improve my dream recall again, I'm hoping to remember 3-4 dreams a night. In order to achieve this, I'm planning to:

• Write the date in my dream journal before I go to bed (this helps me to set my intention to remember dreams).
• Put more effort into writing down key words when I wake up in the middle of the night.
• Put more effort into writing out all my dreams in the morning.
• Write something down every morning, even if that means just writing down that I do not remember any dreams.

Next Monday I'll reflect on how it went and on if I'm ready to set a new goal.

This past night, I remembered 2 dreams. I'm happy with this, since I couldn't recall any dreams for almost a week. I've noticed that it's harder for me to remember dreams in winter. I'm sensitive to the weather and I sleep a lot deeper, which makes my mind foggy when I wake up.

I remembered one of the dreams around 2.30am and I wrote down some quick sentences. I didn't remember anything about it this morning. Then the other dream, that was the dream I had just before I woke up. I remembered it but within 2 seconds most of it was gone. I wrote down what I still remembered.

This is so different from summer, when I sleep light (which also makes it easer to get lucid). In August and September I remembered multiple dreams a night, and so much more detailed.

However, I hope that now that I'm putting more effort in dream recall, it will still improve over time, also during the winter.

It's interesting how seasonal differences affect sleep and dreaming. I had terrible insomnia in the heat of summer (it's also very light here in summer), struggling to sleep more than 5-6 hours, and now that it's dark and cold through the night, I'm sleeping 7-8 hours much more easily. The sleep does seem to be deeper, though, and it is a bit harder to recall dreams. I, too, and working on boosting my recall. It's *really* important to at least scribble down some key words. Just the other night I spent quite a lot of time reviewing a middle waking dream, to make sure I'd remember it in the morning, and in the morning it was completely gone! In the past I've been able to maintain a mental list of keywords and images/names for dreams and accumulate more on every waking. But that takes time and energy, that I'd rather be spent sleeping, so now I'm working on writing key words. I can write actually pretty legibly in the dark it turns out, printing is best for that.

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

It's interesting how seasonal differences affect sleep and dreaming. I had terrible insomnia in the heat of summer (it's also very light here in summer), struggling to sleep more than 5-6 hours, and now that it's dark and cold through the night, I'm sleeping 7-8 hours much more easily. The sleep does seem to be deeper, though, and it is a bit harder to recall dreams. I, too, and working on boosting my recall. It's *really* important to at least scribble down some key words. Just the other night I spent quite a lot of time reviewing a middle waking dream, to make sure I'd remember it in the morning, and in the morning it was completely gone! In the past I've been able to maintain a mental list of keywords and images/names for dreams and accumulate more on every waking. But that takes time and energy, that I'd rather be spent sleeping, so now I'm working on writing key words. I can write actually pretty legibly in the dark it turns out, printing is best for that.

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Yes that is incredible, how you can remember something so vividly in the middle of the night, and then it's all gone in the morning. The mind is an interesting thing.

I also usually write down key words at night and then write full stories in the morning when I wake up. If I still remember what it was about, that is. ;)

Good luck with working on your dream recall!

This morning I could not remember a single thing about my dreams. I did "feel" that I just woke up from a dream-I felt some emotions-but it was all gone at the moment I woke up. I could not even register which emotions I was feeling exactly.

Later today I actually remembered a snippet from a dream; I remembered that I wrote something in my workbook here on Dreamviews. The reason why I realized it was a dream and not a real memory from, for example, yesterday, is that I remembered that in my dream I posted two posts in my workbook on the same day, and I hadn't done that.

Tonight I'm planning to read old entries in my dream journal. I hope that that will remind my subconscious that remembering dreams is important! :)

Something that has helped me in the past to remember dreams is to review my dream signs. There tends to be a lot of repetition in my dreams so there is a good chance that I'll come across something that I dreamed about.

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Originally Posted by cedwards105

Something that has helped me in the past to remember dreams is to review my dream signs. There tends to be a lot of repetition in my dreams so there is a good chance that I'll come across something that I dreamed about.

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Thanks for the tip. I do have a list with dream signs too, and I'm sure that they pop up in my dreams but I seem to not be able to remember anything, lately!

I really tried my best last night with setting an intention. I even wrote down a little note in my dream journal every time I woke up during the night, just saying that I could not remember anything. This morning, nothing. I have the flue at the moment, so that might play a role too, but I'm a little disappointed. I thought that taking a step back and just focussing on dream recall would take away some pressure. This is also how I started lucid dreaming, and this summer I started to recall multiple dreams a night even within the first week of writing them down.

Lucid dreaming is not an exact science. Not all dream/ dream recall experiences are the same. Writing things down doesn't always guarantee an ample amount of recall or lucidity. Sometimes it comes down to stress and your sleep patterns. You are always going to have ups and downs depending on your night, and not every night is going to be the same.

I found that by making a practice of *always* reaching for dream memories on every waking, even if there was nothing to begin with, that over time it did become easier and the memories started to "present themselves" more. I also think that being more lucid and aware during the day, fully present in your experiences, eventually moves into dreams: the more you pay attention to your experiences, and want to remember them, the better it will be in time. But yes getting enough good quality sleep is at the root of it all!

Hi guys, thank you for taking the time to respond to me and give advice. I appreciate it a lot. :)

I haven't written any updates since Thursday because I was ill, but I have good news! Since then, I've remembered dreams every morning and I even had a lucid one! It was still a bit foggy and I remember that I was a little disoriented in my dream and wasn't sure what to do, but still, it was lucid! (It was a DILD by the way, I did a random nose pinch in my dream and realized it felt different from normal, tried it a few times to be really sure, and yeah, I was dreaming!)

Since it's Monday, it's time to reflect on the past week and set a goal for the coming one.

Last week
I reached my goal of improving dream recall. I took the steps that I described last week, but I think I could do more in the 'writing out dreams' department.

This week
I'll keep focussing on dream recall. My new goal for this week is to take 15 minutes every morning to really write out my dreams (and keywords that I wrote down).

Yesterday I was able to took those 15 minutes to write down everything that I could recall. This morning, however, I woke up with the feeling that I had an amazing, lively dream, but after 1 second everything was gone. I tried to take the time to remember and asked myself where I was, with whom, etc. but nothing came back. Hopefully I'll have more luck tomorrow.

There are other ways to record your dreams via a voice recorder too. Whatever works for you. :)

I hope this thread can work for you! Here: https://www.dreamviews.com/induction...%3Drecall.html

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Originally Posted by WideEyedChild

Yesterday I was able to took those 15 minutes to write down everything that I could recall. This morning, however, I woke up with the feeling that I had an amazing, lively dream, but after 1 second everything was gone. I tried to take the time to remember and asked myself where I was, with whom, etc. but nothing came back. Hopefully I'll have more luck tomorrow.

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Don't stress about it (literally, stress/frustration impairs dream recall). Celebrate the victories, celebrate remembering *something*, even the fact that you dreamt, that's better than not having a feeling you've dreamt. If you make a habit of reaching for recall, even briefly, on every waking throughout the night, and journaling what you recall, your brain will get the message. It can help to "free associate" on common dream themes quickly, like "childhood home, work, school, the park, confrontation," etc., whatever you tend to dream about, since memories are stored associatively.

It can also help to run through the memories of the day a couple of times during the day, just sort of do a "day rewind" back to the morning, recalling whatever you can. I found that doing a "day journal" boosted my dream recall alot. Going about your day with the intention to remember your experiences also helps a lot.

Hi guys, thank you for your helpful advices.

I’m on my phone so instead of quoting, I’ll reply like this:

@Lang, that is such a great idea! But I don’t know if my boyfriend will be very happy with this… If I lived alone, I would definitely do this!

@FryingMan, you’re absolutely right and thank you for your encouring words. This is also why I’m first focussing on improving dream recall only, and I’m not doing RCs right now. I don’t want to put too much pressure on it

On another note: today a friend gifted me LaBerge’s LD “bible”, she knew I wanted it so that’s such a sweet gesture. I’ve read a few other books on LD this year but I keep seeing his book mentioned everywhere.

I think it's OK to begin a few awareness-boosting activities along with focusing on recall, just don't overload yourself. Keep it light, playful, fun, with feelings of ease and openness. Welcome and anticipate results that will come in time, rather than "working hard to make something happen."

It's Monday, and time for an update!

Last week
In all honesty: LD'ing was not my number 1 priority last week. I had a lot of things going on with work past week, and I must say that I can't believe it's Monday already! But still, by dream recall has improved a lot in the last 2 weeks! One thing that I noticed is that I usually remember my last dream, when I wake up in the morning, very vividly. But I do not remember any other dreams. Like I wrote before, I sleep so much deeper in autumn and winter, so that definitely has an influence.

Coming 2 weeks
Since I'll try to do some more stuff this time, I'm making a plan for the coming 2 weeks (instead of 1). My goals are:

• Trying to wake myself up a little more when I wake up during the night
• Continuing with writing down all dreams that I remember;
• Start doing RC's again.

As for the RC's: I do a combination of critical thinking and a nose pinch (since the nose pinch is the only physical RC that works in my dream). Whenever I do a RC, I try to remember my previous RC. After I did the RC I'll try to be aware of my experience for a little while.

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

I think it's OK to begin a few awareness-boosting activities along with focusing on recall, just don't overload yourself. Keep it light, playful, fun, with feelings of ease and openness. Welcome and anticipate results that will come in time, rather than "working hard to make something happen."

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Thank you! As you can see in my update from yesterday, I followed your advice. :)

So last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and I remembered my goal and woke myself up a bit more than usual. Did not get lucid but I did have vivid dreams afterwards!

Things haven't really been going as planned, this past week. I have a lot on my plate atm and I can feel that LD's is not as much of a priority as I would like it to be. I've read it often on the forum here, that stress has such a negative impact on LD'ing. Funny thing is that my dreams are becoming more and more vivid again nonetheless, even when I have not been writing them down in the last week. But I want to try picking up where I left, so I'll start writing them down again and I'll try to wake myself up a bit more during the night when I wake up.

I don't know if I'll manage to do RC's since I do not have a lot of mental capacity left during the day atm, I need to put my attention elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by WideEyedChild

Things haven't really been going as planned, this past week. I have a lot on my plate atm and I can feel that LD's is not as much of a priority as I would like it to be. I've read it often on the forum here, that stress has such a negative impact on LD'ing. Funny thing is that my dreams are becoming more and more vivid again nonetheless, even when I have not been writing them down in the last week. But I want to try picking up where I left, so I'll start writing them down again and I'll try to wake myself up a bit more during the night when I wake up.

I don't know if I'll manage to do RC's since I do not have a lot of mental capacity left during the day atm, I need to put my attention elsewhere.

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Easier said than done, but this is why I think the most successful LD training technique is one that you can integrate into your life and maintain even in moments of extreme stress and busyness.

That being said, another important lucid dreaming tenet is: take care of your waking life! So, I hope you resolve whatever you're working on and can return to the practice soon!

Thank you, FryingMan.

I can't believe it, I had a lucid dream this weekend! It did not last very long, but I was very much aware that it was a dream. I became lucid when I was at the beach and there were certain things that did not add up, so I decided to do a nose pinch. As soon as I realized that I was dreaming, I dived into the ocean. I was able to swim so fast! After a few minutes I woke up, but I'm still very happy I had one, since I'm not putting in a lot of effort at the moment.

It's actually time to set new goals today, and I think my goal for the coming 2 weeks is to implement more critical thinking in my every day life, since that is usually what makes me lucid in a dream.