Thread: Having Trouble With Recalling Dreams

Hello again Dreamviews!
I started my first entry into my DJ on the 8th September (6 days ago) and since then I've had, shall we say, limited success. My first entry I remembered 5 dreams, varying in vividness. I was so stoked doing this but the next day I remembered not one dream, and since then only one day I've remembered a clear dream.
Sometimes I know I've dreamt some epic dream but have forgotten it but for about 3-4 of the mornings since I started nothing comes to me, despite the array of techniques I've tried/am using.
here's the techniques I'm using:
-Lay in bed for 5 minutes with my eyes closed and rewind the dream to remember as much as possible.
-Repeat the mantra 'I will remember my dreams' for about 10+ minutes until I fall asleep.
-Lay as still as possible before falling asleep.
-Drink loads of water to try and awake during a dream in the early morning.
-I tried the mantra 'I will awaken from my dreams and completely remember them' but decided not to use it anymore.
-I read my dream journal before bed every night.
-I'm not stressed and I get almost my 8 hours of sleep every night

I just wanna know if this is normal and if beginners regularly experience this or maybe I need to change tactics somehow? thanks for the help!

Give it time. The time it takes for one person to have success can / will vary from person to person. When I first Started ( Sept 2 ) I was entering 6-8 lines in my DJ ( About a Paragraph ), since keeping a DJ I have been doing FULL page entries ( For the best few days ). The DJ is working, and is slowly helping my sub conscious to remember the dreams. There still some nights where I wont remember a dream, and to my understanding this happens sometimes to even the most efficient dreamers. Don't give up. You will be sleeping and dreaming every night for the rest of your life, so it's not like your short on time. lol

If you wake up, go over it in your head (as you seem to be doing). I recommend writing any notes down about the dream in a book by your side table, if you can. That helps me a lot. If you forget to take notes, can't remember much, but know you had a dream, keep it on your mind all day. Go over the dream when you have spare time, and keep thinking about it till more information emerges. Sometimes, something throughout your day might trigger memory about the dream-- you could see a cloud and suddenly remember you had a dream where you were flying.

Thank you both of you for your encouragement and ideas. I won't ever give up and I'm glad to hear testimonials that it really works. I know I'm new so it might take awhile.
I've also thought of a new method: a 10 second alarm will let me stay as still as possible as I wake up to recall.
Loaf, I will also start thinking about parts of the dream during the day now, I frequently know that I've dreamt something but just can't grasp it and really remember, hopefully this'll allow me to remember those parts.
And Bm: How long have u kept a dream journal for? I'm interested in how you've progressed since starting.

1 year next month, all online (apart from my notes). I am lazy with my entries online now.

As stated above, I started my DJ on Sept 2nd

wow that's not long at all.

Hey
I find that simply writing the smallest thing or a dream
and paying more attention to your DJ your recall automatically increases...
-Sam

Yeah, my recall improved after my first couple entries. Last night I recalled 2 dreams, and filled a full page and a half.

+1 Sam1r
Write down the smallest fragments, no matter how insignificant they may seem. It takes a bit of time and patience. It took me a couple month of small fragments before I was able to recall any great detail. I used to write all the fragments I could remember, then use my imagination to fill in the gaps and create a story out of them. Helped a lot!

After a couple years now, I am beginning to attempt recreation of my dream scenes using still images and video. To assist with this, I draw anything that I can recall after make my journal entries. I keep colored pencils with my dream journal to aid in recalling specific colors. I'm nearly ready to hang a computer screen above my bed so I can hit the design programs after waking.

Thank you everyone for the help.
ander: what do you hope to achieve from reconstructing your dream scenes?

Originally Posted by newtz1995

ander: what do you hope to achieve from reconstructing your dream scenes?

My main goal is to add an extra layer to the dream journal by recording visual memories, in addition to written text.