Been experiencing Dream Recall lately

[ElectricWojo]

Hello all... I haven't posted on this forum in about 2 years for whatever reasons... I sort have seemed to only experience dream recall about once every 2 months... but recently it has been every night. Sooo I am deciding to get into the practice of doing this regularly. The odd thing about my dreams the past few nights is that they have been borderline nightmares. I wake up about every hour, amazed at how vivid the dreams were. I then go back to sleep to find myself in the same dream again. Now, I am not 'aware' I am dreaming because they are so intense. 2 nights ago I was in the middle of a large war of sorts... with people dressed in 1800s garb with swords. I later found myself running away from this war, hopping on a school bus, and riding around an old neighborhood. Last night I was aboard some type of large space cruiser, with a giant human causing chaos on board. I was trying to hide under a bed during this dream, as I didn't want to be caught in the chaos. Now much more has happened in these dreams... but the gist of it is that I seemed to be terrified during both... and both were extremely absurd. The only thing I have been doing recently is reading about lucid dreaming... and that in and of itself has helped my dream recall.

[Alsroge]

Hi there ElectricWojo! You should stick around more often than every couple of months. I'm glad I could be active during a time that you decided to come on. Hehe. That's awesome that you've decided to do it regularly! Congrats on your recent increase in dream recall. When you say "doing this regularly," I presume you meant keep a dream journal? If not, that's absolutely the first suggestion! Keeping a DJ help you more than any techniques or tutorials you'll find around here. That's #1. Write down what happens, how you feel, etc. of every dream. There are a ton of topics about DJ suggestions, if you would care to read them. Again, if you're already doing this, I apologize. The odd thing about my dreams the past few nights is that they have been borderline nightmares. I wake up about every hour, amazed at how vivid the dreams were. I then go back to sleep to find myself in the same dream again. Now, I am not 'aware' I am dreaming because they are so intense. When you wake up directly from dreams, you're most likely waking up in the REM stage of sleep, and it is possible to continue dreaming right after falling asleep. If you go back to sleep incubating a previous dream, there is a very high possibility that you'll return to that dream scene, and even continue right where you left off. Since you even say you are "amazed" at the dreams, this is a very possible situation. Moreover, your body might still be in sleep mode, so it might sense nothing to have changed. Waking up directly after a dream can be quite the blessing, actually! Look for WILD, WBTB, & DEILD tutorials for more. Those dreams sound pretty interesting, though. Remember to write down every detail in your DJ, no matter how small. Reading about dreams and lucidity is a great tool to get your mind focused before bed as well. Because of the absurdity of your dreams, I highly suggest starting to do more reality checks while you are awake. They will (hopefully) transpire into your dreams and allow you to become lucid. Keep recording your dreams and finding common things in them. Is being terrified common in your dreams? Lucidity could help shed light on why exactly that is, since the problem will likely need to be tackled if it is recurring. Also, learning to reality check upon seeing your dream signs can help you as well. After putting all of this together, I think you have a very good chance of increasing your dream recall tremendously and gaining lucidity at the same time! Once again, I'm sorry if I'm condescending. Just trying to help!

[ElectricWojo]

No no - your advice is totally realistic and true. Right now I am still working on Dream Recall. I don't want to get ahead of myself and 'try' to lucid dream with a lot of strain/stress. The dreams have increased in intensity / vividness lately. The problem is, I have been having 4-5 dreams a night. I'll wake up after each dream, but for some reason I'm not totally 'awake', hence I forget to write them down. The next dream, as I've read, 'wipes' out the memory, to a small degree, of the previous dream. The most vivid dream ends up being the last one that I've had. I'm still not 'aware' that I'm dreaming... it's more so I wake up and realize, Wow, that was awesome! - But there's no self-awareness of dreaming. And, of course, I never remember to do reality checks, unless I'm in bed about to go to sleep. It's as if the idea of lucid dreaming never occurs to me unless I'm preparing for sleep. But thanks for the encouragement! I want to become a master of this