Thread: Hello

Hi jellydonut,
There's a lot that can factor into remembering your dreams. How quickly do you have to get onto your day, do you use an alarm or open your eyes straight away? Is there anything that is usually waking you up, your parents, a barking dog etc.?

One of the first and easiest steps in improving dream recall is to start a dream journal, if you haven't already. You can start a dream journal at DV quite easily or just use paper and pen (DV is considerably more private than leaving personal dream memories laying around on paper).
I've found also that the less things I have to do in the following day, the better I remember dreams the night prior, generally. If I'm woken by loud noises, or have stressful/urgent things to do, then I forget about dream immediately. Often I continue remembering things that I was thinking about from just before I went to sleep, too.

If you can limit these factors, start up a dream journal, and generally raise your awareness about dreams, then I think you'll find a decent increase in dream recall.

I use an alarm clock - I don't have any other ways of waking up short of ditching school/work/whatnot. Is there a better mousetrap?

I guess I have a luxury in that I don't usually think about things in the morning, anything that I've been fretting about in the evening is 'reset' during the night, and doesn't enter my mind again until later that day.

Originally Posted by jellydonut

Hey guys.

I'm not here for lucid dreaming, well, I guess, maybe eventually.. But it's real premature.

I haven't remembered a proper dream, ever. Some times I remember a kind of hazy, grey tunnel vision recollection of them, but rarely.

I just want to dream.

Dreaming is not the sole property of sleeping. Some of the greatest dreams are constructed by those wide awake.

Welcome.

- Keep a Dream Journal
- Don't start doing whatever you are doing in the morning like eating breakfast, going to check e-mail or something before writing dreams down, try to remember what you dreamed about
- Even if you can't remember anything, write "I don't remember anything" or if you remember an emotion or a person, something, write it down
- Get many hours of sleep

Yeah, I think that's it, pretty much. Or actually, if you wake up in the middle of the night and remember a dream or fragment, write it down, as you probably don't remember it in the morning. Well, might not, anyway.

Originally Posted by jellydonut

I use an alarm clock - I don't have any other ways of waking up short of ditching school/work/whatnot. Is there a better mousetrap?

I guess I have a luxury in that I don't usually think about things in the morning, anything that I've been fretting about in the evening is 'reset' during the night, and doesn't enter my mind again until later that day.

My suggestion is to try going to sleep earlier than usual, and waking up naturally if possible. When I hear an alarm generally my entire focus is on turning it off, and then reestablishing myself from there, which is not helpful to recalling dreams.

If you can wake up with less mental stress and forced direction, I think it would be beneficial.

Originally Posted by ClouD

My suggestion is to try going to sleep earlier than usual, and waking up naturally if possible. When I hear an alarm generally my entire focus is on turning it off, and then reestablishing myself from there, which is not helpful to recalling dreams.

If you can wake up with less mental stress and forced direction, I think it would be beneficial.

I agree completely. If I wake up because of some noise that is bothering me, I will most likely not remember my dreams.

I myself don't have any problem with shutting my alarm clock and then putting down my dreams.

At least, not that I have noticed anyway.