Starting from Scratch, trying to improve realism (vividness) and recall

Hello all, new here and hoping for any advice that will improve my recall and clarity. As of June 23 I started a dream journal that I have been writing in diligently using various techniques focusing on details, chronological order and the 5 main senses. I have terrible dream recall and normally only remembered 1 dream a month (if i was lucky) before starting the journal. Perhaps my journey in starting from scratch may act as inspiration to those in a similar situation in the future.

Over the last week I have been able to remember more about dreams and in more detail, so I know progress is being made. However my dreams still do not feel as real as the waking life and my goal right now is thus twofold: to improve recall and make dreams more vivid.

Is it even possible for one such as myself to have dreams that seem as real as day? or is that a goal that can not be accomplished, because to be honest if i cannot have such dreams I do not think that all this effort will be worth it.

Any advice or suggestions is very welcome, thank you to any who took the time to read this.

Welcome to dv!
It's great that you're keeping up a dream journal, that's your main key to success.

The only thing you can't do in dreams is things *you* say you can't. So if you want your dreams as real as waking life, you'll just have to stay positive and keep at it. Of course, there's always that little something in the clarity that differentiates between dream and realty, but that can be minimized with effort.

Just stay persistent and keep up a good attitude. Don't give up if you don't get your expected results right away, as many people have said- anything worth having needs to be worked for.

My biggest tip to you is to not go technique jumping. Read up on all the techniques you want, and once you find one or two- stick with them. Personalize them and have them work for you. Just because a tutorial says to do something a certain way doesn't mean that you *must* do it exactly so. Everyone is different so each person so everyone has their own form of a technique. Look at manuals and tutorials more as guides rather than instructions.

Also, try eating peanut butter before bed ;) might just help out with vividness

Hey, thank you for the reply, I'll be sure to try the peanut butter tonight. I was wondering what do you mean by a little something in clarity? Are you referring to things such as changing numbers and light shifts, or more of a hazy fog over the dream? Thanks for the reply and any more in advance.

Welcome to Dreamviews!

I think you talking about vividnes of regular dreams. Although realism of regular dreams may improve with practicng daytime awareness, they will never be as realistic as waking life. Lucid dreams, on the other hand, can be very vivid and realistic. And yes, it's very much possible to have dreams like that. Please check out the Beginners guide to lucid dreaming and DV Wiki.

But you should definitelly get your dream recall up, so you remember at least one dream a night. Here are some pointers for that (also something about daytime awareness). So read up, post any questions and Happy dreams:)