Hey guys

[Brizzl]

Hello all. I'm a new dreamer. I first started getting into lucid dreaming and the likes about a year ago; kinda researched it but never really tried it until last Thursday. My main issue is my recall is terrible. I had been practicing all of the different mantras I see on the tutorials. I haven't actually gotten the chance to try and DILD because I haven't consciously dreamed. I did a WBTB and tried WILD multiple times. My problem isn't that I haven't been able to achieve lucidity, my problem is that I can't dream. Or remember it anyways. Help me? Thanks

[Astaroth]

You should have a dream journal. Write whatever you remember, even if you only remember a colour or some object. Apple juice is also good for recall. When you wake up try not to move and keep your eyes closed, and try to think what were you dreaming, if you don't remember anything try to think what could you be dreaming about, imagine places or people you're used to see in real life, this works really well for me. Good luck! Oh! I almost forget it. Welcome!

[JoannaB]

Welcome to DV, Brizzi! The good news is that you are definitely dreaming. All people dream. Well they are seriously ill or something is wrong with their sleep. But all healthy people dream several times a night. Most people do not remember their dreams most nights however. that's unfortunately normal. Another piece of good news though is that it is not hard to improve one's dream recall usually in a fairly short amount of time if one puts some effort into it. The following page contains several useful methods for dream recall improvement: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-sign...ompendium.html . One of the most basic methods is keeping a dream journal. Make sure to write in your dream journal every day, even if you do not remember your dream. What should you write if you do not remember? Well, you could write if you recall anything at all, any tiny little thing, even if it is just that you remember that you did have a dream. Also you can describe how you feel upon waking up. just make sure to write something, since that is a signal to your mind that dreams are important to you. Also, when you wake up, try to lie perfectly still if at all possible, and before you move try to remember your dream. In addition, if you realize that you wake up at night, try to remember your dream then, and if you do, write it down then - do not wait until morning because you are likely to forget it if you do. Dream recall is easier if you are well rested with plenty of sleep, and it is harder if you have a lot of stress. Furthermore, dream recall tends to fluctuate, so even once you improve it, it may get worse again, but then it will get better. Expectations play a large role with dreams, so expect to remember your dreams, convince yourself that you will. However, do not try so hard that the effort stresses you out. Relax, get plenty of rest, be patient and persistent, and you will start recalling dreams soon. All the best!

[Brizzl]

I do actually have a dream journal. Forgot to mention that. 5 entries as of today. What if most of the time I wake up to my alarm? Just turn it off and attempt to recall? Thanks for all the help guys.

[Prelin]

I have excellent dream recall, but if I even so much as get up to go to the bathroom before recalling my dreams, I often can't remember them. If the first thing I do upon waking up is NOTHING (close my eyes and think about what was just in my mind a second ago), then I can usually recall a rich tapestry of dream images and plots from the night before. They fade like vapor after you wake up...you have to work quickly to "photograph" them in your mind before they're gone.

[JoannaB]

What if most of the time I wake up to my alarm?. Well, could you position your alarm clock so that you can turn it off without moving your head? That might help. Also if you use an alarm to wake up, part of your problem may be also that perhaps you wake up in the wrong part of your sleep cycle - that can have a big impact on dream recall. When we sleep, we go through phases including deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM). Most of our dreams (though not all) happen during REM, and it is easiest to recall a dream if one wakes up right after REM sleep. Also if one wakes up from deep sleep one is more likely to be tired and groggy. Do you have a smart phone? If yes, there are several apps out there that are smart alarms which work like this: you place your smart phone on your mattress or pillow, and you set the time by when you absolutely have to wake up; the phone will monitor the vibrations, and since we tend to move more in lighter sleep then this will show when you are not in deep sleep; if you are moving more, the app will calculate whether there is enough time for at least another full sleep cycle, and if there is not, the alarm will go off. So the alarm may then go off at 5:30am instead of 6am, but it will wake you up when you were already moving more which is better for you, whereas if you wait the extra half hour, you might wake in deeper sleep, and be more groggy and less likely to recall dreams. If you cannot use such an app, you can just experiment: a sleep cycle usually last about 1.5 or 2 hours approximately, and ideally you would want to have full sleep cycles. Keep in mind that you may or may not go to sleep immediately after you lie down. You could try to estimate how long you likely lie awake before falling asleep, and then think about how many sleep cycles you likely get before you wake up. Then try to adjust your alarm by half an hour or some other amount of time, and/or go to sleep earlier, to see whether adjusting the amount of sleep you get will make a difference in your dream recall. Usually getting 8 hours of sleep per night if possible is better for dream recall. However, different people have different needs for how much sleep is enough for them. Basically for lucid dreaming, more sleep is more likely to result in lucid dreams, especially since the amount of time we spend dreaming in a sleep cycle increases the longer we sleep, so we tend to have the longest dreams in the morning after a good night sleep in the last sleep cycle.

[Brizzl]

I got an app that does just that! Now, final question before I go to bed; MILD or DILD? I feel like I should try to induce a MILD and see where I go from there since I can still DILD while sleeping. Thanks again for all the awesome help!

[Sivason]

Welcome to Dream Views! This is the place to be for anyone wanting to learn how to lucid dream. The Dream Guide team is here to help you navigate the forum and answer questions. They all have 3 green stars above their avatar. Click on our user name and you can then select private message if you have a question, or you can start new threads. Don't worry about starting threads that have been started before, just try it out, if it ends up in the wrong place one of us can move it for you. One thing you can do in a post is place a link to another thread. I have done this below. You can click on the colored words to see the new thread. Start with this extra basic one, it will help you read the acronyms in other posts, Help With Acronyms For Complete Beginners After that one the very first thing you should do is check out basic tutorials. This one covers most of the terms you will see members using in much more depth, so start here, The Beginner's Guide to Lucid Dreaming The next thing I suggest you do is to check out the tutorials on specific techniques that the staff have written here, Induction Methods and Techniques. All of these tutorials are written in a very stream lined fashion, and contain just the basic fundamental steps you will need to get started. Also be sure to check out the DVA Dream Views Acadamy, click on this link to get there, DV Academy. Lots of classes are offered on a range of topics. If you are new to LDing then join the intro class, Intro Class. In that class you start your own work book in which you can ask for help on any part of the LDing process you don't understand or are having trouble getting. A whole group of helpful people will read your questions and offer their help. I hope to save you some time by giving you a link to a thread we all put together on the topic Sleep Paralysis. There has been so much misinformation and confusion on this topic, that after a few days on the sight, you would surely run into confusing statements refering to SP. Save yourself some frustration and read this post if you want to know about SP, Sleep Paralysis Explained Now, on the lighter side, you may be excited to learn to fly! Here is a thread where people explain how they went about learning to fly, Can U Fly/ How Did You Learn? Then just for a laugh here is a thread where people list all the things they want to do in an LD. It is mostly light hearted and supposed to be funny, 1000 things to do in a lucid dream!!! This post is the same one I try to send to all new members. Please forgive the unoriginality of it. If you would like to send me a friend request I would be happy to be your first DV friend! You can also PM me any time you would like to. I promise to give your further posts much more personal attention. Have fun and good luck with your dreaming!