Dream Recall

[mrtywalsh]

eh...yeah.

[CalmoftheEye]

I think I understand whats happening. Do you feel foggy, kind of like your not really in a dream at all, you just are? Do you not really know whats happening? I'm guessing that your dreams will get clearer as your recall gets better. Fact is, your dreams aren't foggy like you say, you just don't remember the other details.(i think) Just continue to keep a journal. Writing down your dreams tells your brain that you want to keep that information. I am a beginner also, so take this infomation with a glass of salt.

[tryured]

Originally posted by mrtywalsh I never remember things like scent, or touch. Is this normal? will the use of a certain illegal substance hinder my abilty to recall dreams? I mean im sure it does some, but does it drastically hurt my chances to have a lucid dream? Unless the dream is lucid remembering what things smelled or felt like in dreams would be very difficult. I never do unless I am lucid. All depends what substances. If you are talking Marijuana. It won't hurt your chances of having one, but you will have to put in more effort than you would if you didn't smoke it. Just don't smoke it every day and night. A couple of times a week is okay, from experience.

[mattb]

Yo I am REALLY new at dv and the whole LD thing. I tried to recollect my dreams last night but could not. Well I cant say that. when I woke up, I remembered my dreams for an instant and then poof, gone. What are some tips for recollection I know I need patience but how long did it take you guys? .

[mrtywalsh]

Whoa. Last night was the first night for my dream journal. I went to bed around 12:30ish and I naturally wake up several times a night. I woke up around 3 or 4 times throughout the night. Before I went to sleep I said outloud "I will remember my dreams tonight" then I repeated it in my head several times after that. I had a hard time going to sleep saying iit to myself so I stoped and i drifted off. The first time I woke up I had a very faint idea in my head. Like a dream, but I dont remember much of it. I grabed my journal and wrote "Football catch w/ father. Johnny Cash-pappa sang bass" Thats all I could remember. The dream seemed very weak. I think it was playing catch with a person that was a mix of my father and my grandfather. Either he was singing that Johnny Cash song I think its called "the circle wont be broken" or it was playing in the dream somehow. I performed a RC by putting on my glasses and looked at the clock on my VCR and looked at the books at the book shelve next to my bed. I went back to sleep quickly. I woke again im not sure what time it was. I had a dream in my head, and then I reached for my glasses because I couldn't find my journal. I put the glasses on and totally lost whatever the dream was about. I performed another RC and doozed in and out. I woke again at 4:45 A.M. I couldnt remember any dreams or anything so I tried to go back to sleep. I couldnt. After a few mins I got up checked this message board to see if anyone replied to my topic and checked out a few other sites. I went back to bed and tossed and turned trying to fall back asleep. I finally did. This sleep seemed to carry a more vivid dreams. I woke up in the morning and wrote down everything I could remember. At first i could only remember some stuff and I was alittle disapointed. Then I opened the flood gates and wrote a page on a dream trying to peice together everything that hppened. It was hazy and I had a hard time remembering what happened first. I wrote: "Danielle from high school at Matt Dillinger/My first home. Flirting and talking about her child. My mom was sitting in a chair near the bed we were laying in. She gave me a hard time about something and i say 'Dont tell me what to do you dont have control of me and you never have'. Mom cries and leaves room somehow." I made a small sketch of the room. It was my parents old bedroom from my childhood home, but somehow in my head I knew it was also a friend of mines house, and he currently lives like 3 houses down from the childhood home. The thing i said to my mother was strange. I never made a comment like that to my parents before so it struck me as odd. I then wrote: "Before im laying in the bed with Danielle the room is filled with many people, mostly friends. They leave and she moves from sitting on the ground to sitting next to me on the bed. I didnt reqonize her at first. I felt very happy and also very attracted. Can't remember, but I think we just kissed and layed together in the bed. Contact. No TV. This Danielle person was a friend of mine in high school. She graduated a few years a head of me and I always found her attractive. I think i woke up here, but Im not sure. I heard a phone ring, but I dont remember waking up. When talking to my mother this morning someone called this morning around 6ish but it only rang once. So this next part of the dream im alittle confused about. Im not sure if it was a new dream or a second part of the dream about my house. I had totally forgotten about this dream and after I finished writing the last part down it all came back to me. I just wrote down basic thoughts. "Day of Defeat map style housing devlopment. Driving in car. Cops. Brooks and chinese w/ emily. David on a strange patio. Sneaking into neigbors house unknown reason. Emily playing guitair in bedroom while me and brooks are in the kitchen." I then tried to trace the events of the dream. I think it was one large dream. "In begining after house w/ danielle driving in some sort of car w/ a girl. unknown now. Girl leaves car first. Police looking for the car for some reason. Go into house that ive been into before in another dream. Then to daves, and then to brooks house. " Sorry for typing so much, but I was rather excited to see that I could recall all of that. For me that is a large amount. As said before dreams always seem hazy for me. I have a few questions also. Is this a good way to write things down in the journal? Should I try to go into more detail about things? Should I just write down the thoughts as they come at me? I read on the main page that one sleep period carries many cycles. But doesnt a sleep period start when you fall asleep and stop when you wake up? So when I woke up durning the night doesnt that restart a sleeping period? Wouldn't it be neat that the older you got the more intense dreaming became for you, because say your whole life would be a large sleep period and the time you stayed awake would be like waking up in the middle of the night to write something down? In lucid dreaming do you wake up and feel like it just happened and you remember everyting instantly? Or do you have to remember everything, and it acutally feels like a dream? If you do have to remember is it vivid? If so an interesting idea would be that our whole life is us remembering a dream. Sorry for typing that all up. Just excited. I hope you understand the questions and ideas I just typed. Thanks for all the replies from everyone. And I hope someone else replies to this post, and the person before me that had a question also. For mattb the guy that posted before me, I dont really have much experience, but I read that once you wake up that you shouldn't move or think about anything but the dream. Collect you ideas and once you have them in your head grab your journal and start writing. I hope you see this at the bottom of this text, if not im sure someone else will reply to your question. Someone with more experience than me.

[mattb]

to day in study hall, during my normal nap, i actually started to dream. When I woke up I could remember everything for about 3 mins then things started to fade. **dream** I was in the halls and something was comeing after me. Not chasing me just coming after me, or mabe just to me.**end dream** I think I'm getting a little better at this dream remembering thing. I tried the "I will remember my dream, I will remember my dream, I will re......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" thing and it kinda worked. Marty, sry i'm not a lucid guru (yet ) but it sounds like the journal thing really works. I'de just go with what what your first idea is. If you came up with it, it should work for you. Should being the operative word there. lol Does the journal thing help you remember your dreams as you re-read it, or does just writing it help u 2 remember?

[mrtywalsh]

Well as i started to write down what one dream was, the second one blasted into my mind. I reread it and then wrote more. So yeah i think rereading and writing will help you remember, but this morning was the first time I wrote in my dream journal so im no expert.

[mattb]

I tried the journal last night.I diddn't remember to write a thing, but I did remember more of my dream than I usually do. That leads me to belive that just the plain physical action and mental conviction to remember your dreams are big factors in remembering them. Correct me if I'm wrong............ one last thing, what , if anything, helps in dream remembering besides a dream log? (It doesnt seem to be a good idea for me. I can barely read my writing when i'm awake to write it.)

[Gomp]

it may seem to me.. that it is easier, to not forget, and recall.. than it is remembering..

[Burns]

Originally posted by mrtywalsh Is this a good way to write things down in the journal? Should I try to go into more detail about things? Should I just write down the thoughts as they come at me? Write down as many descriptive details as you can remember about each dream. Write it down in the present tense like it's unfolding as you write (instead of in past tense like it already happened). Sometimes as I'm writing down a dream, I can remember more things than I thought because my mind is recalling it as I write. I have a small notepad next to my bed that I scribble words or notes in. I use it when I wake up in the morning, before I climb out of bed. Then later that day, I sit down at my computer and type the full descriptive dream in a Word document I have saved as my Dream Journal. I write the date, the name of the dream, and then the dream. So when I'm scanning back through the journal, the names of the dreams spark memories about specific dreams that I had actually forgotten about! It's weird.

[mattb]

Hey last night I remembered 3 dreams!!! they were really vivid and I woke up briefly after each one. I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what now? any tips after you can recall your dreams? (assuming that I can do it again lol )

[mattb]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I cant do it any more. I havent had any dream recall or anything related since my last post. I'll just have to practice. (I guess I'm not perfect after all LOL ) Does anyone have any tips for better dream recall?????

[Spoof]

Hey man are you writing them down upon awakening. I always do now. In the middle of the night when I wake up, I remember why I am doing this, and it make me write it down. In the morning i wake up and remember one dream. Like marty said, after writing one dream, another just blasts into my head. I also try to work backwards in recall. I ask myself what I was doing before something, and I remember. DREAM JOURNALS ARE THE KEY!!!

[carlhungis]

When I am having trouble, it helps just to start writing. I usually remember the last part of the dream so I write it down. So, because of that, sometimes my journal is written backwards (End - Begining). As I am writing, usually a bit more will come to me, then a bit more, then a bit more.... So, moral of the story is to just write down anything you can. No matter how insignificant you think it might be.

[mattb]

ooooooooooohhh, cool! I guess journaling is the way to go then. I got sic last week and haven't really felt like doing anything. Dream journals, any of the processes, nothing. Even though, i've been remembering my dreams and they were more than usually messed up. I wonder if there's something to be learned about physical factors in dreaming? is it the reduced oxygen to your brain due to snot cloggage (now thats food for thought while i'm eating my Jell-o ) , or mabe your body's just mentally "working out?". It would be interesting to find out. anyway, while i'm still dreaming funky i'll try to journal and see what happens. achooooo sniffel sniffel ttyl Matt