Thread: *POLL* Correlation between sleep habits and dream recall?

ive just found this site by accident and been fascinated. however, it takes me upwards of an hour to fall asleep, so this rules out timers to wake me up after REM. I also cant remind myself to remember/wake up prior to falling asleep because when i will fall asleep is never clear and i cant lie there chanting for a bloody hour. im also worried that if i do wake up during the night to record dreams, i may have trouble falling asleep again without losing too much sleep.

ive made this a poll to determine if the amount of time it takes to fall asleep (symbolising maybe greater and more sophisticated sleep disorders) has an affect on the ability to dream recall.

dont tell me if you already know the poll will be a flop, im mainly looking for educated responses.

It takes me forever to fall asleep. I have a hard time getting comfortable. Nevertheless, I wake up remembering 3 vivd dreams on average.

I am a TERRIBLE sleeper. I can never get to bed on time, and I would NEVER be able to get into bed at 10:00 and just fall asleep. I know for a fact that when I do get a good nights sleep my recall will be amazing. Crappy sleep = no dream recall. Most of the time, I remember dreams because of something that's happened during the day and I start wondering why something looks or sounds familiar and then I realize it was a dream and then I slowly start remembering the dream. I usually really have to work hard for my dream recall because I have such bad sleeping habits.

I absolutely think there is a correlation between sleep habits and dream recall.

yes, often i get that feeling that the particular moment in time i just experienced is remarkably familiar. however, they occur at random times when often nothing in particular is happening. the only thing i can think of is that ive experienced this exact frame in time in a dream. the weird part is, its just one minute frame of time and then its gone. i am particularly keen on wanting to learn dream recall because maybe if what im thinking is correct, then my dreams sometimes show with perfect accuracy events of the future? am i crazy...

If i go to bed tired, and fall asleep quickly, i always remember my dreams. I also tell myself that i'm going to remember them, and that i'm going to write them down when i wake up.
This morning, i woke up, remembered a dream, spoke on the phone, went back to sleep and had another dream, and still remembered the first one!
Not often i can do that, the new dream usually cancels out the old one.
If i go to bed before i'm tired, and lie there tossing and turning, i don't usually remember my dreams.

I doubt such a correlation is true. I believe that dream recall is dependant on the amount of time after the end of a REM cycle, after which one wakes up. The reason for this belief is through personal experience. I suppose the theory behind this is dream memories being gradually wiped during delta sleep after a REM period ends but considering the connection of dreams it is likely that memories of previous REM periods are renewed at each new REM period thus allowing to remember all dreams from a night upon waking from or soon after the last REM period of one's sleep.

I dunno if there is a connection between the two, but I do know that even though I can usually remember at least 1 dream vividly when I wake up, and it usually takes me a while to fall asleep (½ hour to 1 hour), when I was really tired (and thus fell asleep quickly) last week, I didn't remember anything.

I tend to take at least 15-30 minutes to fall asleep. And I really only remember my dreams when I get to sleep in in the morning. If I have to wake up early for work, and have to wake up via alarm clock, and I hardly ever recall dreams. Or if I do, they are short and fragmented versions. So my good dream recall days are when I can sleep in.

I have voted for the 2nd option.

Most of the time I fall asleep very quickly, in less than 10 minutes.
Additionally, I am also a very deep sleeper. I do not notice waking up in the middle of the night (after a dreamcycle).

My ability to remember dreams is very poor. No recall at all or the dream is very blurry, I can only remember a few details/fragments. Tried different methods to improve my recall, without any improvements.
It doens't matter much when I get waked up by the alarm clock or naturally.

I am trying to get lucid dreams for more than 5,5 years by now, without much success. (With some breaks)
It is getting a bit frustrating, if you cannot even remember normal dreams!

It takes a long time to fall asleep (this is the reason I never do the WBTB method - the MILD is worked perfectly for me)

Lol you just renewed this post, it was 2006. haha I cant remember my dreams worth a crap sometimes.. I believe it is because of my bad schedule.

I remember my dreams nicely but I forget them completely if I don't use my dream journal

I also doubt there's any correlation. How long it takes me to fall asleep varies a lot, but my recall is consistently good.

Originally Posted by Raphael

I also doubt there's any correlation. How long it takes me to fall asleep varies a lot, but my recall is consistently good.

Yes.I believe it's all about how you wake up not how you fall asleep