Thread: Improving My Dream Recall

First thing I'd recommend as take a wrist watch and set it off at 4.5 hours, and 6 hours after falling asleep, and then waking up giving you 3 chances to recall your dreams at 4.5 hours after you fall asleep you will start your 3rd rem period of the night, and your 4th being at 6 hours past falling asleep.

Rem is when you dream, try waking up inbetween a REM cycle for even better results

I'm in the same boat, I'm just starting out, and I'm currently training my dream recall as well. I began yesturday.

I set my alarm for 90 minutes after I fell asleep last night, hopefully catching myself at just the right times to remember and write down whatever I'd been dreaming about. I also began strongly telling myself that I would remember my dreams. My first attempt was very close, I think I'd waken up a little early and could only remember a few fragments. I wrote these down, and set my clock for another 90 minutes. I hit this one dead on, and could remember a lot of stuff about my new dream. (I had paper well within reach so all I had to do was pick up the pencil and write down info without even needing to open my eyes). I set the clock for yet another 90 minutes, and again, drifted back to sleep. Bingo. The alarm woke me up and I had another new dream fresh in my memory. I wrote everything down and went back to sleep (I was pretty tired by now, so I just slept till morning like normal.)

Morning came and I had another few fragments of another dream (not near as clear as the first 3). I wrote down whatever tiny bits I could find.

After waking up fully, I took all my notes (about 2 pages of messily-written key points) and organised them as my first entry in my DJ I was very pleased with my first night! The 2 ok-ish dreams I'd remembered were fairly detailed, but it can be worked upon.

If you'd like, you can try what I did. The main thing is to write them down ASAP! You'll quickly start forgetting details of your dreams if you don't create something to document them! I know for sure, that if I didn't write down mine, I'd have completely forgotten them by morning. Heck, if I hadn't recorded them, I wouldn't even remember waking up from the alarm!

I really hope this helps you!

I also have just started practicing dream recall. The hardest part is probably estimating how long it will take you to fall asleep and then setting a timer/watch/clock accordingly. Also when recording dreams, I have found it best not to try to remember too many details in one part at once, but to get an overview, then get more detailed from there, otherwise you may end up forgetting an entire segment. I would like to ask anyone who reads this, though, how long did it take you to be able to recall a decent amount of dreams to not need to wake up all through the night?

Well, last night was able to remember a dream. I could even remember some really small details, like I was wearing some knitted gloves and I neeeded to take them off to climb a ladder and I gripped them with my teeth to take them off (as you do) and they tried my teeth out and it was a really horrible feeling.
So it's an improvement, but the dream didn't last for long. Hopefully if I just keep trying I will soon get better. Then next weekend I'll try the thing where you wake up between dreams.
Thanks

Yeah, my dreams currently don't last that long either, so I don't think its anything to worry about

The things you have to ask yourself now are questions like, "Why was I climbing the ladder?" "Did I make it to the top?" and stuff like that. You may find there's another whole part of your dream you'd forgotten about.

Yeh, I know why I was climbing the ladder; I was going into the top floor of a big building. What was really strange was that as I tried to climb the last few steps I felt really heavy and as if something was pulling my back. So although my dreams aren't long, the detail is getting better. So hopefully over the week they will get longer aswell.
Dreaming is fun

I hear B12 works wonders. I'll be picking some up myself soon. The past little bit, I havn't been very strongly motivated to continue my quest to Lucid Dream. My recall sucks, and its not improving, and lately I havnt been doing much to improve it. So, as the first response said, wake yourself up during an REM period. Try some B12 too. Dream Journaling always helps.

Man I drink lots of water before i go to bed and that usually makes me wake up right after i have a dream for some reason? Maybe others should try this method but it might just be something the personally only works for me i don't know. The only thing i have trouble with is recording in my DJ. I think i'll start doing like you did, keeping paper beside me throughtout the night so that i can scribble down stuff when i wake up, then web together whatever i dreamed in a dj.

I've only been trying two nights, but the first night I remembered three dreams, and last night I remembered two. So I guess a dream diary really works!

I guess I'm lucky. Because I wake up several times a night and dream lots of dreams in one night. And it has been like that for a long time... I just started with LD and I have never had a LD in my life. I hope this is a benefit for me.