First off, hello to everyone. Someone from an unrelated forum linked to this site and I was really intrigued. I read the material on dream recall and also read the tutorial on it. For the last two nights I have been keeping a dream journal and trying to set my alarm clock to wake myself up during REM. First question: about how long does the average person have to do this before they have proficient dream recall? I ask this because I don't want to sleep in ninety minute intervals for the next five years. I don't really care how long I have to keep my DJ as long as I can have uninterrupted sleep.
My second question is about my dreams and sleep. On the first night that I started to record my dreams I feel asleep with my alarm clock set to go off in 4.5 hours, right during REM. The last thing I can remember is saying to myself "I will remember my dreams". When the alarm clock woke me up I turned it off and couldn't remember anything at all. I closed my eyes and tried to think of my dream but I fell asleep. In the morning (about three hours later), I woke up and remembered one of my dreams. In the dream I was with my family riding on a train during a freak heat wave. Sounds like something you would expect from a typical dream, huh? The next night I went to sleep the same way: setting my alarm clock to go off in 4.5 hours and saying to myself "I will remember my dreams". I accidentally turned up the heat in my room to high, sweat a lot, then woke up from dehydration. I woke up about 3 hours after I went to sleep but couldn't remember anything. I got a drink of water and went back to sleep. About thirty minutes later, all by myself, I woke up for no apparent reason. This time I did remember a dream: A train station near my house had just been remade (in real life also, except the one in my dream was nicer) and I was riding the train. I write this down and go back to sleep. Then thirty minutes after that I wake up all by myself again. This time I am online and impressing them by showing them videos of my stunts (I have no idea what stunts I did but that's apparently what I wrote in my DJ). I write it down and go back to sleep. Again, thirty minutes later I wake up by myself. This time my dream started with me browsing the internet. My sister walks out of her room and asks me what I'm going to spend my Best Buy gift certificate on (I actually got one for Christmas). I go to sleep and wake up again. This time my family is dropping my sister off to go back to college. On the way we stop at this kid's house. I go to school with this kid and he always has his two dogs around him. Anyways, one of the dogs knocks me over and I wake up. I write everything down and go back to sleep. My final dream of the night was really nice. The kid's mother (who was in my last dream) dropped my off at a train station. When I enter the station it is colorfully painted and looks like it's set up for kids. I start to walk down the hallway and notice a guy from my high school. We exchange awkward stares then I continue on. At the end of the hallway is everyone I went to grade school with. I was excited to see them and they were excited too. I was trying to catch up with them and what's been going on in their lives but I wake up.
Whoa! I didn't realize I wrote so much. Sorry for going off in a tangent. :oops: Anyways, could someone more experienced with sleep, memories, recall, and lucidity please shed some light on this situation? It feels like my dreams have all been interconnected (trains, people from my school, etc.). I don't know why I am dreaming so early though. Don't you have to be asleep for ninety minutes to go into REM before you dream? I also don't know why I woke up in 20-30 minute intervals all by myself with no alarm clock.
Are there any general tips about dream recall that you know of that aren't in the article or tutorial? Is there anything I am not doing right? Thanks in advance for your replies. :D
