Hi - another newbie keen to get started

[soultraveller]

After reading the posts around DV I'm kinda discouraged - I've been keeping a dream journal for years, but my recall still isn't so great. Sometimes I get 3 dreams a night and think I've cracked it, then I suddenly get nothing for a while. Does anyone else have recall that comes and goes? I thought that was normal, but after reading the posts on DV I don't know. I've never tried to control my dreams though, so maybe that's what kickstarts steady recall. I managed to look at my hands in a dream last night. Wow!

[NeAvO]

Hi and welcome, hrmm when you say you've had a dream journal, do you wake up after each dream period? That could help if your recall is bad. Maybe some B6 could help out.

[KuRoSaKi]

Welcome to the site SoulTraveller, I personally don't keep a dream journal and I have some outstanding recall, but I have been able to have lucid dreams since I was still a very little kid so that might assist with it, and I can pretty much recall after every dream, but it does take some practice I spose'. Just read around the forums for some tips and stuff on how to gain lucidity, recall, etc. And you should get off to a good start.

[Richter]

After reading the posts around DV I'm kinda discouraged - I've been keeping a dream journal for years, but my recall still isn't so great. Sometimes I get 3 dreams a night and think I've cracked it, then I suddenly get nothing for a while. Does anyone else have recall that comes and goes? I thought that was normal, but after reading the posts on DV I don't know. I've never tried to control my dreams though, so maybe that's what kickstarts steady recall. I managed to look at my hands in a dream last night. Wow! Yeah, I've experienced the same thing. Once in a while the dreams will seem so vivid and so many, yet the next day you can't remember a single dream! I honestly think that what NeAvO said is the key to dream recall, as the only thing that could change from night to night, is WHEN one wakes up. One still has the same subconscious mind every night, and we all dream EVERY night, regardless of if they are remembered. So, on nights you don't remember, it must be that you're not waking directly from REM/dreams. I haven't been able to find a consistent method of being able to awaken directly from REM all the time, however. I suppose that "natural" dream recallers are the ones that "naturally" wake from REM. Does anybody here know a way to wake from REM every time? I think that would solve the recall problems (for us both!) mostly.

[lindsey609]

Can you also have one big, giant dream that lasts for a long time? and how do you know when you change dreams? It doesn't really make sense. email me at [email protected].

[soultraveller]

Yeah, I've experienced the same thing. Once in a while the dreams will seem so vivid and so many, yet the next day you can't remember a single dream! I honestly think that what NeAvO said is the key to dream recall, as the only thing that could change from night to night, is WHEN one wakes up. One still has the same subconscious mind every night, and we all dream EVERY night, regardless of if they are remembered. So, on nights you don't remember, it must be that you're not waking directly from REM/dreams. I haven't been able to find a consistent method of being able to awaken directly from REM all the time, however. I suppose that "natural" dream recallers are the ones that "naturally" wake from REM. Does anybody here know a way to wake from REM every time? I think that would solve the recall problems (for us both!) mostly. Thanks for this - it's good to know someone else has the same problem. Maybe the only reliable aid to waking after REM is something like the novadreamer, but most of the advice on DV seems to be to trust your subconscious to wake you up after REM, so I'm going with that for now and will look at the various devices in a couple months if I don't have start getting more consistent dream recall by then.

[lindsey609]

Yes, but can't you also have one, big dream that lasts a long time instead of lots of short dreams? I see people's posts saying, "number of LD's this week: 10" and I'd think of having 7, one big LD/night for a week. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[soultraveller]

Lindsey - Not quite sure I do know what you mean. Of course you can have a long long dream, but why does that mean you couldn't have other shorter dreams in the same night? Or are you saying that your dream seems to continue all through one night?

[Murch]

Thanks for this - it's good to know someone else has the same problem. Maybe the only reliable aid to waking after REM is something like the novadreamer, but most of the advice on DV seems to be to trust your subconscious to wake you up after REM, so I'm going with that for now and will look at the various devices in a couple months if I don't have start getting more consistent dream recall by then. I think you can achieve this slowly but surely by programming your subconscious which i am sure you have heard before. It simply means to tell yourself while you are going to sleep, "I WILL wake up after every REM period," and believe that you will. That is the thing i have heard is the key. You have to believe what you want to happen and know inside that it will. It might not work on your first few tries but i'm sure it does .

[Luc]

I see what you mean. (i think) If one would have 10 lds in 7 nights does that mean in one rem sesion you would aknowledge that your in a dream then lose it after that rem period, then in the next period you relize your dreaming again. But along the same lines could they just count waking up and going back to sleep two different dreams..... OR (wow i just keep going) when you wake up that is the end of a rem period. Well as someone whos never had an ld i hope i made sense and didn't realy make ppl more confused.

[lindsey609]

I see what you mean. (i think) If one would have 10 lds in 7 nights does that mean in one rem sesion you would aknowledge that your in a dream then lose it after that rem period, then in the next period you relize your dreaming again. But along the same lines could they just count waking up and going back to sleep two different dreams..... OR (wow i just keep going) when you wake up that is the end of a rem period. Well as someone whos never had an ld i hope i made sense and didn't realy make ppl more confused. No, no, I actually understand it that way. Thanks!