Hey there,
Welcome aboard!
In answer to your questions. Others might tell you differently, it's a matter of preference, but personally I wouldn't alter the way I sleep in order to try and have dream recall. Just sleep as you would naturally sleep, and try to remember what you can.
It may not be much at first, perhaps just a fleeting image, perhaps just an idea (I think I dreamt about...) or an emotion. Or it could be a full three hour length dream. The important thing is just to write down whatever comes. As you start paying more attention to your dreams, you'll find that your recall of them will begin to improve. Even if you sleep all night and never wake up, you might not remember 10 dreams per night, but you would at least be able to remember one or two with some practice.
And who knows, maybe doing so will begin changing your sleep rythme naturally, as you will begin to wake up after dreams. But forcing it...in my opinion, is not such a good idea. It's likely to exhaust your body (therefor leading to less recall at first and possible frustration), and if the forced change doesn't 'stick', you'll be back to square one once your natural sleeping rythme kicks back in.
As for your second question: the answer is, in my opinion, the rest of your life. Lucid dreaming and dream journals go hand in hand. You may get so good at recalling dreams that you don't need to write them down anymore, or (more likely) only need to write down keyphrases or titles for them. But become a lucid dreamer means in effect that you're going to be changing your lifestyle a bit. Just like losing weight, it's no good if you lose weight and then go back to the same habbits that got you the weight to begin with. So what you will need to be doing for the rest of your life (if you want to keep at it, that is), is pay attention to your dreams, try to recall them, give them a place in your life. And that generally requires a dreamjournal, or something similar.
Anyways, just my 2 cents,
Good luck!
-Redrivertears-
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