Hi all, Joan's there! newbie with some experiences...

HI, I joined this site three days ago, and I am very excited. I started a journal at http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=46481.

I am having very small recalls, just like instant "pictures" of something that was going on, but I can't get the whole story. My method by now is having an alarm clock waking me up three times per night, at 3.00, 4.30 and 6.00. I wonder if this is too much, or too few...

I have a note book close to my bed to write down my dreams.

Any suggestions? I'd like to come back to when my dreams were more exciting and vivid. Nowadays, the most vivid ones tend to be nightmares and really weird stuff, sometimes *really sacry*, so scary that even when I am awake I feel that there is somebody under my bed!

Well, my first post on my journal explains some past experiences and the way I do to recall my dreams now. Please read it! I'd like someone with experience to give me some advise so that I can get more out of this before I get too disappointed...

Thank you!!!!!!!

Joan

Hey Joan! :D

I know its cliche, but patience is a virtue. As long as you keep journaling, keep focusing on your dreams, you'll remember them easier and in more detail with time. To help you journal though, what you can do is when you wake up, try to move as little as possible, and keep your eyes closed. Think of nothing but the dream and try to remember as much as you can of it, and always ask yourself "What did I do before that? and that?"

It might also help you remember your dreams, if you wake yourself up during REM periods which are roughly every 90 minutes. To wake up during the later periods, set your clock for about 4 and a half hours after going to bed, factoring in roughly how long it takes you to fall asleep.

Good luck! :D

if your problem is dream recall, then i suggest
changing up thows alarm times.

try making one at 5 hours in and one at 6 hours and 30 mins in

i think, that you may be waking up before REM

if you wake up at thow's times it might fix that.


also, i usta have very bad recall, one day i decided not to try so hard and sure enuff not only did i get good recall, i had a lucid

Hey!! That's really quick replies!! I'm amazed of this website, it's so gooood!!

Thank you for your advises. I see I need to be more precise about the times I set my alarm clock. So between Exobyte with 4:30 and Pride with 5:00 hours after I go to sleep, I pick up 4:45 !!! Hope this works.

I have a concern about the alarm clock. I guess I should be using something I can stop without having to move, and the one I have now is a bit inconvenient: it's a computer program that plays MP3 files -- it needs a mouse click to stop and that requires quite a lot of attention. Do you think this is helping making my dreams vanish? Also, the fact of waking up with a song may be too distractive -- what do you think? Would a simple "beep beep" be better?

thx!!

Joan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joan Sola

Hey!! That's really quick replies!! I'm amazed of this website, it's so gooood!!

Thank you for your advises. I see I need to be more precise about the times I set my alarm clock. So between Exobyte with 4:30 and Pride with 5:00 hours after I go to sleep, I pick up 4:45 !!! Hope this works.

I have a concern about the alarm clock. I guess I should be using something I can stop without having to move, and the one I have now is a bit inconvenient: it's a computer program that plays MP3 files -- it needs a mouse click to stop and that requires quite a lot of attention. Do you think this is helping making my dreams vanish? Also, the fact of waking up with a song may be too distractive -- what do you think? Would a simple "beep beep" be better?

thx!!

Joan

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what i use, is a mp3 thats like 7 seconds long and i turn my speakers up all the way

i use fur elise

also, bout the time you set to wake you up, i advise that you try the times you picked out just now for like 2-3 days if thats not helping move up or move down to find the right time to wake up for you


if youd like, you can add my msn if you have any questions
its aways nice talking to people about lucid dreaming

msn - xktaxpride@hotmail.com

but yeah, hope that helps

I see that some dreams are related to events happening on the same day, things I may be worried about, and I wonder if recalling them would be beneficial to find ways to stop worrying about some problems in the real life... Any experiences on this?? That would be great!!!

Hello Joan and welcome.

I am no expert but will give advise.
I'm not keen on you waking yourself up at this early stage of your LD endeavours and I would suggest that you allow yourself to sleep normally and concentrate on keeping the dream journal and doing reality checks and making them habitual.
If you wake yourself up during a REM sleep, you may disturb a dream or a potential LD from occurring. Making a habit of writing down your dream when you wake up will improve your dream recall and you will form the habit of waking up after a dream.
I have found that the best time for REM sleep and having a LD is during an afternoon snooze on the weekend.
Dont push yourself into trying to LD as frustration and anxiety will combine to inhibit your progress. Start with the journal to improve your dream recall and also do regular reality checks. Starting at the beginning will give you a better chance of success more quickly unless you are a natural at LD'ing.
How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.

Good luck and best wishes.

Hello Ronstek,

Uhm... your advise confuses me now... what happens is that without waking up I nearly never remember my dreams. If I wake up in the night (the three nights I did so) I can have at least a picture of the dream I was having, and so I can write it down and know what kind of things I dream about. For instance, I could detect one case of "device not working", one of the signs to realize I'm dreaming.

Now I am for waking up two or even only once per night, just to keep it slow and to get some rest too.

I am not too disappointed actually. the way I wrote it is just a way to say that my dream recalls are small compared to some I have read around... but actually I am very courious about this and very glad of the small dreams I could recall.

Do you think just reality checks are enough to make my dreams recallable at all??

Thank you!

Joan

Hi Joan,

Didn't mean to make you confused and there are probably quite a few here that would disagree with my advice but that is there perogative.
Anyway. I believe that your dream recall will improve without the need to wake yourself up by simply doing a journal entry whenever you remember a dream, doing it frequently and making it a habit. Combine that with reality checks and an LD should come to you. Just doing reality checks will not improve your dream recall, you need the journal for that.
Give it a couple of weeks for the habits to form and then try to encourage an LD by using any of the techniques available to find what works for you. For me its WILD during an afternoon siesta.

Best wishes and good luck.