First night with dream recall

I just started with Steven LeBarge's "Exploring" and last night was my first attempt at dream recall. His book says you should be able to recall 12 dreams before moving onto the exercises. Last night I kept a journal at my bed and wrote down the dreams as soon as I woke up, which was pretty much 4 or 5 times during the night. I was able to recall 7 dreams.

Does this mean another night like this and I can move onto the next stage? It doesn't seem like 2 days would be enough practice. Also, I don't usually wake up that much during the night. Was it because I was expecting to and that made me wake up? I ended up writing down two full pages in the journal, which was a really tedious process. I can't imagine doing this all the time.

Thanks for any help!

Hello and welcome to Dream Views.

With dream journaling, the point of it is to train your mind to recall dreams and your body to record them.

I think it'll take more than one night to whip your mind and body into dreaming shape. I'd say recall for a couple of more days and if you're still recording massive dreams every night, then go ahead and complete the exercises.

The anticipation of dreaming could very well be why you recalled so many dreams. Instead of writing out the entire dream jot down a summary of the dream, a few sentences describing the main theme/s. In the morning you should be able to recall the dream when you read the summary and you can flesh out the dreams at your leisure. (though, the sooner you get to it in the morning the better)

Thanks for the reply. So is the point that I should be able to recall the dreams the next day or several hours later, and not that I'm supposed to immediately write everything down? Or is the point just to get me to think about the dreams after I have them and be able to recall them then, when I would normally not remember them at all?

logan1, the point is to get you to be able to recall your dreams whether it is immediately upon awakening (when you will probably recall the most details) or later on when you wake up for the last time to begin your day.

When you recall your dreams is not as important as how well you recall them.

The key is to get to the point where you're dream recall is consistently strong. If your recall has always been good then perhaps you won't need as much time on it. However, you might be like how I was - I almost never remembered my dreams until the first night I decided to keep a journal. The next morning I remembered four. That didn't mean I had consistent recall, but it does go to show how effective telling yourself to remember things can be.

It sounds like you're off to a great start, though, in any case. I know it's tedious but remind yourself that it's worth it. Once you've filled up a notebook or two with this stuff, you'll be able to learn quite a bit about your dream habits and signs.

I meant write dream summaries throughout the night instead of writing out entire dreams each time you wake up. That way you get back to sleep faster.

When you wake up in the morning you go over the summaries you jotted down the night before, and write them out in full. The sooner you get to writing out your dreams in full the better.