Hi, I've browsed this great website for a while but just recently joined up. I've known about lucid dreaming for years now and I've recently decided to treat it as a discipline rather than a passing note of interest. I have a few questions however that hopefully you all can shed some light on.

Currently I'm working on recall, which brings me to my first question. Just how much/how vividly is one generally supposed to recall? For a few days now I've been periodically waking myself up in REM cycles 2 or 3 times a night and keeping a detailed journal. I remember multiple dreams a night now but it seems a lot of detail is left out. I'm only remembering the important parts, its all very discontinuous. Its like my memory of the dream is swiss cheese, sudden pitfalls between each event. Is this normal of dream recall? Or should the memories be as detailed and vivid as real life before I really attempt becoming lucid? Maybe it needs more work...

Also there's a bit of confusion when it comes to dreamsigns. From what I've read it seems I need to find some common theme that occurs in dreamsigns. However all of them seem to be very different. Should I bring them up into a broader theme (context, form, etc.) and just leave it at that? Or should I just wait it out and record more dreams until a recognizable physical pattern comes along?

Thanks all, and good luck with your own experiences.