Introduction and Question - Elzuap

[Elzuap]

Hey, everyone! I found this site using Google, I searched "How to dream recall" and it was the first link.. I'm surprised at how many people can lucid dream. I thought you were born with the ability, actually. I'm not really interested in lucid dreaming though, I want to know how to remember your dreams. I had my first dream in 6 years two weeks ago, and after having that dream, I wanted to continue dreaming... I read the passage of how to dream recall on this site and a few other sites but neither worked. I tried, for example, putting a little journal by my side in case another dream actually occurred and then verbally stating my desire while I tried to go to sleep. When I did this though, I got sleepy and had to stop talking. I couldn't go to sleep while saying something. <.< EDIT: And also, I tried to do this multiple times with no success. I tried to think it mentally and not say it too. But that didn't work either. I can't use an alarm clock to wake me up at the REM periods because it will wake the others in my house. I also can't take any medicine. I won't go that far... So, I sort of joined this site so you members could answer my question: How can a person who usually never dreams learn to dream again? Thanks. ^.< And I hope to stick around for some time.

[Mortalis]

At this point do you ever remember any fragments of dreams? Autosuggestion, as you described, is not always the answer. Sometimes just waking up in the morning and writing down any fragment of what you remember is the best way to get started. Something as simple as "I was on a tennis court" works just great if thats all you can remember. You may find, as I did, that after a week or two of concentrating on remembering little fragments you will start to remember bigger pieces. Let me stress that, although some claim to have found quick ways to boost dream recall, those have never really worked for me. Though I envy those people, I've always found dream recall to be a thing that comes very gradually. Also, its not at all like riding a bike for me. If I stop writing in my dream journal for a few weeks I'll almost be back at step one as far as recall goes. Good luck on your recall, and keep us updated on how it goes, sometimes it is helpful to even start a thread on our dream journal forum to help yourself reach dream journal goals.

[Elzuap]

Usually, I wake up without any recollection of having a dream, at all. I really can't remember a time where I remembered a tiny piece of a dream.. Or maybe I just forgot it by now. But thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

[Mortalis]

This is why its important to wake up and stay still, and immediately (before thinking about the day's activities, or breakfast, or anything else) to try to remember your dreams. Rolling over, getting up to go to the bathroom, and thinking about other things will likely reduce your dream memory. If you have a dream journal right next to your bed then it really makes things easier.. hopefully that will help.

[Shift]

I know there are a few different ways, such as drinking a lot of water before bed so that when you wake up at the end of a REM period you have to get up and pee (and can then probably remember your dream). You could try brain flooding on a specific topic, then trying to see if you can remember anything related to that topic? I'd keep up on the autosuggestion. For an alarm, if you have a cell phone set an alarm and put it on vibrate and in your sock. That will wake you up, but not others Changing around your sleep schedule can sometimes do it. You could also try talking about dreams to other people, if you don't (in person seems to help more than online). An extreme measure (though not as dangerous as drugging yourself for something like building up dream recall) in my eyes would be to eat something that you know is going to bother your stomach, then go to sleep. Sometimes this will give me weird dreams. Or, to watch some really scary movies. You could also try visually incubating a scene. Just sit around relaxing and building a place in your head, down to the smallest detail. Go over it again and again, and hopefully you will dream of it, and then next time you think of it you will remember being there. This has gotten ridiculously long so here's my last idea: every time you wake up, lie in place and look at ONE thing. Just pick out something, across the room or on the wall, and just look at it every time you try to recall your dreams.

[Elzuap]

For the drinking water thing, I don't really want to have to get up and pee in the middle of the night. The cellphone thing on the other hand, is ingenious. xD I'll have to try that. I know a friend who tells me his dreams if they are really bizarre, he is kind of weird though... I could tell him my dream if I have another one. For brain flooding, that is when you think about different random things and see if anything comes to mind, right? I don't really see how that could work... and it could take a long time to get the right thought. Creating your own detailed scene before you go to bed seems interesting, I'll try it. ;P For looking at a single object, I don't really know about that. Am I supposed to stay still with my eyes closed and try to remember my dream fully, look at a single object right after awakening, or quickly jot down anything you remember after you wake up immediately? I think any of those three would be okay.. Thanks for the help. ^.< I'll try again tonight.

[Mortalis]

I've found that personally if I try to write something just as I wake up, I may often lose the end of my dream while writing the beginning. Personally, I find it helpful to think through the whole process of the dream before beginning to write. This way, as I write I often remember little parts that I didn't at first. I guess its all about what works for you though, I'd say give a few of these techniques a shot and see what happens.

[Shift]

I know a friend who tells me his dreams if they are really bizarre, he is kind of weird though... I could tell him my dream if I have another one. For brain flooding, that is when you think about different random things and see if anything comes to mind, right? I don't really see how that could work... and it could take a long time to get the right thought. For looking at a single object, I don't really know about that. Am I supposed to stay still with my eyes closed and try to remember my dream fully, look at a single object right after awakening, or quickly jot down anything you remember after you wake up immediately? I think any of those three would be okay.. Thanks for the help. ^.< I'll try again tonight. Yea, just be like "Man, I had the weirdest dream last night!" Tell him about it, and then if the conversation ends, let it end. Just the intention and relative stress of bringing it up my cue you in to remembering more dreams. They're just weird like that. Well I was thinking more of just ultimate overexposure to one idea, though I don't know if it has a technical term. So, say you picked... bananas Make everything for one evening revolve around bananas. Eat a banana. Eat a banana split. Look at pictures of bananas. Draw a banana. Smell the banana, and try to think of things that smell like a banana. Make the banana your desktop, and every time you notice it make sure to stop and say "Banana". Spell banana. Look banana up on wikipedia and read about bananas. Watch bananas in pajamas and every other sort of banana there is. At the end of the day you'll be so crazy, you'll probably end up dreaming about bananas. Make a list of all the banana-related activities you did. When you wake up the next day, think about bananas and try to remember the last time you saw or thought about bananas, and see if any memories come to you. If you're not 100% sure if it was a dream or not, reference your list. "Hey, wait a second... I never rode on a spaceship shaped like a banana... OH! It must have been a dream!" I'm not the best on ways to improve recall, because I'm always babbling about and writing down my dreams. What I usually do when I first wake up is to just lie still and relive the entire dream. Once I'm pretty sure I've got it all down, I run through it again, then if I feel like it I'll write it down. So if you can do that, do that. If not, try just laying in bed with your eyes open staring at one object and try to remember your dreams. Of course if you find that writing down right away is better than mentally reviewing, then by all means do that.

[Mortalis]

So, say you picked... bananas Make everything for one evening revolve around bananas. Eat a banana. Eat a banana split. Look at pictures of bananas. Draw a banana. Smell the banana, and try to think of things that smell like a banana. Make the banana your desktop, and every time you notice it make sure to stop and say "Banana". Spell banana. Look banana up on wikipedia and read about bananas. Watch bananas in pajamas and every other sort of banana there is. At the end of the day you'll be so crazy, you'll probably end up dreaming about bananas. Make a list of all the banana-related activities you did. When you wake up the next day, think about bananas and try to remember the last time you saw or thought about bananas, and see if any memories come to you. If you're not 100% sure if it was a dream or not, reference your list. "Hey, wait a second... I never rode on a spaceship shaped like a banana... OH! It must have been a dream!" Peanut butter jelly time?

[ninja9578]

Looks like everything that I would have said has been said. The water idea is good and you are dreaming, you just aren't remembering them. Lay perfectly still when you wake up and let them come back, they should come back within a minute or two. to DV

[kinkydreamgirl]

Ususally I go for dream symbols I know are the most significant. Like last night I saw a bunch of crystals, seeing any type of healing stones are important in dreaming and I instantly recalled going for the amethyst stones. Most of what I would have recommended has been said also, it's best not to force yourself or demand recall. There are various diet plans you can try, or fasting even, I've also heard that vitamin B is very helpful to dream recall. (If someone mentioned that already I apologize, I just scanned some of the previous adivce.) Many times it's not lucid dreaming, so much as it an astral voyage/out of body travel and usually in those cases, i've found it's really easy to just know and remember all of the details because it's like you actually lived through them. If you can't come up with anything don't worry, it all unravels into higher memory anyway.

[Elzuap]

Well, I didn't want to create a new topic, so I'll bump this as it.. kind of relates. Anyway, I've tried all these different methods of remembering dreams, but I found that waking up with the vibrating phone at 6 AM almost always guarantees me a dream, or at least a fragment of one. I've been doing good. Like, I'm having 3-5 dreams a week. But I'm also having a lot of fragments, I'm having a fragment a day... But anyway, I have another question. I woke up at 6 yesterday, and remembered a dream, wrote it down, and went back to bed. But I didn't just go to sleep this time. I counted my breaths and just relaxed. I found myself losing track of my breaths every so often and going into a dream. I would wake up very quickly from them though, but I'd remember them as a fragment of a dream. (ie: I remember a man drinking hot chocolate) Not very detailed, but I'd still remember having a dream. But it's weird because, when I would lose track of counting, I'd go into a dream and wake up from it in only about 5-10 minutes. I repeated this and remembered 4 fragments last night. And by the way, I do try and expand these small parts of a dream I remember, but it doesn't really work... Also, when I was counting my breaths, I would feel numb around my body, mostly at my legs and feet... and my back felt like there was something on top of it. I ignored it though... Is this a weird thing to happen, is it even possible to remember dreams in this way, back to back to back in only about an hour? Also, if I get good at recalling dreams, (This is so cool, because I used to hardly remember anything) I might want to try to have a lucid, but it seems like an awfully difficult thing to do. And sorry if this is a long post, thanks for reading. ;P

[Barbizzle]

Hey good job on the recall Keep doing what your doing. Ironicly, the things you just told me about are the beginings of a Lucid Dreaming Technique. a WILD. What you would do if focus on the dream imagry and enter into the dream being aware that your Lucid. Such good progress It's normal, dont be worried about the tingleing feeling. It is your body shutting off while your mind is staying on.