Thread: Any ideas to help me?

Set alarms to wake yourself up during the night, especially in the latter half of sleep. Write down any dream you remember from when you woke up - don't be tempted to roll over and go to sleep again, write it down or you'll forget! Put the alarm on the other side of the room if need be. I used to have crap recall as well but mine has improved a lot by following this and other dream recall techniques (you'll find heaps if you do a search for it).

Personally I wouldn't bother setting alarms to wake me during the night. I'd try and prime myself before going to bed to wake up during the night because if it works you will tend to wake up immediately after a REM phase making it easy to recall your dream. That's what happens for me. If that didn't work I'd start by working on dream recall when I woke up in the morning. Setting an alarm has no guarantee to wake you during a dream and you'll probably just end up tired the next day with still no recall. If you are on holiday or not working it could be a goer though. I just know it's not something I'd do.

It can take a while to become practised at recalling your dreams but once you get good at it it becomes easier. I can recall my dreams easily every single night now. I have found that wearing a sleep mask helps dramatically with dream recall. It stops me opening my eyes and keeps me in darkness making it much easier to access my dream.

HTH

I find repeating you will wake up after a dream before you go to sleep helpful. You can set alarms as well and it doesnt take long for your mind to get into a new schedule. Try these things and see what works for you.

Telling yourself you'll wake up doesn't work for everyone. It's never worked for me. Especially if you are a very deep sleeper, you'll want to set the alarms at first to make sure you wake up. In the latter half of the night you're very likely to catch a dream. But eventually you'll get to the point where you don't need to use alarms - I tend to wake up after every REM period now, without even having made the intention to do so.