Not sure what I did, but it worked!

[HillHound]

So for the past few nights, I've been trying several different strategies to improve my dream recollection skills (before actually attempting to achieve lucidity in those dreams, baby steps!). Each night before going to bed, I've thought about everything that's happened in that day in as much detail as possible. I hardly make it past noon before I'm out cold. As a result, I'm finding it increasingly easier to remember multiple dreams and record them in my dream journal, which grows larger and larger by the day. However, something that's never happened to me before happened last night. Starting at around 6:30 pm, I began to get one of my pre-migraine headaches. I had just gotten to work, so I knew I wouldn't be able to take medication to stop it until I got home at around 10:30 (by which time I knew that it would be too late). So inevitably, by the time I get home, my head is absolutely throbbing, and after taking some medicine and relaxing for about half an hour, I finally go to bed at around 11:15 (fairly earlier than usual for me). But here is the strange part (for me, at least): I woke up after literally every dream, each time, my migraine fading more and more. Furthermore, with each dream, while they were all completely irrelevant to the other, I gained more and more control in each one (though I wouldn't say that I was lucid in any of them, I simply had more control than usual over the dreams). I'm not sure what factors lead to this, I figured maybe you guys would have some idea as to why this happened, but it'd be nice if it could keep happening, as it is excellent practice for DEILD! Good luck to everyone out there! *Note: While I'm going to bed at my usual time, 2 am, tonight, I plan on going to bed at around 11 tomorrow, to try and replicate the experience as much as possible. But who knows, maybe the reason that this is happening is simply a mesh of lucidity inducing tricks that are starting to work! Only time will tell.

[gab]

The earlier bedtime may have something to do with it, or your medication? Or you are just getting more aware from your LD training. We do wake up normally after each REM, so you can train yourself to wake up and write down your dreams. If you drink water before bed, it may wake you up for a bathroom and there is a good chance to remember your dreams that way too.

[PercyLucid]

Going earlier for bed does wonders for me as well. That helps a lot with recall... and it is cool to take up and 2 am... realize you have already 2-3 dreams for the night, and still 4-5 more hours of sleep, which adds excitement and the posibility of a LD. My most epic night, I recalled a wooping amount of 17 dreams... no kidding. Including 2 DEILDs and 3 L-DEILD (my own personal technique... which is chaining lucids - Lucid-Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream)