The BIG Remembering Dreams Topic - Part II

Here is an idea to motivate and enhance dream recall (I used it for me) :
I noted every dream I could remember and assembled the pieces to an endless (open) novel. :read:
The dreams came not in chronological order, but usually they turned around some themes, so I searched for the chapters / paragraphs that could form some ongoing story lines and assembled them, just changing some words or names.
After a month or so a plot began to emerge, and every morning and night I tried my best to recall because I really wanted to know how the story would continue …

hope it helps

Just recently, I had perfect recall for 6 of 6 days in a week, then on the 7th remembered nothing. That was very disappointing. Now three day’s later, I remember nothing again. It’s getting frustrating now.

Another curious change is that I was successful at waking myself after each dream for three nights in a row. It worked flawlessly from the very first time I tried. Then after those three nights ran out two days ago, I don’t wake up once 'til morning. What could be the cause of this?

I’ve been drinking mint tea every night before bed for a week, so I’m going to lay off of it tonight and go to sleep a little later so I’m more tired and see if it changes anything.

Has anyone else experience better dream recall while under the influence of alcohol?
About 2 weeks ago I was “under the influence” and had really good dream recall, I was really surprised actually as it was better than usual. Usually I can only remember one dream, but that night I remembered 2.

And one more thing, are there DJ’s for sale or can you use just any book lying around?

That seems like a very good idea. I think I’m going to try it. Actually, my dreams have had the same themes the last weeks. I’m dreaming about a winter ladscape, although it’s summer IRL. I realize it would be easy to tie them together to a story.

Not me… I’ve always had a terrible dream recall after I’d drunk alcohol. Seems like you were lucky that you were able to remember more dreams :smile:

You can just use any book, but it doesn’t have to be big, so you can place it somewhere near your bed. I’m not sure if you can buy dream journals… but there’s always the special LD4ALL dream journal ofcourse: cafeshops.com/ld4all.8638521

:wink:

Hello everybody! :content: I’m having a really diffficult time trying to recall dreams…the only dream I really remember really really really well is my reoccurring nightmare… :sad: (Is there a reason as to why people get reoccuring dreams/nightmares…?) I can only vaguely remember every other dream that comes along…any advice as to how I can work on recalling my other dreams EXCEPT the reoccuring nightmare? (And can anybody give advice as to how I can change that reoccuring nightmare into something else…?) Thank you :happy:

Thanks for that reply mystic, I found an old notebook lying around and am using that as my dream journal now.
The best method of dream recall I’ve found so far is the drink-half-a-glass-of-water method. The first time I tried it, everything from my dream the ngiht before flooded back to me, since then I haven’t needed to use the technique as I remember my dreams as soon as I wake up. I do use it anyway though to see if I can get any more little details from it but that never happens. I’ve also been giving my dreams titles =D, they’re in my dream journal if anyone wants to look.

Sorry… what’s this method, El Fonzo?

If you’re referring to the drink-half-a-glass-of-water method, I think that’s the only one I mentioned, then it’s a method I think I found on this website. I’ll give a brief explanation of how I did it…

Before going to sleep, I drank half of a glass of water and thought to myself “When I wake up I will drink the other half of this water and remember my dreams” (It probably works better if you actually SAY it to yourself, come to think of it), then when I woke up I drank the other half of the water with the memory of doing that the previous night and the intention of the act of drinking the water bringing back some dream memories, and it worked amazingly well! As soon as I took a sip of water, the memories felt like they had a blanket lifted from them and I could remember the whole dream. It’s in my dream journal on this site, it’s the one titled “Panther Burgers”. Since that first time, it hasn’t worked amazingly well, the dream memories steadily come back or they’re already there before I drink the water so its not really needed. Also, since I did it for the first time, I’ve been getting MAJOR headaches. :confused:
I would advise this method to try at least once, in fact if anybody does try it maybe they should post here saying if they had the same amazing recall that I had and if it’s giving them headaches too.

This is mad :smile: why would it give you headaches?

You need to switch to Coke :spinning:.

Heh. The headaches are probably completely unrelated to it, but it’s worth mentioning since that was around the time they started.
Funny story about Coke, I gave it up a few years ago. That’s if you mean Coca Cola coke and not cocaine Coke anyway. It’s bad for your teeth. I used to drink it ALL. THE. TIME. Damn that was hard to give up. Why am I mentioning that here?

Can you change the order of the dreams around or add bits? Mine are so boring sometimes, I’m not sure how I’d make a story of them.

I don’t have much advice I’m afraid but you could try to visualise yourself becoming lucid in the nightmare and changing things. If you do that before falling asleep each night it might eventually become something you remember in the dream.

If anyone saw my last post, it was a little less than a month ago. Lately I’ve been really busy, and I havent had much time to sleep, let alone think about dreaming. About 3 weeks ago, one night I forgot to tell myself to remember my dream in the morning, and I woke up feeling like I hadn’t dreamed at all, the feeling I used to have.(When I started working on my dream recall, I may not have remembered a dream, but I still KNEW that I had dreamed) Over the next couple of weeks I kept forgetting, I had other things on my mind when I went to bed. And I haven’t remembered, or even felt like I had dreamed, in about 20 days. Now I can get back to my DJ and such, but I feel like I’m starting all over again.
My advice for those attemtping to increase thier dream recall: Make sure you tell yourself to remember your dreams. I’ve now learned this is vital. Or, perhaps this technique doesn’t work for you. But once you find one that does, stick to it.

My main problem with dream recall, is that I am such a deep sleeper. No exaggeration, 99% of the time my alarm clock won’t wake me. I’ll either wake naturally, or my Mum will wake me up (only on weekdays for school). Mind you, I can recall some dreams, but normally only fragments.

Another problem is often I think that my mind is just making up these dreams as I go along. I start off with one scene, and then it sort of progresses step by step in my mind, as if I’m making it up.

Hello! im new to this forum, and ive read the hole thread aswell as the whole homepage. I have never heard of lucid dreaming before and i got totally interessted. I shall try remember a dream tonight, and i shall make a DJ before going to bed. I shall report here how it went :smile:

I second that! For me this is also the best technique. It only has to take 5 minutes, but be sure that you repeat your intention with enough strength. Truly believe what you’re saying and put real meaning to the words.

@1337-Dreamer: good luck :content:

I need to ask u guys a question how many dreams should i be able to remember a week or weeks for me to be ready to start lucid dreaming?

I’d say at least one dream a night. Normally LDs are easier to remember, because they have a deeper emotional impact. If you can remember one dream a night, there’s an increased chance that this dream is the LD you had. If you can’t remember anything, you have to trace back the dream through emotions, impressions and the general feeling you had upon awakening. And that’s pretty difficult :smile:

Good luck!

I’m nearly ready to start attempting LDs (I had one already by accident), as I can remember my dreams…but only if I go to bed with that intention. As Shadowless said, the mind is truly incredible. I just use “I’m going to dream now, and when I wake up I’m going to remember my dreams”, and repeat that until I fall asleep. Often when i wake up I can’t remember anything, but within about 5 mins (and an RC, which I almost always forget), the dream memories come right back.

Tonight will be probably my last night of focusing 100% on dream recall (based on your thoughts), and whether I should attenpt LDs now or not. You can check my current progress in my dream diary.

Hi,

Im having trouble remembering my dreams, I’ve started a dream journal and I remembered one dream on my first day trying then nothing the next three days. When I go to fall asleep should I repeat “Im going to remember my dreams in the morning” over and over again in my head or should I just say it to myself once then think about something else?

Thanks