I want to wake up and record my dreams during the night, so I have some questions about this:
How many hours after you fall asleep do you wake up during the night to record dreams, i.e., 4 hours after I fall asleep. What time should I set my time if I sleep at 12p.m.?
How many times do you do this. Ex.: Twice a night.
your REM cycle restarts every 90 minutes. So you would want to set it about 4.30 hours after sleep, to about 6 hours. But the part i dont understand, is if you are in teh middle of REM every 90 minutes, or if it starts again every 90 minutes… so, i sugest, if you go to sleep, and if yo uare waking up to RECORD your dreams, not to do a WBTB or a MILD, then you should set it for about 4:45 or 6:15. This is if you fall asleep at 12. So if you have problems gettign to sleep, then ajust your alarm to fit your schedual.
yu can do this however many times. So if you want to do it many times, just do it ever 90 minutes within sleeping. But the more sleep yo uget, longer REM, but harder to get to sleep
i know half of what i said is confusing, but bear with me, im not the best at explaining things 
just wondering i know that waking up obviously helps you remember more dreams in a night but does it really help you remember dreams in the long run so say 4 months from now and im am good at recalling dreams will i have to wake up during the night to remember 4 or so dreams or can you wake up in the mourning and remember multiple dreams?
I think that it should help in the long run, because practice makes perfect, right?
Lucian, you’re a good guesser, I do sleep at 12. So should I just wake up at 4:30 and 6:15 and record my dreams?
I’m confused about that also. Books say that REM period is 90 minutes after you sleep. Does that mean after 90 minutes if starts, is in the middle of, or ending? Does anyone know?
REM sleep begins 90 minutes in (on average), and each time lasts for a little longer than the previous. However, the 90 minute rule applies to when each period ends, not from when it starts. So, your first one is 90 minutes after you go to sleep, and lasts about 10 minutes. Your second one is 190 minutes in, and lasts about 15-20 minutes. Third is around 300 minutes in, etc, dependant on the length of the previous cycle.
People don’t function like clockwork though, so it might vary seemingly at random. That doesn’t matter though, you only have to be relatively close to reap the benefits of recall. Aim to wake up a little over 6 hours after going to sleep, and you’ll likely wake directly from a dream. Set it a little later if you’d rather not interrupt the dream, and instead wake up afterwards. You really don’t have to be perfect.
Over time, you’ll certainly become more accustomed to remembering your dreams as soon as you wake up, even if you stop interrupting your sleep periodically through the night. That’s not to say you’ll have the same strength of recall if you do, but at least you’ll reliably remember the final few dreams most nights. (Nothing you can really do about the dreams earlier on in the night if you decide against waking up regularly).
For a more detailed description of how the cycles work, read this page: https://www.sleepdisorderchannel.net/stages/
This is fundamental and common knowledge for anyone interested in lucid dreaming! 
hey athiest, thank you SO much for clarifeing that for me! i ALWAYs wanted to know about the rem cycles, if they start or whatever at the exact time. Thanks a bunch, it not only helped other people, but got rid of a obbsesiv thaught in my mind for over months! thank you!
Thanks Athiest!
You cleared it up well for me. I should probably aim to wake up at 6:30 then? Each REM period gets longer after later in the night, so how long does a later REM period last. Also, when waking up in the middle of a dream, can you remember it very vividly, since you woke straight from it?
yes you definitly remember dreams very clearly when you wake up during them before trying to lucid dream and finding this site
the only dreams i ever remembered were ones i woke up from