Dream recall

Trung_Of_Wu · September 23, 2003, 1:37pm

well, bout week ago I decide to start from scratch because current situation get me no where. But, I try all week and i have NO dream recall. I try all given technique and nothing seem to work. I don’t remember anything, except for 2 dream this week I remember about 3 second of, which was enough to understand. Please help. Much would be appreciate. I basically asking for technique not written down yet, because I have tryed all one I see. thank you much.

mystic · September 23, 2003, 5:32pm

I don’t know any other techniques than mentioned here on the forum, so I did a search on the net. Some tips may have been mentioned before but I hope you can use some of them :

YOU’VE GOT TO WANT IT. First and foremost, you must feel that it will be useful to you, if not extremely valuable. Without this, motivation will soon disappear. More importantly, the desire acts as a magnet which draws your dreams into memory.

IT’S A MATTER OF FOCUS AND ATTENTION. Understand that dream recall is an inherent, natural human trait. That is why young children are usually in touch with dreams, as are some native cultures who share their dreams with each other daily. Dream recall is a bit like a mental muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. Without exercise it may shrink, but it is there if you decide to work it out again. So if your recall is poor, trust that it will come in time, and the trust alone will actually help.

BEDTIME PRACTICE: Before sleep, reread your dreams from the previous (or more) night(s). This allows you to begin to connect with your dream memory, and is also an opportunity to interpret your dreams and spot connections to the day’s events. Then, as you go to bed, clearly ask (rather than command) yourself to remember your dreams when you awaken in the morning or during the night, and remind yourself that it’s a simple, natural process. Also, suggest to yourself that you will spontaneously awaken when you need to without using an alarm clock, since it can inhibit recall. This method works well with practice, but you may initially wish to set your alarm for 15 minutes after your suggested wake-up time, just to be safe. Any time you awaken, keep your eyes closed (or shut them if already open) and remain as motionless as possible. If you moved since waking, return to your earlier body position. Gather as many images, feelings or impressions as you can, then rise and immediately record them in a journal (which you keep bedside) or say them into a tape recorder, no matter how brief or vague they may at first seem. You’ll be surprised at how much more you can remember as you write (or speak).
If your next day’s schedule allows for the possibility of slightly less alertness and you’re game to try something a bit more adventurous, try drinking one or more glasses of water before bed so that your body will automatically awaken you during the night - quite likely just after a dream cycle is just complete. This requires a little more dedication but has it’s pay-offs since it gives your waking and dreaming states of mind more opportunity to overlap, and hence triggers better dream recall.

BE PLAYFUL, PATIENT, and PERSISTENT. Although most people start having success the first week or two, dream recall is a mental muscle which may require some time to get back into shape. Try to maintain a relaxed and playful attitude of looking forward to your dreams while being willing to let them come all in good time. Trying too hard or being too serious can be limiting factors. Dream recall and motivation tend to come and go naturally in cycles, and also depend upon what else is going on in your life. Once you start on a cycle of focusing on recall, stick with it for at least a few days, because consecutive nights can have an additive effect.

Really Get “Into” It
Read…and THINK about…dreams, and their meaning to you. Most people who are poor dream recallers only seem to recall the dreams with the most emotional impact…such as nightmares. Or they only recall dreams when they are ill. This alone, should be enough of a hint that dreams have survival and instructive value. Most of these negative emotion dreams, for instance, are actually reflections of dis-ease in the body brought on by illness, indigestion or some other form of stress. The “symbolic” language for these are emotionally negative of necessity.

Review Your Dream Characters
When I awaken, and know that I’ve been dreaming but can’t seem to recall anything, I sometimes go over all of the symbol objects I can think of in my mind. I might say “dog, car, house, woman, child, school, etc.” Then when I say one of the symbols from my actual dream, often detailed recall will come flooding back into my mind

CHANGE YOUR BED POSITION - If your bed is oriented in an East - West direction, turn it in a North - South direction for several weeks to see if that improves your dream recall. Also sleep with your head to the North position to see if tht improves your dream recall and improves precognitive dreaming. The prophet Edgar Cayce always lay with his head to the North when giving his psychic readings. Feel free to experiment with these sleep positioins as they do not work the same for all people. Find out what works best for you.

CHANGE YOUR DIET - Excessive use of coffee, tea or alcohol may interfere with your ability to remember dreams. So cut back or eliminate these foods and see what happens. Please allow up to 60 days to see the full effect of these changes. If some food are very hard for you to digest (such as red meat), cut back on your consumption of the suspect food for several months to see if that will improve dream recall

Good luck!

Xetrov · September 23, 2003, 7:12pm

I keep repeating this, have you tried b(6 and 12) vintamins yet? Works wonders for my recall.

Trancewave · September 24, 2003, 1:58am

I think its just all about your mood before you go to sleep and what you were doing the past couple hours before going to sleep. For some reason, I noticed if I play video games or watch TV too much before going to sleep, it actually reduces my dream recall but I notice whenever I enter the hypnogic imagery I see repeated images of what I was watching/playing.(maybe I could use this as an advantage for WILD though.)

Anyway so far I noticed the best things for dream recall is to think about the moment you went to sleep and the moment you just woke up and try to “bridge the gap”. Its best to do this as soon as you wake up. You might be blank when you wake up, but you still feel the general emotion of the last dream you were in. Also this might not work for everyone but I think remembering backwards is great for dream recall. Try to think about what you were just dreaming right before you woke up and work your way backwards saying “what happened before that?” “and before that?” etc.

Oh and about the vitamin B6 and B12…I searched my pantry for some and all I found was some Centrum which included them along with many other vitamins and minerals. Both nights I experimented with it I had almost NO dream recall at all. I’m not blaming B6 or B12, its just that I don’t know what vitamin in there was cancelling them out

Are there actually foods that reduce dream recall too?

infection0 · September 24, 2003, 2:45am

I was begging my subconscious yesterday before going to sleep for a LD. It actually worked- 2 lds in a night, a personal best! Horrible dream recall as usual though. Perhaps you should beg for recall? I put a lot of emotion into it, unlike MILD, which always results in me droning out the words. This time I put feeling into it. Beg like you’ve never, ever begged before.

sage · September 24, 2003, 3:30am

From my experience, I’ve found that the best thing to do is to read… the BIG remembering dreams topic… located a few centimeters up the screen from this one.

Trung_Of_Wu · September 24, 2003, 1:36pm

sage! You is meanie. I tell you that before! I already read. 0_o
And thank you mystic. You help me once more ^.^
I will try all things mention here, but I think i already have. I will try again -.- thank you! ^.^

Trung_Of_Wu · September 26, 2003, 2:14pm

oh great. ^.^ I have lucid dream on thursday! ^.^ No more dry spell. But… well, I lost lucidity soon after. I try spinning, then just woke up somewhere else completely unaware of my current state, but I got the words “I’m dreaming” out of my mouth.

But… ^O^ noo!

Old problems re arise. Now, when lucid, My fingers stuck together (no big), but I have that weird upside down being crushed spinning can’t see well blurry feeling thingy soon after being lucid and i have to FIGHT to do it. No! I don’t want this again. Any help?

Also, I wanted to take chance to mention my favorite rc- the where am i?
WHere you stop during the day and look around for obvious (or minute) differences that could signify fishiness. ^.^ I love that rc. Work so so well.

But please, any help?

Mimix · September 27, 2003, 7:08pm

WOW…Im not sure on this one but I guess you have to practice at it…

I would try rubbing hands together to stay in a sleep longer. I havent become lucid ya know ^.^ most people say that Rubbing hands give a sense of all things. Movement to the eye, the feeling on your hands, and the warmth made from it all heightens your senses apparently.

Your problem sems strange about the fingers being stuck together. If you can imagine them not being stuck together, and have no DOUBT that they WONT become unstuck, than they will be seperated most likely. It may take practice, but everyone has problems most likely.

The feeling? I dont know what that means about the upside down things, maybe you are getting the feeling you ARENT in a dream or getting too excited? Im not sure…

Trung_Of_Wu · September 27, 2003, 7:26pm

well, everything happen so fast and so intense, it’s hard to fix. And rubbing hands no work for me. I tried alot. Spinning is best so far.

Mimix · September 27, 2003, 7:31pm

Ahh okay.
Well, I could see why its like that 0.o, it must be really hard. Like I said - I know how dreams usually are…fast but seem long. I havent ever been lucid as I said before, but im assuming it will be timewise decently like that. I guess you just have to remember what to do…spin and know that they will become unstuck. The feeling? I dont know still . It takes much practice obviously, and it takes much experience. Each time you become lucid, Id say you get better at it, even if it was low level or only lasted a bit of time.

daysong · September 27, 2003, 7:36pm

Just remember YOU are in control when you LD. If you’re getting that feeling that you described, you can make it go away. You just have to tell yourself in the dream, “Everything is clear. I feel normal,” etc. And tell yourself before you go to sleep that everything will be clear in your dreams. This is also the case with your hands being stuck together: Tell yourself that they aren’t stuck together (in the dream). Put real meaning into it. If you have even the smallest amount of doubt, it might not work. Good luck!

/ds

charlottedreamer · September 27, 2003, 10:09pm

when You realise that you are dreaming, shout that you are dreaming, and that you will not lose lucidity… worked for me. I always seem to forget to rub my hands together, even though I always look at them, but if you can do this it should work well. Spinning never works for me, but if you want to try it go ahead, I think it just takes some practice to learn what your own body needs to keep you in a lucid state, try as many things as you can

Trung_Of_Wu · September 28, 2003, 8:20pm

hmmmm… okay. Will try ^.^
Thanks charlotte dreamer and daysong ^.^