I was wondering - is it possible that we’ve been having lucid dreams, perhaps even lots of them, and simply forgetting them? (Perhaps due to a lack in good dream recall)
What do you think?
Was there any research on this?
It is possible to have a lucid dream and forget what you did, all you know is that you did have one. You can also forget that you had one but usually you know you did. Many have lucid dreams but don’t know that they are lucid.
Good! So it’s not a complete ‘forgetting’ - you would still know you had an LD…
Edit: Good to know (in those cases of course)!
How could we answer this question? If we did have LDs but forgot them, how would we know that we had them to know if we have them and forget them?
Anyway, the Lucidity Institute FAQ says that this does happen.
You are correct - but I thought that perhaps some literature existed on the subject. Or some kind of investigation. But it’s an interesting question - perhaps LDing is natural and we just forget about it.
LDing, like normal dreaming, can be forgotten, especially if you have it very early during one of your first REM cycles. However, since you’re more conscious in an LD, you are more likely to remember it.
actually, yesterday I had two lucid dreams. One lucid dream I woke up from and wrote it down immediately. The other, I forgot about completely until a long time after when I picked up my cd-player (I turned a flat refridgerator magnet into a cd-player in the dream). After a few seconds of thinking about where I got that memory of holding a cd-player, whooooshhh it all comes back. kinda cool. 
Yes, it is very possible. I experienced them myself. 
When I do forget about my LD(s), I always do remember that I had a lucid dream, but I don’t remember what I did or what it was about. It can be annoying sometimes.
LD’ing is the same thing like dreaming except you’re conscious so you’re most likely to remember it easier than regular dreaming; however, it doesn’t mean that you’re immune from forgeting your LD’s.
Sometimes I wake up with the afterglow feeling of a LD but I can’t remember anything from it. This feeling is very specific and I have it almost everytime when I wake up from a LD, often very weak but sometimes very strong (especially after flying LDs). So for me this is a strong indication that I got lucid.
So maybe the reason why we tend to have more LDs when we’re keeping a DJ and making an effort to remember dreams… is simply because we’re remembering more of the LDs we actually do have. 
This will certainly play a role But it’s not the only reason why we remember more LDs: if you keep a DJ you have actually a map of your dream world which grows everytime you write in it. If you reread this map often, you’ll get familiar with its characteristics and thus it will trigger lucidity easier. If you don’t have the map, you still know some features of the map, but it works much better if you see the map with your own eyes.
Sometimes I have that feeling that I had a lucid dream, but can’t remember what happened… When I have that feeling, I usually just assume I didn’t have an LD. I usually have a set thing to do in the case that I actually would have an LD, and if I don’t remember doing that set thing, I assume that I didn’t have an LD. 
ClarkKent i think its possible but rare!
In most cases you will remember a ld…but i think its possible especially when your ld was very short in time…like seconds…or so!
Jeff
I usually have set things I want to do too, however, once in an LD, I often forget about those set things, being caught up in the moment. So, just because you don’t remember doing a set thing, doesn’t necessarily mean you weren’t lucid. 
Yeah, that makes sense… most of the time when I forget what to do in an LD though I just stand there and then the dream fades
thats bit a freaky question?
i mean everyone gets this tinle-ugly feeling in his right arm before going to the toilet, but everyone forgets!
how can someone proof that? everything we know is based on remembering it… without remembering, some things even do exist, we just dont know…
sorry got bit OT…
kay, i have this sometimes… wake up, “jeah, got lucid…but? what the hell did i do?” and i dont remember details!
Hmmm, I don’t know. Lucid dreams are so much easier to remember that I doubt it would be possible for me to simply forget that I’ve had one. After all, you’re conscious at the time, so everything you do immediately gets filed away in reliable memory - often down to the smallest detail. Forgetting an LD would be like forgetting something that you actually did (in RL) in the last few hours.
I’ve had a couple of instances where, in the middle of the afternoon, I’ll suddenly say, “Oh yeah, I had a lucid dream last night about…” and then I’ll suddenly remember it all.