Without recall, there is little advantage to being able to dream lucidly.  What is the use to have a lucid dream if you cannot remember it upon awakening?

Likewise, developing good recall is essential to training your mind to dream lucidly.  Without good recall you cannot identify your dream signs, without dream signs you cannot reality check effectively, without effective reality checks, you cannot easily train your minds to question dream events.  In this section we will work on techniques to develop good recall.   This is an interactive session.

The majority of participants have now calculated their recall rates for the month of April, we will now focus on improving recall for May.

Most of you are already using one of the best tools available to improve recall, your dream journal.  It is important that everyone keep their journal as up to date and accurate as possible for the month of May, we will measure recall once more at the end of the month to look for improvement.

Poor recall takes a number of forms: 1.   You may remember nothing 2.   You may sleep too soundly 3.   You may recall only fragments 4.   You may forget the dream later in the day

Everyone, please respond in this thread which techniques work best for you to help you recall dreams.  Next Monday or Tuesday, I will summarize these techniques and each of you will identify and list in your workbooks which of these techniques you will actively use this month to improve your recall.

I&#39ll go first. 

I almost always remember my dreams upon awakening, but find that the memory of the dream very quickly fades away.  Usually by the time I am dressed and have made my way to the kitchen, the dream is only a dim memory.

Writing a few hints in a notebook immediately upon awakening gives me the hints I need to recall the dream as I enter it into my journal.  I keep a small notebook next to the toilet along with a small flashlight and pen, upon awakening I go there to make notes.  As early as possible in the day, I review my notes and try to recreate as much of the dream as I can in my journal.

What really messes up my recall is being jarred awake by an alarm or some other sound and/or if I immediately change position or start thinking about my day once I wake up.

I try and write my about my dreams as soon as I wake up from them because if I wait til later.. I lose alot (if not all) the details.

Once I wake up.. I try not to move! I then think about the dream I just had. If nothing comes to mind.. I try to remember if there was a specific person, place, thing, food or emotion in the dream. Once I come up with even a tidbit of the dream.. I try to work my way backward.. how did I get there.. who was with me, etc.

I keep a small memo pad open with a pen clipped to the spiral next to my pillow. When I wake up from a dream, I don't turn on the lights, nor open my eyes.. I just reach for the pad and start writing. I write alot or a little (i.e., just enough to jog my memory).

As Clairity said, being forced awake by an alarm clock, or waking up in a rush completely blocks my recall.

I find that, if I really feel the need to remember dreams (just like I feel now with the workshop and everything) it will get so damn better it amazes me. If I really must remember my dreams, I will. Check my DJ for example - remembered 6 dreams on the 2nd day of DJing - that because I wanted to remember my dreams to be able to post them

Taking immediate notes upon awakening is perfect for recalling dreams - it helps to write down key concepts and important things immediately; and you will later be able to read those and fully write down the dream. I always keep an open notebook near bed, but my DJ itself has always been on my computer.

Btw guys, I wanted to say that this workshop made me restart my long-retired DJ.

I keep a notebook next to my bed and write as many dot points about my dream as I can each time I wake up. To remember I just lie there with my eyes open (to prevent accidentally going back to sleep) and try to think back to what just happened. When I get something I work my way back from there and often the important events of the dream will all just come back to me at once. If I struggle to remember anything at all, I'll close my eyes and let myself drift off, I find it easier to remember in this state. Then I will either accidentally fall asleep, or remember something and jump up to write it down.

I then write my dreams down in detail on the PC as early as I can. If I'm attempting a WBTB or I've just woken for a great long dream or a lucid then I'll do it immediately, if not I'll do it within an hour of getting up if I can. Otherwise, when I get home later in the day. The earlier I do it the more detail I recall, but the points in my written journal ensure I can still recall a decent amount later in the day.

I've also trained myself to wake up after each dream. At first I used an alarm and auto-suggestion. Now I don't need to do either and will usually wake up 4-6 times a night, usually remembering at least a fragment. Some nights I will sleep right through, so to combat this I set my alarm for 4 hours after I go to bed. Usually I'll wake up before it activates and can turn it off in advance, but if I don't then it will wake me and from then on I will wake up after each dream like normal. If the alarm does go off, I also find like Clairity and Kromoh that it's way harder to remember anything.

I keep a notebook by my bed.  Frequently I wake in the night and I write down my dream, if recall is forthcoming.  Wakening in the morning I do the same.  Often I have no memory of the dream during the night, the only evidence is my scribbling (which I can't always read).  And often when I get to transcribe the scribbles into my DJ, the last dream of the night has mostly faded.

Interestingly, if I don't write down dreams on wakening, I usually (perhaps 3 times out of 4) have no further recall.  Other times I have perhaps very good recall at a random time during the day - usually a deja-vu moment.  But when I write dreams down that later recall almost never happens.

Therefore I sacrifice good recall for frequent recall.  I think this is a good trade-off although few of my dreams are recalled as "epic".

Away from home, I keep my notebook for several days and enter these into my DJ on return.  This can be time-consuming but I think it's worth the commitment.  I started my online DJ when I joined DV and I have an entry for each day as well as some back-filled dates from my earlier (but not daily) hand-written journal.

I keep a notebook and pen by my bed, so that I can attempt to write down what I remember when I wake up. If I dont remember anything, I tend to just lie there, and let my mind wonder for a while, hoping that some memory will turn back up into my head. Sometimes if i'm not in the best mood, or have been busy the night before, I can get tempted to just lie there, and not engage my mind in dream recall. This is somthing that i'm very much trying to stop doing.

As other people have mentioned, I tend to have little to no recall if i'm woken up forcefully, whether this is an alarm clock, or some loud noise. This is also true with waking up needing to pee. If this happens, I tend to be more focused on that, and loose the clarity of the dream.

Summary:  Lie in bed without moving and try to remember a piece from each dream I can recall.  I then work backwards until I either can't recall any more or begin to forget the dream.  I then write down a summary if I don't have time to write it all out, and then i can go back to it later.

Like most people, I lay in bed and do my best to not move at all.  Any outside stimulus can snatch a memory from my dreams away.  I don't have much of a problem with waking up with an alarm clock as opposed to waking up naturally, but I have to make sure I don't move any more than I have to.  I try to recall a fragment from the last dream that I had as well as from any other dreams I may have had earlier in the night.  Unfortunately, if I don't write down dreams after I wake up from them in the middle of the night, they're lost to me.  I'm sure that diligence and practice will help a lot with that, but at this point in time, my best tools are paper and pen.

When I remember a fragment from my dream(s), I try to work backwards from there.  I give other people advice that they should try to recall anything (shapes, colors, emotions, etc.), but I don't always take it.  It's hard to be so detailed in the morning, so when I have recalled as much as I can, I reach for my DJ and write a summary of all of the major points of the dream(s).  Then, if/when I have time, I can go back and fill in the blanks with any details that I may recall or even just make it more easily readable.  I find, as well (and this morning was no exception), that if I can recall something, I can almost always recall at least one or two more details, so that what seems like just a dream fragment becomes more of a real dream.

Also, I've found that reading through my dream journal before I go to bed helps to reinforce the idea that I want to recall my dreams, and I will be more apt to put forth the effort when I wake up in the morning.

One of my biggest problems, though, is that if I spend too much time trying to recall a dream, I'll start to lose fragments as I wake up and/or things will start going out of order.  I have to balance accuracy with quantity and it can get very annoying.  Writing down what I already have in my head is all I can do, though I sometimes find that in the process of writing down the dream, I can remember more little bits and pieces from it.

I think I posted this in the wrong spot so i am reposting in here My Recall Method When I wake up in the middle of the night/in the morning I say to my self "did i have a dream?" If the answer is yes I Think to my self ever detail I can think of  from my dream... This stores it in another part of my brain and I record them at lunch time/when I first get into work depending on whether or not I have time... I would say this is relable for me 97% of the time for me... I forget maybe two a month between the time I wake up and the time I recorded it... that usually of days where I am rushed though.

What has been working well for me lately in helping to recall dreams, or at least to have vivid dreams which are easier to recall, is to get my energy circulating through my body while going to sleep, as this seems to help me wake up naturally every couple of hours and remember my dreams.

Something I have been using for a long time and still use though is binaural beats or pulses.  Lately I have been having them start up after 90 minutes and then ramp them back and forth between 4hz and 9hz, which seems to be working.

Last night I accidentally selected the wrong preset, one that has no pulses in it, and slept for 4 whole hours without waking up, a long time for me, since I am usually waking up every 2 hours if not sooner.

And I might have slept longer had my strobe lights not gone off and woke me up, because I have been setting them to go off after about 4 hours just in case I sleep too long.

As for remembering the dreams, I remain as still as possible and don't move when waking up.

Then as soon as I have an idea of what I was dreaming about which sometimes might take a minute or two, I reach for my digital voice recorder laying to me on the bed and speak the main parts of my dream into it.

I find it a lot easier to remember the dream if I then get up and record it in an Excel spreadsheet, because if I wait until later in the evening which I sometimes do, to listen back to all those dreams and record them in my Excel spreadsheet, it can sometimes be really difficult to understand what I was saying during the night when I was half asleep, in addition to having forgotten a lot of the dreams. :(

One thing I forgot to mention that really improved my dream recall when I started doing it is that I go back over my dreams again before going to bed, writing out the main points in them.  This practice doubled my dream recall when I started doing it.

I think my best method is to replay the dream in my head throughout the day. Even if it's a fragment, I'll have it stored in my head to write (or type) it down later.

I need sufficient sleep in order to recall my dreams - at least 8 hours.  If I am well rested, I sleep lighter and will wake frequently with many details readily available.  If I get less sleep than this, I sleep too deeply to remember anything.

Just writing them out immediately upon awakening works best for me.

If the dream was strong enough, I can remember it later in the day and pull most of it from memory. Most of the time I will forget them if I don't write it immediately. Also, I try to think of the most memorable parts first and start asking myself "What happened next? Who was there? What was I doing?"

This can jog my memory a bit more.

Quote from: Raklet on May 02, 2008, 01:20:47 PMI need sufficient sleep in order to recall my dreams - at least 8 hours.  If I am well rested, I sleep lighter and will wake frequently with many details readily available.  If I get less sleep than this, I sleep too deeply to remember anything.

Exactly. I usually sleep not an extensive amount of time, varying from 5 to 7 hours, and I find it difficult to remember dreams. I even believe it's because I don't dream that much in that timespan. But if I get to sleep 8 hours or more, I can usually remember plenty of dreams.

I have a hard time recalling and writing multiple dreams at once.  I like to write down each dream right after it happened, during my brief midnight awakenings.

I have the best recall when I take time before bed to organize my thoughts.  Before sleep, while lying in bed, I will take a minute to schedule out my night.  I will make a plan, and tell myself to wake up after every dream to write it down.  I have to set this in my prospective memory.  Then, when I catch myself waking up briefly at 3 or 4am, I will grab a flashlight and my journal, and scribble down the dream I just had.

I find that morning recall is dependent on what part of my sleep cycle I wake up from.  If my alarm pulls me directly out of a REM cycle, I will remember the dream.  If it wakes me up from a deeper stage of sleep, I will feel  groggy, my memory will be fuzzy, and I will have a hard time recalling anything but fragments.

I keep my PDA next to my bed and start writing as soon as I wake up. I have two alarms set for school days, one is quiet, and I can still remember dreams after that goes off; the other is a loud you-need-to-get-up alarm which isn't great for recall.

Other than that, I don't usually need to make too much of an effort. As long as I do it early in the day, I can remember them quite well.

After 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I wake up frequently with strong dream recall. I think persistent journaling over time has made this an unconscious habit. I have the intention and expectation to recall my dreams during the night and in the morning.

I use a digital recorder. The advantage over writing with a pen and paper is two-fold. First, I tend not to recognize my own scribbles the next morning if I write my dreams on paper.  Second, I find there are little excuses not to record my dreams. When I used to write my dreams down, I failed often to grab the pen and journal, turn on a flashlight and begin writing, out of laziness. With the digital recorder, it&#39s easy to record dreams, just press record and talk.   There is also no rewinding and searching for the dream as on an analogue tape recorder; the digital recorder automatically numbers each recording, and playback and deletion is a breeze. I play the recordings back the next morning and log them into a journal program on my computer.

Don

My recall is actually good, most unfortunately I don't get the chance to write down my dreams. I wake up and hurry to get to school work, etc etc. As the day goes on, I forget the dream.

Putting on an alarm clock 4-5 hrs. into sleep and writing down my dreams then helps my recall. I can't do this during school days because it disrupts my sleep.

Sleeping for a good 7-8 hr.s helps my recall, although my most vivid dreams are remembered during naps.

Before stress and high school, I never used anything for recall [it was amazing how I could remember two dreams a night consistently that way]. But, since my recall has never been as lovely as then thanks to the said issues, I usually use two methods:

1. Notes on a Post It Note: usually central ideas or concepts, or key elements of the dream.

2. Memorize key parts of the dream or parts that could easily be triggered by other words floating in my mind as the day goes on (so if I forget it, usually I can recall it while doing chores).

3. Write it all down when I wake up (exclusively on weekends).

4. Telling a friend my dream early in the morning (school days exclusively) I find it to easier to remember a dream you've verbally talked about rather than not. Especially if your notes turn out illegible from groggy-minded handwriting.

I usually remember all of my LDs because they feel real.

But if the details are fuzzy, I'll try to remember how I felt when I woke up and trace back my steps from there.

For example, if I felt angry... I think what would make me angry currently (usually my dreams are tied to my emotions) and I would make a mental list, usually this jogs my memory.

Since I'm new at this I never consciously tried to remember my dreams on a usual basis.

The weird dreams/scary/surreal stay in my memory.

Quote from: Seeker on May 02, 2008, 08:45:51 AMI almost always remember my dreams upon awakening, but find that the memory of the dream very quickly fades away.  Usually by the time I am dressed and have made my way to the kitchen, the dream is only a dim memory.

Writing a few hints in a notebook immediately upon awakening gives me the hints I need to recall the dream as I enter it into my journal.  I keep a small notebook next to the toilet along with a small flashlight and pen, upon awakening I go there to make notes.  As early as possible in the day, I review my notes and try to recreate as much of the dream as I can in my journal.This describes me to a T - except instead of a notepad and pen by the toilet, I keep it by my side of the bed. If I don't jot down notes ASAP after waking up, the dream is completely gone and I'll only remember fragments of it again the next night when I get back into bed - I don't know if it's the smell of my bed, or the position I'm laying in or what, but I can only recall snippets, not the whole dream. But if I jot down keywords and notes right away after waking, I can usually recall the dream in its entirety to put it in my DJ.

Sometimes I don't think I remember anything upon waking. Then when I get up to go to the bathroom, some detail will spontaneously come back to me and then the rest will all flood in. Sometimes too, I wake up and remember only a couple disjointed fragments, then if I write them down and wake myself up a little bit, the act of waking up will cause the rest of the dream to flood back in as well.

I think the key is to wake myself up and write it down, even if I want to just fall back asleep. Even when I lay there and consciously think, "I'll just remember it," if I don't write down some key points, I will assuredly forget it.

I also have a tiny LED flashlight and a notepad in a drawer by my bed. The light is too bright for my night-adjusted eyes, so I hold the front of it against my palm and tilt it just enough that a sliver of light falls on the paper. I've tried to write in the dark with my eyes closed, but I often end up writing over top of what I already wrote and it's illegible later.

Waking up in the middle of the night always produces some good recall for me, and it usually can be remembered after going back to sleep if I woke up enough.  If I think about recall once I wake up, I can also recall a lot of dreams.  DJing is great.

Waking up from a loud alarm, though, is usually bad for recall.

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Like just about everyone else, I keep a folder and paper next to my pillow, along with a small LED flashlight and a pen. Back when I was serious and had time, I made a detailed record of my dreams either when I woke from them or when I awoke in the morning (or WBTB). Then life got more busy and hectic, sleep time got lessened and daytime attention got derailed.

So my journaling went down the tubes. And - as would be of no surprise to anyone here - as result my recall dropped through the floor. I began trying to get into it again about 6 weeks ago now and have already noticed a vast improvement. Though I'm still having trouble keeping up with the journal because of time constraints (and these darned eye allergies for the past week, and ongoing). But at least I'm making a good effort again and seeing results.

Anyway, I keep the paper in my bed and I jot down notes in the middle of the night. Then later I can flesh them out as long as I've made them clear enough to be interpreted and they jog my memory sufficiently. Working both forward and backwards from the key points I do recall helps bring back the missing parts when needed.

If I recall a particularly interesting dream or lucid segment then I'll usually try to write it out as completely as possible before moving around too much.

I also find, like others, that the alarm clock is jarring and often has the nasty habit of focusing my attention away from the dream I just woke from and instantly pushing the "dump recall" button.. On weekends I say screw the alarm clock and allow myself to get some much needed sleep and dream time, without any merciless interference (except possibly if doing WBTB).

for me, recall is all about intent followed by action.  the following are ways i have had better success rates:

lead an interesting waking life.  for me, nothing can kill recall more than just having the "same ol' dreams".  it is hard to remember details or even instances of a dream of a "typical day".  i have more varied (and hence more clear recall) dreams when i have inspiration from waking life and life outside my norm.  think about dreaming often during previous day / reading about new techniques, etc.  go to sleep by 10:30 (well rested).  always keep a pen and paper nearby.  when awaking spontaneously, do not go right back to sleep... just think about what just happened to you, and if some thought hits you, jot it down right away.  always RC right before jotting.  i can't tell you how many times i have FA'd into a false jot.  you finally awake and have nothing written, although you swear you wrote it down!  don't wake up too fast!  if all else fails, once starting your day, perform free-association with random words.  i seem to have better success rates with free-association than forcing it with an active search.

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I'm currently of the belief that my recall is dependant on the state of mind I'm in while dreaming. So when I have a headache or stuffy nose (before going to sleep or upon waking up the next day) I will hardly be able to remember anything except fragments or the impression that I had some sort of dream that I can't put my proverbial finger on. To improve recall I'd imagine that going to bed in a good mood is important as well as feeling as physically comfortable as possible (not to hot, not to cold, not feeling itchy etc...).

When I wake up during the night or in the morning I go through a mental checklist of all the dreams I can remember and try to create a mindmap of them, using a keyword to label each separate dream (something that sums it up or uses a highlight from the dream) and futher breaking up individual dreams into scenes or a series of significant events (kind of like a storyboard), in the hopes that the smaller details will fill themselves in later on or be easy enough to interpolate. I don't write anything down during the night or first thing in the morning because I prefer to have my eyes adjust to natural light levels as the sun rises and avoid electrical lighting before then. Ideally the sooner the dreams are recorded the better, although sometimes I ownly get around to writing them down by evening. When this is the case I try to do a quick runthrough of the more interesting dreams a couple of times during the day.

I increase my recall rate by repeating in bed "I will remember my dreams, I will remember my dreams" over and over agian until I fall asleep. most of the time I can recall about 2 or 3. this is really my only method I use.

I am starting to leave my dj open here on mm and the reply section already open with cursor blinking. My computer is directly next to my bed so I can immediately start typing if I have time. If not, I close my eyes and try to remember all of the important points before I forget them. I go over them in my head a few times to solidify the memory - and come back later to enter them.

I read a very analytical breakdown of why we dont remember our dreams well and I need to find it again. It has to do with the different mental states, their qualities and what type of faculties are available within them respectively. Basically, we have difficulty remembering our dreams because the mental state is one that mostly only turns on when we are sleeping. As soon as consciousness hits us, the state and its memories immediately begin to disintegrate proportionately.  It has something to do with memory storage and the difference between short term memory and long term memory. I will try to find this because I think it will extremely useful info for this.

When I wake up in the morning I always spend a few minutes recalling my dreams from the night before. It's important that I do this first thing or else the memories will disappear within half an hour or so. As for the actual recall process, the strategy that works best for me is to remember my dreams in reverse. I start with the freshest, most salient dream memory that I have and work backwards from there. The farther back that I go, the hazier and more fragmented things get. With enough mental probing I'm usually able to connect the dots reasonably well and determine where one dream ends and another begins, but I'll usually end up with a fragment or two from the earlier dreams in the night. If I recall any lucid dreams, I'll record them in my dream journal. The non-lucid ones I let fade away. After taking the time to mentally flesh out my dreams, the memories will usually last anywhere from a few hours to two weeks, depending on how novel they are - however, I ultimately forget 99% of them.

I keep a dream journal by my bed, and if I wake up in the night, either by myself or due to alarms, I write down what I remember in bullet points in there. When I wake up and know that I won't be going back to sleep, I write up all the dreams from the last night in full in my dream journal (it gives me personal satisfaction when I fill up a whole notebook) , and then later write them up on here.

As for the night before preparation, I try to eat a banana or two within half an hour of going to bed, and I TRY to repeat 'I will remember my dreams' while going to sleep, but my mind tends to wander

The hardest part for me is to remember the 1st part of a dream, or my 1st dream.  After that i can usually recall most of them vividly.  When im writing them down, particular things help me recall an earlier event.  Eg i write down that i was driving down a road with a friend, i remember talking to them earlier, which then triggers my memory of us being at a certain place before that, and it keeps going.

I'm think I'm very lazy when it comes to recall techniques. I hardly ever write anything on paper, I just 're-experience' the dream in my head when I wake up. If it's in the middle of the night, I do the same and try to remember 1 key-word that will trigger the recall after waking. like 'college' or 'pink cat'.

Even after a few days, I can still recall a dream that I didn't write down, but details have faded by then.

Oh, and writing down my dream within the next dream also improves the recall (but I'd rather have it cause a lucid)

this is what gives me poor recall

1. being woken forcibly by alarm or noisy family member
2. being stressed
3. if I sleep less then 6 hours I hardly recall anything, I find that any sleep over 6 hours gives me good recall and anything less then 6 makes my recall laughable.

I keep a DJ by my bed, any time I awake during the night and remember anything I run through it before noting down what happened in my dreams. I pay attention to speech because that is the first thing I tend to forget

Wow, great response from everyone.  I&#39ve summarized the answers to the best of my ability and listed them at the end of this posting.  I apologize if I missed one of yours or got it wrong.

What I&#39d like for everyone to do now is to pick out a technique or two from the list that you are NOT doing right now.  Add a post to your workbook telling what new technique you are going to try IN ADDITION to the one you currently use.

The goal here is not to get you to change what works for you now, but to supplement it with an additional methods.  We will revisit the topic of recall in a few weeks.

Mnemonic based techniques: Lay still and fix as much as possible in waking memory before moving Replay dream in head throughout the day to recall as many details as possible Tell a friend about the dream Free form association the next day to trigger recall Try to remember first dream of the night Remember a keyword in the middle of the night to trigger recall

Note taking based techniques: Write as much as needed in a notepad Write key concepts in a notepad Use PDA to write down dreams and fragments Use digital recorder to dictate dreams and fragments Post it notes Create a Mind map Keep journal open on MM

Affirmation, intention based techniques: Take time to organize thoughts before bed Lead an interesting waking life Think about dreaming often while awake

Sleep interruption, technology based techniques: Train self to wake up 4-6 times a night Set alarm clock for 4 hours Use brainwave entrainment

Miscellaneous techniques: Get sufficient sleep Eat a banana or two before bed(or any food)