# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity > Dream Signs and Recall >  >  Remembering very old dreams

## JesterKK

Hey I've noticed that since I started dream journalling I can remember dreams I had years ago. I tend to forget the boring ones a couple minutes after I've gone over them, but I just get random flashes of memory every day. Sometimes I get it so strong that I'm sure I had written it down somewhere and then I look for any place I could have written it, but I know that I actually didn't write it down. Ah I got one just now. The weird thing is is that it happens more regularly in regards to what happened in the dream world than what happened in the 'real' world.
Anyone else experience flashbacks like this?

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## MadMonkey

I have to but not quite that much. I have been working on dream recal and dream journaling for a cuple of days and it seems like every time I learn a new dreamsign of mine I remember one or two dreams from years ago that have the same dream sign. You seem to be getting tem alot more though. You can still right them down with the date as unknown and probably get alot out of it.

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## JesterKK

yeah, I think I may just have to start writing them down. I don't remember much of the details of them, but I get a good few flashes of memory. I've had 2 just writing that sentence lol. One of them was my favourite singer coming over to have dinner with my family. Another was a school trip in some woods and walking around in a group. I remember what it looked like, but not what was said or what exactly happened. But yeah, I think the reason I haven't written them down is because I already have to write down 3/4 dreams I had during the night. And because I remember those fragments so regularly it seems a bit inconvenient to note them down every time. Good luck with the dream journaling. It is definitely rewarding having a big collection of dreams, and you get better over time.

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## ClearView

This does happen to me as well. I have remembered scenes from various dreams from my childhood.

It's pretty cool, I feel like i've seen that scene in waking life.

-CV

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## Irken

I've heard theories that you forget dreams and maybe you do but I believe that dreams that are very sensational or extremely good or bad. Basically a dream that really excites you should stay in your mind forever. But like events in life only the "most important parts".

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## ray

lmao um jester, just a random unrelated question to anything but your signature,and i'm sorry for the interruption, but are you a marine?
  in relation to the topic, i also remember dreams from a long time ago. mostly, as irken said, i remember only the ones that excited me or meant the most to me when i was younger. sometimes a dream will trigger the memory of another dream and sometimes its just something in real life that reminds me of when i was little, and then that triggers other random memories like dreams i used to have.i,m sure everyone does this.

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## Astral

I find thinking of this makes it not ever happen. It's like thinking of having a clear mind when meditating, instead of having one. Like today this happened to me, when i was writing in my dream journal about  my previous dream of last night, on of my messed up childhood dreams just came in and I totally got lost.

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## JesterKK

> lmao um jester, just a random unrelated question to anything but your signature,and i'm sorry for the interruption, but are you a marine?
>   in relation to the topic, i also remember dreams from a long time ago. mostly, as irken said, i remember only the ones that excited me or meant the most to me when i was younger. sometimes a dream will trigger the memory of another dream and sometimes its just something in real life that reminds me of when i was little, and then that triggers other random memories like dreams i used to have.i,m sure everyone does this.



ummm no I'm not a marine lol. why do you ask?
and the thing that i find wierd is that with normal memories we often remember them because we are reminded of them by something. But when I get these dream flashes I literally see a dream scene for a split second and I know it was a dream and it seems completely unrelated to anything I'm doing at the time. And these are dreams of no particular significance to me, whereas you say you remember exciting or meaningful dreams.





> I find thinking of this makes it not ever happen. It's like thinking of having a clear mind when meditating, instead of having one. Like today this happened to me, when i was writing in my dream journal about my previous dream of last night, on of my messed up childhood dreams just came in and I totally got lost.



err are you saying that trying to thinking about remembering old dreams stops you from getting flashes of memory? I see what you mean about the meditation analogy, but for me, when I think about old dreams they just come popping up and I think, 'wow how do i remember that?'. So thinking about them makes my recall better at times.

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## ray

lol nvm.. it was an errant thought.  :smiley:

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## hgld1234

It happens to me as well! I can't put a date or time on when the dreams happened, but sometimes I remember a dream when writing it down.

This has me kinda questioning the dream-forgetting theory. Now I think that some dreams are fergottern, but others are placed in a dusty closet at the back of our Mind. When we are told ‘that was just a dream’ the closet gets dustier as it is entered less often. But when we search for what our dreams were when writing the DJ, the closet opens and we find these dusty dreams, or bits of them.

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## suntok123

My dream fragments years ago just came out from their "dusty closet" today! Yeah. I was reading posts here in this forum then I read the word "shaman" then in a blink of an eye, I remembered my dream I had years ago(not the whole dream though). The dream involves a shaman. So maybe that is the reason why I remembered that dream when I read the word shaman.

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## chrisau

I remember my dreams that stand out  years later but usually remember them as I wake anyway I have always been that way. Dreams are often recalled in deja vu in my daily activities sometimes and I will remember the dream then. dreams of flying i remember more than others. Performing a full catholic exorcism on Darth Vader to get the force out of him is unforgettable, it was so weird especially since I'm not catholic.

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## MrDreamsX

> Performing a full catholic exorcism on Darth Vader to get the force out of him is unforgettable, it was so weird especially since I'm not catholic.



That is _super_ awesome.

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## Fonzythedog

Yes! This happens to me very often, especially when I sit down to read my Dream Journal.

The brain is amazing though. Especially when you realise that you never actually forget anything. It's all about association and links to memories. If you have no link to a memory, you will have no way of recalling it. This is just paraphrasing an article I read a long time ago though, so if anyone wants to correct me feel free.  :smiley:

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## Molder

The exact same thing started happening to me. I've normally got pretty good memory, but this is outstanding. Usually while I'm drowsing off, I'd get these random moments of recollection. It's like going back to forgotten sections of the dream realm.

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## smoke_1966

i have dreams that i wont remember a week later even after writing them in my DJ (i write everything i can)but others i will remember forever they were that vivid,even if i never wrote them down i would always remember them.

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