Can't recall entire dreams

Even if I write in my dream journal consistently for months at a time, I only seem to be able to recall fragments. Typically, a single dream will usually take up about a quarter of a page or less, or maybe half a page. On rare occasions I might be able to fill a whole page or more. No matter how hard I focus on trying to recall my dreams after I wake up, I can never remember any of them from start to finish. Is it just a matter of practicing more and more until I get it, or is there something I'm unaware of that's holding me back?

Is your alarm too loud, and does it jar you into awakening? Try this and look at this. Writing down my day's events and using a more gradual alarm helped me tons.

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Originally Posted by sean95

Even if I write in my dream journal consistently for months at a time, I only seem to be able to recall fragments. Typically, a single dream will usually take up about a quarter of a page or less, or maybe half a page. On rare occasions I might be able to fill a whole page or more. No matter how hard I focus on trying to recall my dreams after I wake up, I can never remember any of them from start to finish. Is it just a matter of practicing more and more until I get it, or is there something I'm unaware of that's holding me back?

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I would say that 1/4 or 1/2 a page filled with dream is more than a fragment. In my opinion, that's pretty good recall. When I fill a whole page, I call that super detailed and super vivid and although it's happening more often, 1/4 page is more common for me. And it's quite likely, that not every dream is super long. So if I were you, I would not worry about my recall. Happy dreams:alien:

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Originally Posted by gab

I would say that 1/4 or 1/2 a page filled with dream is more than a fragment. In my opinion, that's pretty good recall. When I fill a whole page, I call that super detailed and super vivid and although it's happening more often, 1/4 page is more common for me. And it's quite likely, that not every dream is super long. So if I were you, I would not worry about my recall. Happy dreams:alien:

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It's good to know that maybe my expectations were too high. But even so, there are people on here that say they can fill their dream journal with pages of super detailed and long dreams every night, which is the level I want to get to eventually. Is this just something that takes months/years of practice?

Honestly, I am pretty sure that filling super detailed pages is only for super interesting and super detailed dreams. Some dreams won't be like that and don't deserve that treatment. You may even just be able to somehow create a mental DJ at some point, or so I have heard.

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Originally Posted by Darku333

Honestly, I am pretty sure that filling super detailed pages is only for super interesting and super detailed dreams. Some dreams won't be like that and don't deserve that treatment. You may even just be able to somehow create a mental DJ at some point, or so I have heard.

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I'm sorry, but I don't agree, that only super detailed dreams deserve special treatment. If you really want your mind to know, that your dreams and remembering them is important to you, you need to treat them all the same. I'm not saying that you should spend hours writing down all the dreams in details, it's ok to skip some. But it's important to be greatfull for all of them and not to have an attitute "this dream was short and it sucks, I'm not gonna even bother with it".

Also don't agree with mental DJ. Are you sure that you will remember all your dreams 10-20 years from now? I don't think so. And again, DJ serves more purposes than just making a record of your dreams for the future. Just the act of thinking about dreams and writing them down let's your mind know, that dreams is what you care about and it will try to make you happy by giving you more and more dreams and better recall.

You can also find patterns in DJ. What influences your dreams and quality (bed time, supplements, stress...), dream signs, does your daytime mantra work and how and when...

Some people are lucky and have super long and detailed dreams every night, but they are a minority. Or maybe they cared about dreams for a long time and that's why. Maybe they would be the best person to answer this. But I believe, that if you write down lots of details, you will have more and more detailed dreams.

You can try taking vitamin B6. That should give you longer and more detailed dreams. Just don't take too much - no more than 100mg, and don't take it every day. Check out the Lucid aids and supplements thread for more about B6.