Thread: How much do you try to recall?

I've been recording dreams every night since before Christmas last year and let me tell you, dream recall improved dramatically and because I also record recurring themes and potential dream signs—such as impossibilities, unlikely situations, ID anomalies, time travel, uncritical assumptions (flawed logic), pursuits, celebrity meetings, etc.—I have been more alert and have had more instances of lucidity. I say a dream journal is very important. Record everything from dreams to lucid dreams and even false awakenings. Even if the dream is vague, jot it down. This is advice from my own personal experience.

I aim for 3 dreams a night. But I record everything as well. It makes a BIG difference in the ability to get lucid. PLUS, that 10 minutes spent falling back asleep? That's a miniature WBTB, can yes, that sort of thing has gotten me lucid before.

Another option. If you're really opposed to spending too much time mid-night recording dreams, you might try some more day-work. Basically, building off of Summerlander's post -try looking for dream signs, try classifying them, write made-up lucid adventures as if you had gotten lucid.. make up reality check triggers based off of the things in your dreams, etc. Lots you can do during the day, and that will help with both recall and lucidity.

Typically when I'm focused on dreaming, or at least when there isn't something interfering with my recall such as schedules or life concerns and so on, I do tend to record dreams daily or every other day (related to my medication), even if the recall is poor or vague. Lately I haven't been able to record dreams as much as I'd like because my sleep hasn't really been what I'd say is "right" for some months now. I have some ideas as to why, though can't currently do much to resolve it.

With regards to ability to gain lucidity from dream journaling: as all these things go and things work differently for each person, personally even when I've been recalling and writing daily consistently, this alone and in itself does not often improve lucidity for me, it tends to mostly improve vividness of recall.

Based on the self-reporting I see from others, I think compared with most people I do not get lucidity as naturally as many people and definitely feel I'm on the lower percentile, even when dreaming is very present in my mind and I'm doing practise-work. Even so, I still definitely believe and feel that recording dreams as often as possible is important.

If nothing else, it provides my future self with a picture of what was going on in my life at that point, even if at that time the dreams hadn't seemed relatable to my life. As I'm particularly attached to creating meaning for myself in the absence of any natural meaning to anything, recalling and recording the longest or most involved dreams is really important to me, even if I do eventually forget them; usually on re-reading my dream journal from months or years ago I can still visually recall some scenes very well, if the recall had been vivid enough when recording the dream or if I described key details enough.

Without thorough dream recording, I wouldn't be able to re-live part of those older dreams, they'd just be forgotten and it'd be like wasted time then.

I don’t actually know the “norm,” but I figured I would put my two cents in anyway..

Personally, I find that it should just be enough to record a decent amount of dream scenes with dream signs in them (not recurring, just dream signs in general). It doesn’t matter if that takes me 1 dream, 3 dreams, or even half of a dream recalled.. it just matters the bits of them that I care about, it fits my practices for MILD, or just getting to know my dreams better in general to spot something next time.

It probably won’t be the exact case for you though.

Thanks everyone for the messages, really appreciate it and there’s some good tips there, but I feel I maybe didn’t quite explain my issue clearly in the OP.

I couldn’t agree more about dream journaling. I love journaling my dreams and have done so religiously every night for just under 2 years and never missed an entry. I record all my dreams in the morning, analyse them through the day and re-read them before bed each night. I have an extensive library of dream signs and themes that reoccur as well and they certainly help me gain lucidity. My problem is more to do with how much sleep I lose because of recalling many dreams throughout the night.

So I have an 8 hour period to sleep in and rarely get the chance to go to bed early or have sleep ins. If I wake every dream period which is approx. 5 times a night for me and spend time recalling and then dropping off again I start to lose quite a lot of sleep and feel exhausted the next day. Last night was a good example. I slept 4.5 hours and then woke from a decent lucid dream. I spent 20 minutes recalling it and then it took me around 40 minutes to drop off again (1 hour lost). I was then lucky to wake from a second lucid dream 30 minutes later and spent another hour recalling and falling back asleep (2 hours lost). I then woke a 3rd time from a regular dream and recalled it but couldn’t sleep again after. So I ended up losing 3 hours sleep. I wasn’t doing any extended WBTBs or lengthy techniques I was just waking, recalling and going back to sleep. The obvious solution is to learn to drop off faster after recall so I don’t lose as much, so I’m working on that but insomnia spells are common for me.

So for that reason I cut my recall down to two dreaming periods in the early morning so I can get a full 6 hours of sleep before I start attempting recall. If that’s normal and advisable then great, but I hear others say they try to recall all their dreams from each dream period throughout the night, so I wasn’t sure if that was the norm most people aim for.

Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

I aim for 3 dreams a night. But I record everything as well.

So is that 3 dreams or 3 dream periods you attempt to recall? How long do you spend awake?

Originally Posted by DarkestDarkness

Without thorough dream recording, I wouldn't be able to re-live part of those older dreams, they'd just be forgotten and it'd be like wasted time then.

So true! My journal is where I store my memories of those experiences. Without it I would watch them fizzle away over time and that would be a great loss.

Originally Posted by BrickSnake

I don’t actually know the “norm,” but I figured I would put my two cents in anyway..
Personally, I find that it should just be enough to record a decent amount of dream scenes with dream signs in them

Yeah, I always felt 3 decent regular dreams is a good average to remember though I write all down if they’re vivid enough.

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

So is that 3 dreams or 3 dream periods you attempt to recall? How long do you spend awake?

I usually wake up 3 times in the middle of the night on an average weekday (when I can't sleep in). Usually, after the first session (at around midnight) I only remember pieces. After the next two sessions I will remember 1 full dream each. Sometimes, 2 dreams each. I remember 2-5 dreams a night. I spend about 5-10 minutes awake to write down dreams, use the restroom, and drink water. Every now and then, I can't go back to sleep right away which can result in a WBTB. When this happens, although it's not on purpose, it often leads to lucidity.

I feel sorry for you because 8 hours is not enough in my opinion. Gosh, I have to have 9-10 hours of sleep every night. And that's really regardless of whether or not I'm trying to get lucid, I just like my sleep.

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

So for that reason I cut my recall down to two dreaming periods in the early morning so I can get a full 6 hours of sleep before I start attempting recall. If that’s normal and advisable then great, but I hear others say they try to recall all their dreams from each dream period throughout the night, so I wasn’t sure if that was the norm most people aim for.

You can do this in a way that doesn't completely cut out dreams from any awakenings you decide not to record fully, by making small notes on key/memorable points from the dream, rather than making a fully detailed dream entry. An idea here is that when you come back to do the notes later on in the day, you should try to place yourself in bed again to write down the extended recall, or at least in a interruption/distraction-free locale where you can focus on your extended recall. Being free from any interruptions or distractions may be really important because as you might already know, they can make recall slip away, except the few chance times when a random association may actually help recall, which I wouldn't rely on.

The downsides to this approach in general may seem obvious, I'd say they might vary from time to time; from my experience it tends to be the case that you lose mostly a portion of visual recall and any other details that you'd normally struggle to recall anyway (that would be dialogue, for me), so if the recall/vividness was decent enough when you first made notes on waking from the dream, you may still be able to recall a majority of it. In my opinion, the true downside to this is actually finding a spot in your day to dedicate to writing the extended recall.

The main upside to this is that you can shift all or some of your important recall to a later/specific point in a day where doing so won't interfere with something else of importance, like length of sleep or morning routine/schedules.

Also, while it may seem like it's a downside to not be able to get full recall out of a specific dream this way, it's still worth considering that some recall may be better than none at all, especially if there was something particularly interesting about a given dream that you would have otherwise chosen not to record or make note of. More often than not, I greatly regret not making even a small note more than I have ever regretted recording too little about a dream.

Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

I usually wake up 3 times in the middle of the night on an average weekday (when I can't sleep in). Usually, after the first session (at around midnight) I only remember pieces. After the next two sessions I will remember 1 full dream each. Sometimes, 2 dreams each. I remember 2-5 dreams a night. I spend about 5-10 minutes awake to write down dreams, use the restroom, and drink water. Every now and then, I can't go back to sleep right away which can result in a WBTB. When this happens, although it's not on purpose, it often leads to lucidity. I feel sorry for you because 8 hours is not enough in my opinion. Gosh, I have to have 9-10 hours of sleep every night. And that's really regardless of whether or not I'm trying to get lucid, I just like my sleep.

That sounds very similar to how my nights used to play out but I now avoid wake ups and recall in the first half unless I awaken from a lucid or a particularly vivid dream. Like you I found I only recalled fragments in the first hours so in a way I don’t think I’m missing much but by ignoring these times I’m not getting lucid in the first 2-3 hours which I did occasionally when I was waking more regularly. Maybe I’ll be able to get back to it once I learn to drop off quicker and get more time to sleep. Extra sleep would be nice but 8 hours is what’s recommended so if I can get that I’ll be happy.

Originally Posted by DarkestDarkness

You can do this in a way that doesn't completely cut out dreams from any awakenings you decide not to record fully, by making small notes on key/memorable points from the dream, rather than making a fully detailed dream entry. An idea here is that when you come back to do the notes later on in the day, you should try to place yourself in bed again to write down the extended recall, or at least in a interruption/distraction-free locale where you can focus on your extended recall. Being free from any interruptions or distractions may be really important because as you might already know, they can make recall slip away, except the few chance times when a random association may actually help recall, which I wouldn't rely on.

Yeah, I do something similar. I tend to not write down anything in the night, It wakes me up too much. So I try to remember a key image from the dream and give it a name and then try to hold onto all those images throughout the night and then jot them down in the morning as key words. I then flesh them out into longer paragraphs throughout the day (usually my lunch break). It can be difficult and sometimes I lose a few but the better I recall and memorise them at night the better I can remember them when I write them down later in the day. I tend to do this with my lucids and most interesting dreams. If it’s a fragment or mundane dream I may just summarise it in a sentence to save time.

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

Extra sleep would be nice but 8 hours is what’s recommended so if I can get that I’ll be happy.

That is the recommendation, but I don't think it's one size fits all. I think a lot depends on how deeply one sleeps and how many awakenings, too. Could be other biological factors, too. I think the most important thing is to trust your body, and how it feels.

Obviously we are not always given the choice with how much sleep we can get. Work and children can make things hard.

Key words are great! I do that too, though at night.