Questions From a Begginer to the Masters =D

Hi!

This is my first post here, and even tough i browsed some of the topics everyone of them answer my questons parcially, so just to be sure i'm asking straight-forward hoping that people that are pro recalling dreams can help me out.
[list][*]In the tutorial says that i have to wake several times at night. how many times would you recomend and in wich intervals?[*]In average, how long does it takes to develop a high dream recall?[*]When I reach a good drem recall level, do i still have to wake several times at night?[*]Did you, in your process of dream recalling, developed the "habit" to wake up several times at night.
[list]

I'm a newbie at this and even tough i'm very motivated is hard for me to wake up several times at night beacuse
a) I don't like to sleep. Beacuse of that sometimes is hard to regain sleep after waked.
B) The times i've done that it has been frustrating because i wake up tired and grumpy and I don't recall my dreams.

Thank you in advance! and sorry for my english :P

Matta ne!

About waking up at night:
Some people set their subconcious to wake them up after every dream and make notes or write down the dream and then go back to sleep. For myself this would happen 3 or 4 times a night when I first started.

Amount of dream recall:
This varies person to person. I am a natural at LD's and usually have very good recall. But I do not always choose to recall my dreams.

About sleeping:
That's a tough one. I have had insomnia since childhood and it comes in cycles. So sometimes when I wake up that is it for the night. When I can sleep I enjoy it and dreams are a part of that enjoyment. I usually find my dreams to be very interesting and want to have them.

Also, welcome to Dreamviews. I hope you find the answers and information that you need.

I would say it takes about a week of journaling to be able to recall at least 1 dream/night, which is enough to start working on other LD exercises.

Improving dream recall is very easy to do, probably the easiest part of LDing. Any effort usually brings improvement. Here are a few tips that helped me in the beginning.

It is a good idea to try to awaken after each dream at first. Actually, we do awaken after every dream briefly anyway, but the trick is to awaken enought to remember it. Usually all it requires is a self-affirmation at bed time as you fall asleep, that you will awaken after each dream and remember it, to begin to have success. I kept my dream journal, pen, and flashlight handy--under the pillow is a good place--when I was learning.

When you do awaken, don't move a muscle until you have mentally recalled as much of the dream as you can. Any movement will cause the dream to fade from memory. So will any competing thoughts. You have to train yourself a bit to lie still upon awakening. As soon as you have recalled all you can of the dream, journal it.

When journaling at night, just write down an item or two to jog your memory in the morning. This will cut down on sleep disruption.

It's not necessary to disrupt your normal sleep after this initial period by awakening after every dream. The most important dream periods are those at the end of sleep, in the a.m., when REM times are longest. Lucid dreaming is more common during these times than earlier in the night. It's easier to awaken from a dream and remember it also. You can limit your practice to dreams occuring in the morning. Also, it's easier to reenter a dream directly and be lucid after awakening from a dream in the morning, the so-called wake-initiated lucid dream, or WILD, and also to practice the MILD technique of LD induction then.

Good luck.

Thanks for your answers, i'll follow your advices.

My advice is just keep a dream journal, and patience. Worked for me, I remember atleast 1 dream A night.

Whats up, man? Welcome to Dream Views. 8)

Getting serious about filling up your dream journal is going to help your recall a lot. It hasn't been mentioned so far, but getting enough sleep is the main thing that I've noticed helps me. You say that you don't like to sleep, well I think that may be a major factor in your difficulty remembering your dreams. How much sleep do you usually get a night? Before I got serious about lucid dreaming, I got about 5 hrs of sleep a night, on average, simply because I was always doing shit until late by way of habit. Lately, I try to at least get at least 6 1/2 -7hrs. The difference in my recall on nights when I get a good amount of sleep is like night and day, so you might want to try it out.
Also, as said before, patience is Very important. One thing that may help you is to devote at least a week to any of the techniques you try. If you don't have any luck with them the first night you try it, keep going. By about a week's time, you should know whether the technique is making you any progress or not.

Good luck, yo! :wink: