Thread: I'm Having Problems With My Dream Recall

Hey everyone,

I am Diego Sánchez from Monterrey, México and this is my first post in this forum . About a month ago I saw Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and got hooked on lucid dreaming. Anyways, my main concern is with dream recall. I've been keeping a Dream Journal for about 2 weeks now, but to little or no success at all. I usually go to sleep at 11 PM, so I set my alarms at 3.30, 5.00 and 6.30 AM. I can recall my dreams fairly well at 6.30, but when I wake up at 3.30 and 5.00 I usually forget what I was dreaming about on the spot. I've been able to improve this a little bit by changing the sound of my alarms. Now that I've got Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar" as an alarm it's been better, but not so much really. Any recommendations?

What can I do to improve my Dream Recall?

Originally Posted by Pain

Hey everyone,

I am Diego Sánchez from Monterrey, México and this is my first post in this forum . About a month ago I saw Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and got hooked on lucid dreaming. Anyways, my main concern is with dream recall. I've been keeping a Dream Journal for about 2 weeks now, but to little or no success at all. I usually go to sleep at 11 PM, so I set my alarms at 3.30, 5.00 and 6.30 AM. I can recall my dreams fairly well at 6.30, but when I wake up at 3.30 and 5.00 I usually forget what I was dreaming about on the spot. I've been able to improve this a little bit by changing the sound of my alarms. Now that I've got Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar" as an alarm it's been better, but not so much really. Any recommendations?

What can I do to improve my Dream Recall?[/b]

Sounds like you're doing everything right with the way you are setting your alarms. And I sounds like you are on the right track with changing the sound of your alarms because what you hear, and the volume of what you are hearing when you wake up can definitely affect your dream recall. Anything too loud, music, alarms, etc, and definitely interfere with dream recall, so it is best to keep things at a lower volume in order to not interfere with your dream recall.

Welcome to the forum. I wish you great success with your dream recall and lucid dreams. Hope to hear much more from you!

Well, Diego, it sounds like you've gone the right way in making sure your alarms are as low volume as possible to avoide waking you up with too much of a jolt. But sound can still wake you up too fast, and limit your recall.

Look, this is just an idea that I HAVEN'T tried myself. But instead of a sound alarm, have you considered a vibration alarm, like a mobile phone, that doesn;t make a sound? Like, strap it to your leg or something? It might wake you up much slower and interfere less with recall. Not something I've tried, but it might be an interesting experiment?

Hey guys,

my dream recall has been improving ! I still haven't been able to have lucid dreams, but at least I can now remember 3-4 dreams per night always. What's more, now I don't even have to set my alarms - I've become used to waking up at certain hours during the night, so I usually wake up by my own. It's weird hehe, but I guess I got "conditioned" into waking up after a certain amount of hours of sleep. Thanks dudes . Btw, how long do you think it will take me to have a lucid dream? I know it's different for every person, but I mean, how long does it usually take for someone who's really trying (15-20 RC's per day, Dream journal, reading about lucid dreaming, etc...) ?

As long as you keep trying you should be LDing in no time! I know for me it took about a month, but like you said, everyone's different. The important thing is to stay determined, and just keep trying.