Dream Recall (First Time)

I tried a mild yesterday and tried to recall my dreams. All I managed to do was repeat it to myself, then I just drifted off to sleep, and woke up in the morning. I woke up and had a few thoughts of a dream...as if my mind was fooling me into thinking I had a dream and the memory was coming back. Maybe it was a dream just vaguely remembered? Because I forget everything now, but I remember some shit coming back to me.

I dunno, it's very hard to explain. Is this normal when attempting dream recall? To fall asleep and not have a dream at all?

Also, I am not a heavy dreamer at all. Is it true that we dream every night several times, but do not remember them? Because I hardly dream.

Anyways, I'm gonna give it another shot today. I'm determined to make it work.

EDIT: Holy shit, I went up stairs and all of it hit me. I could remember the dream. It's strange that it happened so late...? Why does it do this?

Yeah, it's not uncommon for some people to struggle remembering their dreams. I won't rememebr then well at all if I don't write them in a dream journal. In fact, I forget them so quickly after waking up that I have to keep the journal at the corner of my bed with a pen, and the moment I wake up, I grab the pen w/o opening my eyes and just scribble a few words, then go back to sleep.

It's important to do that because the moment we wake up, we have already forgotten 50% of the dreams, and then like 10 minutes later we only remember like 10% (or even less!!). And yes, we have several REM stages when we sleep (if we sleep enough that is), therefore several dreams are possible. And I'll often remember a forgotten dream much later in the day, if I see something that reminds me of it, it can all come back. So that's cool that going up the stairs did it for you. Just curious, had you dreamt about stairs?

Actually, I dreamt of being in one of my tae kwon do classes, and my teacher had these wierd students. It was a class for people who would like to learn to use deadly weapons. I didn't know this class existed, and I asked to be a part of it, and my teacher started being sarcastic for no reason, and then I woke.

Oh and yesterdays night I tried again. This time to no avail at all. I didn't wake up even though I told myself to wake up after every dream period. Maybe because I was really tired. I think the alarm clock method will have to be experimented with.