Recalling previous dreams at night

Hi there,

(Sorry for the long text... )

Lately something strange happened quite often. Can't tell for sure if "never happened to me before", but I can say that these last weeks I started to notice it several nights.

The feeling itself is strange... During the day, when you recall a dream, you just... visualize it, somehow. For instance your coworker starts to talk about his cat, and you suddenly remember that weird dream with a house full of cats jumping here and there.

What I experienced lately is different... I just go to bed, feel really tired, turn light off, and while I'm there resting, suddenly I start to get like glimpses, flashes, of memories. Also these memories come and go really fast. Is like I suddenly remembered that I dreamed I was in a car, and next moment I just can't remember. Came and gone. The thing is that in the moment it happens, I KNOW it's a dream from the previous night.

This very night for instance I recovered memories of 3 scenes of previous night's dream. I had very vague memories when I woke up around 4am and decided not to DJ (was also lazy and sleepy), so I just tried to think about the dreams. When I woke up at 6.30 I was unable to remember (I sometimes like to excercise, telling myself " I will remember this, I have to remember " and in the morning try to do it (even if I have it written, and then I check the DJ).

But yesterday, I just couldn't remember... so obviously during the day I forgot completely about it. But at 10PM, while in bed... There they were the small scenes... my shower full of ants... me exiting a restaurant... and some incident with a mob member at a mall. They would come... and go... then come again... finally I managed to "stay" in the memory a bit, allowing me to remember some before and after parts...

Some other nights, I just happen to get memories of a dream I didn't even know I had... but again when I get that small glimpse, I just know it's from a previous dream.

So, can anyone explain this, or why is it suddenly happening now so often? Is it some kind of REM rebound, like my mind trying to go back to where it was?

Thanks! Happy dreams.

I found a similar thing started happening after I'd been keeping a dream journal for a while. I can't tell you why, but I think it happens when your dream recall is improving. My advice is to stick with it and soon you may find it easier to recall the dreams at length.
Let us know how it goes, and good luck with it.

Just to note that Jungian psychology, rather than thinking strictly in terms of generally random “brain activity” as causing dreams, instead views the source of dreams as being the Self, a kind of centre and yet also the totality of the psyche.

Part of its role is to maintain a sort of psychic balance, similar to how bodily functions are kept to a balanced norm as it were.

So in this view, it’s possible that the Self figure has come to believe that you’re committed to dream work and, just like a person responds positively if you express your interest in their hobbies etc., it’s turning a friendly face towards you by spontaneously returning especially important dream images to you so that you have a chance to record them and work at their meaning.

I’d like to suggest that since you’re using a written DJ at night, it can be better to catch early notes on dreams by using a small tapeless recorder, transferring them later to a written DJ. I’ve found this method very useful in quickly recording dreams with a minimum of trouble which helps to reduce the number of dreams that are forgotten.

And this more “personal” approach to dreams, as if they’re being told to you by a friend (unless you get too far away from a healthy balance with resulting nightmares!) can provide a deeper sense of meaning to the whole activity.

Anyway, I hope these additional thoughts can be helpful in some way.

I experience dream recall a lot. But mine are during the day and have no real pattern. It just happens. Personally I love it because it makes me think of dreams I hadn't had in years at times. And for that split second I relive the whole thing.

It was weird at first (this only started happening in the past year or two), but I've come to just welcome it.