Dream Journal Habits -> Recall

Hello all. I've been using a dream journal as well as intention as a means to improve my recall over the past several weeks. I've been noticing a great increase in duration and vividness, but wanted to increase more. I was wondering if there are any good habits to begin in regard to using DJ that get the mind even more encouraged for recall (recording certain details etc.) I stopped recording dreams in the middle of the night as it sometimes affected sleep, but is there possibly a way around this/ additional methods? Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Oneirin

Hello all. I've been using a dream journal as well as intention as a means to improve my recall over the past several weeks. I've been noticing a great increase in duration and vividness, but wanted to increase more. I was wondering if there are any good habits to begin in regard to using DJ that get the mind even more encouraged for recall (recording certain details etc.) I stopped recording dreams in the middle of the night as it sometimes affected sleep, but is there possibly a way around this/ additional methods? Thanks!

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Hi, have you considered using a mantra before you nod off to sleep? Waking up in the middle of to write your dreams down is like a mini WBTB. I don't think you will be loosing a lot of sleep.

During the day, you could do some visualisation to make the dream more vivid, immerse yourself into this visualiseagion, feel the objects, feel the sun on your skin, smell the air and ect.

Learn to be present with yourself and how you feel in your daily life. It will carry over.

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Originally Posted by JoshMcNaught

Hi, have you considered using a mantra before you nod off to sleep? Waking up in the middle of to write your dreams down is like a mini WBTB. ]

During the day, you could do some visualisation...

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Actually, the mantra is how I get myself to have the mid-night awakenings after dreams. Now I'm remembering pretty long segments (4-5 mins). I may consider writing keywords as 95% of it is wiped by morning. I just dont' know if the act of making a real effort to jog memory/remember it during a mid-night awakening has the same power as writing.
Perfect timing with your post about day-time visualizations as I'm beginning to practice a bit more of the incubation after reading a post yesterday. I'm going to continue with jotting if few words in the middle of the night, and continue /w incubation/visualization practices.

Pick 2-3 specific details that you want to include in every recall. Especially ones that might engage your senses and your feeling of being "in" the scene. For example:

Things to force you to look up, down, left, right:
- Am I indoors or outdoors?
- Is it day or night?
- What material is the ground, ceiling, and walls?

Things to force you to look for detail:
- What is the color and style of each DC's clothing? Hair? Shoes?
- What is the texture of the surfaces around you? Touch them.
- Look for signs and read the words on them.

Things to force you to look for subtle cues:
- Can you judge about what time of day it is (using cues like lighting, venue, DC behavior and clothing)?
- Is the scene familiar or strange (using cues like personal memory, familiar objects or characters)?
- What is the weather like?

Resolve to include at least sentence or two about your chosen details in every journal entry. Within just a few dreams, you'll start to notice these things more often and in greater detail. Bonus if you can connect the details to dreamsigns, so as to improve DILD induction.