I have previously shared the story on how I was able to experience astral projection and lucid dreaming, but I was also recently asked to share some of the more practical tips regarding the subject. Specifically, I was asked to share tips on how to remember dreams better. Because dreams can, after all, help us better understand who we are deep inside.
1. Write it down
If you want to improve your dream memory, there are a number of different things you can do to achieve that. However, there is one specific thing that you have to do, and that is to write your dreams down.
The tricky thing about dreaming is that at the moment of waking up, your mind is in a special state, which allows you to easily access your dreams. But in as little as 3o seconds later, the mind becomes more alert and that state changes. Just a moment ago you remembered everything about your dream, but now all of a sudden, most of it is gone. This is how our mind works.
Writing your dreams down improves your dream memory for two main reasons.
First of all, you write your dreams down right when you wake up. This, as already mentioned, is when you remember them best. Of course, this requires you to have a dream journal right next to your bed.
Secondly, when we write things down, preferably on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil, we use different areas of our brain that have a positive effect on our memory. The more we visualize the dream while writing it down, the more our visual memory is applied.
Visualizing the subject in our mind significantly improves our memory of it.
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Therefore, when you wake up and begin to write your dream down, don’t make the mistake that I made for a long time. Don’t summarize your entire dream in two words. Instead, be very detailed. What were the colors like? Who did I talk to? Why did I talk to them? What were the smells like? And so on.
Once you begin to go through these questions, you will be surprised by how many new details will open up.
Remember, writing dreams down is mandatory if you truly want to learn how to remember dreams better. I used to remember no dreams at all, but after having built the habit of writing them down, I began to remember up to five dreams every night. This is when I also started to experience lucid dreaming quite often.
2. Use a voice recorder
This tip on how to remember dreams better is similar to the previous one, except here you don’t wake up and write your dream into a journal, but instead record it as an audio message. I use my phone’s voice recorder for this.
I began to use this approach once I got fed up with trying to make sense of the things that I wrote in the night. Sometimes my handwriting would be too messy to understand, and at other times my notes made absolutely no sense.
Since talking is so much easier and faster than writing, the benefit of this approach is that you can include as many details as you need to. But the not so good part about this method is that the person sleeping next to you will not appreciate you waking them up in the middle of the night with your crazy talk.
Also, if you want to make sure you are getting all of the benefits from this method, you would still need to write down the recorded dreams in the morning into your journal, since writing them down carries its benefits that were given above.
3. The sleeping pattern
Getting enough sleep is also very important when it comes to dream memory, and especially, learning how to lucid dream.
The less deep your sleep is, the better your dreams will be remembered. This kind of sleep usually occurs at the end of the night’s sleep. By that moment you have already rested enough and your brain knows that soon it’s time to wake up.
So if you sleep only five to six hours a night, it’s going to be hard to recall any dreams at all. This is because you basically never reach that stage in which you have rested and the sleep is light.
If you plan to improve your dream memory, you should create a sleeping pattern for yourself. Preferably, this means going to sleep and waking up every day at the same time. But even more important is to make sure you get plenty of sleep, so that you hit that light sleep stage every single night.
From experience, I can say that every single of my lucid dreams happened towards the morning, in the last two hours of sleep. The only time when I had a lucid dream immediately after falling asleep was when I napped in the middle of the day.
4. Anchoring
Anchoring is more about lucid dreaming, but lucid dreaming is the pinnacle of great dream memory. If you can experience lucid dreaming, you not only will be able to remember dreams better, but you will also be able to use them to improve your life.
Anchoring is actually quite simple, but it does take some patience. All you have to do is connect some action that you do often, such as opening a door or riding an elevator, to the question – “Am I dreaming?”.
For example, every time you use an elevator, you ask yourself this question. But don’t just answer it automatically. Instead, look around, focus on where you are and what you are doing, and then answer the question. You have to be 100% confident that you are not sleeping.
Sooner or later, you will ride an elevator in your dream. When this happens, if everything goes as planned, you will again ask yourself whether you are dreaming or not. That will be the moment when you realize that something is odd. You will then become fully alert – lucid – in your dream.
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5. Break the sleep intentionally
If you feel like your sleep is way too deep or you aren’t able to remember more than one dream a night, you can always wake yourself up intentionally to write that extra dream down.
I have an alarm clock set to wake me up two hours before I would normally. I wake up, write my dream down and go back to sleep. There really isn’t much else to this. If you can easily fall back asleep, I recommend you try this out to increase the amount of remembered dreams.
6. Dedication and enthusiasm
The last but not least tip on how to remember dreams better concerns your motivation and enthusiasm. What do I mean by this?
My dream memory is always a lot better when I am focused on the process. I go to sleep with the idea that I will memorize as many dreams as possible. This idea motivates me and really does improve the results. Similarly, if I am not focused on practicing, I may not remember a single dream.
Many people that I know, including myself, were able to have the first lucid dream and astral projection experiences when the motivation was at its peak. To achieve this state of mind, I simply talked to a friend about the subject during the day and also read a book on it right before bedtime. I closed my eyes knowing that the night would be successful, and it was.
Your motivation and your willingness to remember all of your dreams will play a huge role in your progress. Use self-affirmations to boost your motivation and enthusiasm.
Hopefully, you found this post useful. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them down in the comment section below.
Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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December 5, 2018 at 23:11
I almost always remember at least half of my dreams. My husband thinks it’s weird, he almost never remembers his dreams, nor does he try to. But I can remember dreams I had as a kid, probably because i keep recalling them from my memory, but in dreams i also revisit places time and time again, like an apartment a friend had in a dream, a year later i will dream them back there, even though it’s not a real life place I’ve been to. But it’s all still up in there!
December 6, 2018 at 09:12
Yeah, I also very often come back to old dreams.. a dreaming memory of a dream 🙂 Thank you for your comment!