Dream recall is perhaps the most essential and basic skill that is necessary to develop if you are interested in developing increased vivid dreaming, lucid dreaming, astral projection, or if you are seeking to gain wisdom about your life through dream interpretation. Most individuals remember portions of dreams every so often, and occasionally, an event which occurs during the day may trigger one to remember a related dream from the night before. However, for the most part, individuals are not naturally blessed with the level of dream recall that is necessary to embark upon serious dream work and journeying.
As I have discussed elsewhere on the site, keeping a dream journal is a key practice for vivid and lucid dreaming work, and of course for dream interpretation. However, if you cannot even remember your dreams long enough to write them down, then keeping a dream journal may be difficult. When I first started working to develop my dream recall I was remembering no more than a few scattered pieces of a dream or two once a week, at best. I’m still not sure exactly why the mind does not naturally allow the vast majority of individuals more ready and full access to memories of their dreams. Perhaps our conscious mind is incapable of comprehending or rationalizing the surreal landscape of the dream plane, or perhaps the mind is simply programmed to keep only information that it deems essential for survival. Regardless of the reason, though, poor dream recall can be incredibly frustrating for the individual who is embarking on dream studies!
Fortunately, there are a number of techniques out there that can help you to increase your dream recall. Within just a few weeks of regular practice, these techniques should allow you to remember three to four dreams a week. If you already have good dream recall, these exercises can help you to improve it even more! Once you have improved your dream recall to a satisfactory level, you will find that your dream journaling will be much more effective and you can begin working with techniques to induce lucid and vivid dreaming more regularly. However, without a solid foundation of excellent dream recall you will find that it can be very difficult to enter lucid dreaming states and, even if you managed to do so, if you don’t remember the lucid dream, then you won’t really be able to learn anything from the experience!
One of the most effective methods of dream recall is to begin working on reality testing. Reality testing techniques can help you to realize that you are dreaming more easily, and therefore will also help to improve your dream recall. As with all dream work, if you find that one technique is not significantly increasing your dream recall, try out another one. There are hundreds of dream improvement techniques, so you are bound to find one that works for you eventually.
My favorite method of reality testing is known as the dream illiteracy test. I spend a lot of time reading and writing, and my dreams often contain text in one form or another. Therefore, one of the easiest ways for me to realize that I am dreaming is to try to read some of this text. Often, the words I am reading will move around and become illegible, or will not make any sense. If I am ever able to read something, if I attempt to re-read that same piece of text, I will inevitably discover the information contained therein has changed. These are clear signs to me that I am dreaming, and once I experience such signs, my dream recall that night seems to occur with a great deal more clarity and ease of comprehension. This technique also works with digital clocks, watches, cell phone clocks, etc. Try checking the time on your watch – if the number you see does not make sense, you are almost certainly in the dream state.
Reality testing was very helpful to me in improving my dream recall, but I think that the most important aspect of my initial dream recall improvement efforts were simple changes in my attitude toward dreaming and my dream-related habits. I started to spend a lot more time thinking about vivid and lucid dreaming, so the concept of dream recall was much stronger in my mind than before I had begun my work.
In order to improve my dream recall I changed a few very basic things about my sleep routine. Every night before going to bed I started to state verbal affirmations regarding my dreams to myself, stating that I was going to remember my dreams and record them. If I woke up at any point in the night and had any hint of a dream in my mind, even the smallest piece of one, I would get up immediately and write that piece down. I found that at that point I could usually follow my dream backward and fill out more and more details. I also found that it was very helpful if I maintained an attitude of not getting discouraged or upset if I went several nights in a row without recalling any portions of my dreams. Just by using these simple techniques, and by incorporating a few reality check techniques, I was able to increase my rate of dream recall exponentially, to the point that I now remember four to five dreams in detail each week.
So, if you are interesting in working with vivid or lucid dreaming, or other forms of dream work, I highly recommend that you try working with some of these very basic techniques in order to improve dream recall. Once your dream recall has improved, you are sure to find that it becomes much easier to enter lucid dreaming states, and I think you will also find that there is a great deal to be learned from your dreams, if you can just manage to remember them! And remember, if one technique isn’t working for you, try out another one. With patience and perseverance, regular dream recall is possible for anyone!