Remembering Dreams: A few tips I've found useful

I have noticed many people saying they have a hard times remembering dreams. This thread will be a few things I have found useful in my experience with dream recall and lucid states of dreaming.

Remember these are just tips! I am not claiming all of them will work, but a few may prove to be beneficial for some.

There is a supplement I find useful in relation to dream recall.

Some of you have heard of the melatonin supplement that can help regulate your sleep cycles. From my experience, melatonin is useful if you are having trouble sleeping but (for me at least) the affects of melatonin actually hinder my ability to recall my dreams.

Instead I would suggest taking this Ginkgo Biloba, it can be found anywhere other supplements are sold.

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is one of the oldest living tree species and its leaves are among the most extensively studied herbs in use today.

Ginkgo has been used in traditional medicine to treat blood disorders and enhance memory. Scientific studies throughout the years have found evidence that supports these claims. Although not all studies agree, ginkgo may be help treat dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) and intermittent claudication, or poor circulation in the legs. It also shows promise for enhancing memory in older adults.

Ginkgo is widely used in Europe for treating dementia. It was first used because it improves blood flow to the brain. Now further study suggests it may directly protect nerve cells that are damaged in Alzheimer's disease. A number of studies have found that ginkgo has a positive effect on memory and thinking in people with Alzheimer's or vascular dementia.

Now there are a few things to keep in mind before you try this natural supplement.

The use of herbs is a time-honored approach to strengthening the body and treating disease. Herbs, however, contain components that can trigger side effects and interact with other herbs, supplements, or medications. For these reasons, herbs should be taken with care, under the supervision of a health care provider qualified in the field of botanical medicine.

Ginkgo usually has few side effects. In a few cases, stomach upset, headaches, skin reactions, and dizziness were reported.

You should ask your doctor before taking ginkgo if you also take blood-thinning drugs.

If you take ginkgo, you should stop taking it at least 36 hours before surgery or dental procedures due to the risk of bleeding. Tell your doctor or dentist that you take ginkgo.

People who have epilepsy should not take ginkgo, because there is concern that it might cause seizures.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women should not take ginkgo.

People who have diabetes should ask their doctor before taking ginkgo.

Do not eat Ginkgo biloba fruit or seed.

SOURCE

I have found Ginkgo to help prevent me from getting migraines. Probably because of the increased blood flow to the brain. The other thing I have noticed is my dreams (while on the supplement) become more vivid and "interactive" for lack of a better word. It takes some time for the herb to build up inside your body, so do not expect immediate results, but for anyone looking to remember more dreams and perhaps attain the "lucid" state this is the number one thing I suggest.

After typing this i decided to look online for others experiences with this and dream recall.

Here are a few others experiences with Ginkgo

hey everyone, not sure if anyone posted anything on this subject before, lol but o well. i've been taking some gingko before i go to sleep, and it really improves my recall and really increases the vividness of the dreams

Ginko Biloba is wonderful for dream recall as well as inducing LD. I've used it for years and can tell a difference on the occasions I've stopped taking it.

I have never taken it directly before bed, but after reading up some more about others experiences I may try taking it at night instead of in the morning. I have good results with it now, so maybe this will improve them even more.

The next thing I suggest is before you go to sleep set the intent of remembering your dream. Intent is a big factor in this. If you fall asleep expecting to not remember your dream often times that thought will produce the undesired result.

It sounds silly but ask yourself to show you something in your dream. I try not to expect results about a particular subject, or ask for an answer to some "problem". A general request to open communication seem to work best for me. If I get specific the messages become jumbled you could say.

If you practice any form of meditation approach this much like you would a meditation session.

Now for the tough part!

When you wake up it is very easy to forget everything from the dream you had. It is important (i know its a pain) to keep a pen and paper within your reach to jot down anything you can remember. If you are able to do this with your eyes closed even better.

When you first wake do not open your eyes or move around at all. Try to stay in that state of "between dreams" if you find yourself falling back into sleep, get your pen and paper and write down anything you can. It doesn't have to be in order, I often start at the end of the dream because it is easiest to remember.

What you will end up doing will be in essence reverse engineering your dream. This works best from my experience. Say I have a dream where at the end I remember being at a friends house. When I wake up i scribble down "at joes house" often times it is hard to read but that isn't important.

The less you open your eyes the better, I find the light when I open my eyes makes things harder.

After you jot down "at joes house" relax again and slip into a half aware state, like a deep meditation. Begin thinking why you were "at joes house" and let your subconscious help fill in the blanks. Often times I will get images or even words that bring back more memory of the dream. Once you get another piece of information jot that down as well.

It is possible to start at the end of your dream and reverse engineer it back to it's beginning by doing it this way. Sometimes it may not be necessary to start at the end, but if that is all you can remember this gives you a way to work backwards.

If you can remember more or all of the dream still do you best to write down things that will act as "markers" for your wakeful/conscious mind. Eventually you will develop your own type of shorthand to communicate with your subconscious. I often use symbols in place of words sometimes. Everyone will have there own style and whatever works best for you is what is important.

The reason writing things down is important is because as soon as we wake up and open our eyes, our wakeful mind start up and begins it daily routine. By (at the very least) scribbling down a few words provides an opportunity or a bridge between your subconscious/conscious mind.

Once the bridge is built the more you use it the easier dream recall will become. Once your bridge becomes stronger the information you can learn is astounding. For me it isn't about "predicting the future" but it is about communicating with yourself to learn things on a personal level.

I had hoped to talk about things that help me attain lucid states of dreaming but I ran out of room.

Lucid dreaming can be one of the most eye opening things a person can achieve to broaden their perspective on reality. In my humble opinion there are different levels of what we should consider lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming on the most basic level is simply being conscious or aware that you are dreaming.

Only a couple times have I managed to truly experience full lucidity in a dream (interacting and controlling the dream) as I chose. Even then at full lucidity it was more of a "sand box" environment. I had control of some things but only to an extent. I could only work with what had been given.

That experience and the lessons learned is the single most comforting experience I have had in this life

The dreams I have now are "lucid" in the sense that I know I am dreaming, but at the same time it is if something is "teaching" me lessons through my subconscious, and those lessons eventually manifest into my waking life. The rate of "manifestation" has increased ten fold over the past two years.

A few tips to induce lucid dreaming.

Fall asleep on your back if at all possible. I often avoid this position because I encounter what we call "sleep paralysis" most often when I lay on my back. Recently I discovered the paralysis to be the "key" to induce lucid dreaming.

Often time for those that have encountered sleep paralysis it comes with a big "fear" element included. Do your best to "let go" of the fear. You have to take the plunge and not be afraid to let go of yourself. It has been compared to "dying" by some.

My best lucid states have been induced by allowing myself to fall into the "void" of sleep paralysis. You ultimately have nothing to fear by letting go, but this can be the hardest part for some to cross.

Other than purposefully inducing paralysis some other things you can do are as follows.

A few times during day if you wear a ring or a watch on one hand, look down at that hand and ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" while looking at your hands, It sounds silly.. but what your are doing is imbedding that thought and motion into your subconscious mind.

The more you do it, the better. Eventually you will find yourself in a dream and look down at your hand and notice something is different. That is a "marker" for consciousness to creep into your dream world. Now when this first happens in a dream you may be shocked and instantly wake yourself up. No worries though because you have just built a bridge into you subconscious that was never there before.

Some people say looking at clocks in dreams helps, but I never can find a clock in my dreams. After experiencing different levels of lucidity in dreams it seems now I don't have to try. For some reason I just know I am dreaming.

You will eventually have "teachers" as I call them show up. I can't really put a face with them, but they feel familiar.

Often times you don;t have to worry about "figuring out" what the dreams mean. Just the fact that you are proving a catalyst for information exchange to occur between your consciousness/subconsciousness is beneficial.

Hopefully some of these tips will help those in the dream forum remember more "dreams" and perhaps go lucid in one.

Thanks for reading.

I find that being awakened by a blaring alarm clock practically wipes out the dream. Just my experience.

Originally posted by queenofswords
I find that being awakened by a blaring alarm clock practically wipes out the dream. Just my experience.

For sure.

Lately I can almost tell myself when I want to wake up and I will. Set the "intent" of getting up at a certain time and see if it happens.

I always keep a back up alarm system going though in case I can't miss something important.

If anyone interested in dreams etc reads this and tries Ginkgo let me know how it turns out for you

Wow thanks for the thread, I have been trying really hard to remember my dreams and was able recall (vaguely) only a couple. I have a journal by my bed to write everything I can remember into but most time as soon as I reach for the pen / journal, my memory wipes clean and I am left with a blank page.

I will try out Ginkgo biloba and see how it works for me.

thanks for sharing S+F

Originally posted by Teye22
Wow thanks for the thread, I have been trying really hard to remember my dreams and was able recall (vaguely) only a couple. I have a journal by my bed to write everything I can remember into but most time as soon as I reach for the pen / journal, my memory wipes clean and I am left with a blank page.

I will try out Ginkgo biloba and see how it works for me.

thanks for sharing S+F

No problem, hope the few tips help out.

A recent dream prompted me to finally join ATS and make my first post (Who or What are the Nines). Since then I have been hanging out in the dream forum and read a lot of comments by people saying that had a hard time remembering dreams. Thought I would mention Ginkgo in case people had never heard of it before.

Ginkgo Biloba is pretty cheap, I pay $6.00 at the local Dollar General for 60 pills at 120mg each, Not that expensive really. It is hard to remember when you have to get up at a certain time, Like if you are getting up for work and do not have time to lay back down or meditate it can be tough.

If you have the time the more you practice it does get easy to get things on paper. For me it is like my subconscious loves being acknowledged my me

Like "hey look at me" and the more attention I show it the more it opens up. I first time I worked backward through a dream was shocking and I couldn't believe it worked. Sometimes you just get a "feeling" your dream was important, other times I do not even bother writing stuff down because it didn't have that feeling to it.

Starting at the end really helps me recall. If I have time to slip back into a meditative state I can work backward to the beginning like I mentioned. Sometimes it is just relaxing to stay in that "in between dreams" state of consciousness just for fun

Let me know how the Ginkgo works for ya.Take care

I may try to take ginko at night, since I only get to remember a little bit of my dreams, usually those ones are vivid. Ginko could help.

Writing it down, when you wake up, trains you to remember your dreams better, and also, the light upon opening your eyes is a disconnect, if you can train yourself to reach for and write messy on a big sketchpad, with your eyes still closed, you'll remember more I've been told by a friend.

Writing it down, when you wake up, trains you to remember your dreams better, and also, the light upon opening your eyes is a disconnect, if you can train yourself to reach for and write messy on a big sketchpad, with your eyes still closed, you'll remember more I've been told by a friend.

reply to post by Unity_99


I was having a hard time explaining the "light" thing in the OP., that makes more sense. As soon as the light hits my eyes, the brain begins processing whether I want it to or not. If I keep them closed it is easier to jot things down.

This morning I woke with the end of my dream in mind (it was one of those realization moments in the dream), I knew it was important but wasn't able to get anything down. I forgot to leave my pen and paper next to me before I fell asleep.

Re-think them as SOON as you wake up TWICE.

Also, if you don't remember you're dreams, you're not eating enough Zinc and Pottasium.

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
Re-think them as SOON as you wake up TWICE.

Also, if you don't remember you're dreams, you're not eating enough Zinc and Pottasium.

The only thing I take is Ginkgo and a multivitamin, I'll have to check and see if it includes Zinc and Potassium.

Thanks for adding.