by Stefan:  Remembering your dreams is something that lots of people find very difficult.

There are of course the lucky few who can vividly remember lots of dreams every morning, but that’s usually the minority. In this post I’ll share 4 powerful tips for improving your dream recall.

Improving your dream recall will ultimately benefit you in your waking life as well, because you’ll be able to remember more in general; not just your dreams. Also, the more dreams you remember and the better your recall is, the more likely it is you’ll lucid dream.

For those who don’t know, a lucid dream is a dream in which you’re aware that you’re dreaming. This allows you to decide what to do and control certain aspects of the dream. You can fly, teleport, time travel and much more.

Why most people can’t remember their dreams properly

The majority of us can’t remember our dreams properly because.. we don’t practice it!

Remembering dreams and dream recall is something that must be practiced, just like almost any other skill. If you don’t practice it, you won’t improve. Don’t practice it for a very long time, and you’ll find even basic dreams hard to recall in the morning.

Use it or lose it. Dream recall is no different, and so if you want to actually start remembering more dreams, you’ve got to be prepared to practice the ACT of remembering dreams more. The best thing to do, would be to start a dream journal, right now.

If you’ve never kept a dream journal before, it works like this:

Get a small notebook or diary and every morning, write down whatever you can about the previous nights dreams. Write details, people, places etc. Highlight what’s important and if you notice any recurring items or things, make a note of them in the back of the dream diary.

Even if you can’t remember any dreams at the start, just write ‘no dreams recalled’. It will build the habit and train your mind that it needs to be able to recall dreams first thing in the morning. Many people don’t write anything if they can’t remember, and this tells your brain that it’s okay to not remember any dreams!

Even writing something in your dream diary will massively help you remember more dreams and build that habit! Try it for 30 days if you don’t believe me! Here are 4 powerful tips for remembering more of your dreams

1: Use dream anchoring

A dream anchor is an object in your bedroom that you see every morning. It’s going to be a physical object that you attach a belief to. The idea behind it is that by telling yourself over and over, ‘when I see this object, I will remember my dreams’ eventually your subconscious mind really believes it.

This means that over time, the link between remembering dreams, and your chosen dream anchor object becomes stronger and stronger. Eventually, looking at your object actually DOES help you remember more dreams by triggering that thought in your mind!

To get started, simply choose an object that you see without fail as soon as you wake up or instantly in your bedroom. Something bright and vivid works the best, as it’s harder to miss and easier to ‘stick’ in your mind. Tell yourself ‘Whenever I see this object, I will be able to easily remember my dreams’.

Keep it up for at least a month to notice the real benefits of this tip! Also, do this along side some other dream recall tips, it won’t work as well just on it’s own!

2: Practice memory in waking life

If you’re good at remembering things in real life, you’ll be good at remembering your dreams. Memory is a skill and can be likened to a muscle that needs training. By training it in your daily waking life, you’ll automatically remember more dreams!

Try doing some basic memory games or exercises! Work on learning how to remember more and more things, and in greater detail. There are LOADS of free resources online for building up a stronger memory.

Practice looking at a photo for 20 seconds, and then looking away to write down as much as you can about the photo. Over time, you’ll be able to remember more and more. This will help you take in more details as you look around the world.

There are all sorts of exercises you could do to improve your memory, and they’ll almost all help you with dream recall, so take your pick! Also, consider taking a supplement like vitamin B6 which has been linked to improved memory!

3: Recreate the scene

As you lay in bed in the morning, before opening your eyes, simply lay there and re-create the dream scene. Lots of people simply jump out of bed, or open their eyes and start checking their phone when they wake up.

Doing that just drowns out your dream memories with all the other thoughts of the day. Instead, lay there for a minute or two before getting up for the day and just really think about your dreams. Think about what you’ve just dreamed about!

You’ll find that even just laying in bed for a minute or two extra in the morning to think about your dreams will let you remember much more of your dreams. To make it even better, try and experience the feelings of the dream.

Don’t just remember what you SAW in a dream, try to engage your senses and think about what you smelt. What you felt, and what you HEARD. You’ll remember more this way, as you’re engaging different parts of your memory.

4: Set yourself up for success

This is a generic tip, but probably the most powerful. The human body is a whole, made up of lots of little systems that all interlink and inter connect. By improving one aspect of yourself, you also improve another.

Everything is connected, and what this means in practical terms, is that by taking care of your body, you’ll have better dream recall. You’ll also have better everything else. So how do you take care of yourself?

Well, that’s an entire industry in itself, but the basics of it come down to:

Eating good wholesome food

Getting enough sleep (about 8 hours, high quality)

Rising with the sun and going to bed when the sun sets (circadian rhythm)

Breathing deeply and fully to get enough oxygen round your body

These things seem like they’re obvious, and they are but many people neglect them and instead search for some magic bullet or quick fix to the problems they have. Ironically, the problems they have would usually go away if they just did the things I mentioned above more!

Summary

To sum up, take care of your body, get enough good quality sleep, take care of yourself, and practice recalling dreams better. You’ll get great results, and you’ll find it easy to remember more dreams! Here are some useful tools and tips:

– Learn how to fall asleep faster at night: This will make it easier to slip into deep sleep and make the most of your time!

– Be patient! Remembering dreams is something that you’ve likely not practiced much, and so like any skill it might take a few weeks to learn how to remember more! Stick with it!

– Don’t be afraid to experiment with things. You might find that you remember loads more dreams when you get up for an hour first and THEN try and remember them. Experiment with it to find what works best for you

Author Bio

Stefan is a personal development blogger and long time lucid dreamer who loves to share his passion and knowledge about lucid dreaming with the world through his lucid dreaming website.