Remembering Dreams

[Xeen]

Hi all.

I haven't read anything around here on tips of remembering dreams. Finding meaning in dreams is very important to me and I usually try really hard to remember and recall each and every little details I can remember from a dream. I dream in high detail and color 98% of the time so, of course sometimes I just can't remember everything.

Does anyone here have any tips on remembering dreams? I've tried the thing with keeping a journal near my bed to write things down as soon as I wake up. Unfortunatly, I don't like doing that because usually by the time I find all the stuff I need to write down my dreams, turn on the light, etc, I'm wide awake. I value sleep far beyond a lot of things other people value, and I hate not being able to get back to sleep and messing up my whole day.

Um. Okay, I whined a little bit too much there... but. If you have any ideas, tried or not tried, please suggest them.

Of course I am aware that some dreams just are not meant to be remembred.

[mountain spirit]

have you tried using a tape recorder instead of writing it down??? also you should look into lucid dreaming...they say that if you can realize your dreaming in your dreams you get much more from them...also I've heard that if you drink half a glass of water before going to sleep and drink the other half when you wake up it help to remember...

[Lucid]

Try getting a bed time routine if you don't have one already . While you are preparing for bed tell yourself that you will remember your dreams . I know it sounds too simple but it works for me.

[Flar's Freyja]

This phrase keeps coming up - it's probably a message for me :lol:

The Indians say that the dreams that we remember are the ones that we are to act upon.

What I try to do is to not get up right away and try to piece together the parts that I do remember and write them down. It seems that if I can remember just one or two things, the rest will come to me while I'm making coffee or in the shower. Remember, the symbols and feelings that you had in the dream are more important than remembering the entire dream.

We do have some threads on dream interpretation, and I should probably stick them:

Dream Interpretation: Class I (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8006&highlight=dream+journal)

Dream Interpretation: Class II (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1855&highlight=dream+journal)

Dream Interpretation: Class III (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1913&highlight=dream+journal)

Dream Interpretation: Class IV (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13362&highlight=dream+journal)

Dream Symbols (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20179&highlight=dream+symbols)

Online Dream Reader Thingie (http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22814&highlight=dream+symbols)

I don't have them handy, but the tool that helped me the most was a set of cards simply called "Dream Cards." The cards contain several images and there is a book where you can look up the symbols. A second set of cards explains the symbolism and also gives you affirmations to meditate on. This set was recommended by the professor in a college psychology course that a friend of mine was taking. I'll try to remember to post the author. I recently saw them at a psychic fair and the price has gone up quite a bit, but I know that they are still available.

[Xeen]

Thanks all for you ideas...

Maybe I should just not be so picky on remembering all the details? :-p

[Mnemosyne]

Good luck to you! I go in periods where I remember all my dreams. Then, I might go a while where I don't remember my dreams. I write some of my dreams down in a dream journal when the dream is quite vivid. I don't like writing my dreams down right when I wake up, since I have to get ready for work in the morning and don't have the time.

[~J-3]

Cool. A favorite subject of mine.:) This may seem extreme but I keep a journal with the pen attached under my pillow. Before I move from the position in which I wake, I go over the dream in my head...then I jot down (in the dark and most of the time difficult to make out) little notes...like, "girl dirty", "Curt mad face.." and then in the morning when I'm up for good, I write down the details...because the notes refresh my memory. I'm glad you asked this...now I can check out the threads pointed out by Freyja.:)

[Flar's Freyja]

Originally posted by aynjelah

Thanks all for you ideas...

Maybe I should just not be so picky on remembering all the details? :-p

Exactly. The symbolism and the emotions you felt either during or in regard to the dream are more important. In the Dream Cards that I mentioned, it's very interesting how symbols that don't seem to have anything to do with each other can mean the same thing.

[jelly.belly]

Well, something that my aunt "uses" is recalling your whole day, but starting with the most recent events and going to the oldest, you have to try to remember everything that happened, how you felt, what you said. After a while of doing that, well you'll remember your dreams more, I haven't tried it myself, but my aunt says it works...

[Raydreamer]

And something amazing to think about.....for a forty year old, all the time they've spent dreaming when asleep equals up to roughly eight years. That's eight years spent in another world!

[Raydreamer]

oops, and i forgot....
you don't just dream in your sleep. Sometimes your brain will go to that place when you're wide awake and it's something different from Day deraming (though daydreaming is just as important as any type of dreaming.)

[Shadowolff]

Good suggestions from all above me. Was very surprised to leard in college psych class that for most people, most of the times, dreams are unpleasant; mine range from the occasional profound and lifechanging to neutral, seldom negative. (The major reason alcohol isn't very appealing to me is that it depresses REM sleep...)

My psych professor found it interesting that the last thing I heard at bedtime, from parents & grandparents, from earliest childhood was "Happy dreams." Hmm.

I've found that once I open my eyes, the dream fades qickly, but if I go over it in my mind several times immediately on waking it'll stay put long enough for me to write it down. Leaving my eyes closed is crucial, though. At least for me.