How To Remember Your Dreams

A common occurrence with people who want to better understand their dreams is that they simply can’t remember them upon waking up, or they don’t remember as much detail as they’d like to. Fortunately, there are some simple adjustments that can be made to improve the quality of your dream recall! Here are 10 methods on how to remember your dreams.

10 Tips on How To Remember Your Dreams

1. Have a strong desire. Like anything else, you have to really want to understand your dreams in order to start remembering them. Set the intention that you WILL remember your dreams before going to sleep and never underestimate the power of a strong desire!

2. Prepare your dream journal. Of course, make sure you have a dream journal that is specifically for the purpose of recording your dreams and something to write with. Before going to bed, write tomorrow’s date at the top. This gives clear direction to the subconscious mind on what you want it to do. Then, make sure you place your dream journal in arm’s reach! Trust me, if your dream journal is half way across the room, you are far less likely to actually get up to record those gems! If you don’t already have a dream journal, this is one of my favorites. If you sleep with a partner and don’t want to disturb them, I also recommend this light-up pen.

3. Record your dream. Do this as soon as you wake up. The longer you wait, like after you’ve gone to the restroom, the less you’ll remember. It is also very important that you are writing down every detail, no matter how small, silly, or seemingly insignificant it may seem. You will strengthen your ability to dream more vividly and remember more details as you record them. You certainly don’t want to miss anything important, either. If you remember just a fragment of your dream, great. Write it down. Keep going and you will remember more with each day. If you don’t recall anything at all, that’s okay, too. In this case, write down something, anything, to get your subconscious mind in this habit. I recommend at least trying to write down the general feeling you awake with to get things moving.

4. Interpret your dream. Interpreting and applying your dream is actually one of the most crucial steps to aid dream recall. By applying the wisdom received, you’re telling your subconscious mind and inner self that you are serious about listening and will naturally receive more! It’s really quite the beautiful process.

5. Inhibit marijuana. The use of marijuana has shown to reduce your time in the REM cycle, the part of your sleep cycle dreams occur in, and will reduce your ability to dream. Now this may not be true for everyone if you’re still managing to get time in the REM cycle, however, if you’re serious about remembering your dreams and have followed all the steps to no avail, I’d recommend putting the marijuana away for a while to see the effects.

6. Go to bed before you’re completely exhausted. It’s more difficult to recall your dreams when your body and mind are focused on repairing itself from a long, exhausting day.

7. Use dream herbs. There are many herbs that help with different aspects of dreaming, from initiating lucid dreams, warding off nightmares, to producing fantasy dreams. The 3 most common herbs used for enhanced recall are peppermint, passionflower, and mugwort, usually in the form of a tea.

8. Put Blue Kyanite in the bedroom. Blue Kyanite is a mineral that is used to enhance dreams and improve dream recall. Try placing a piece on your nightstand or somewhere in your bedroom to help you remember your dreams.You can get a nice piece of Kyanite here.

9. No technology 30 minutes before bed. The use of technology is so stimulating that it can take our minds much longer to calm down and enter into the dream state. Steer clear of any tv, computer, video games, and cell phones at least 30 minutes before bed to make the transition into dream-land easier and your dream recall better.

10. Wake up without an alarm. Alarm clocks have a great way or jarring us out of sleep and throwing us into waking consciousness. When we wake up this way, though, we are so abruptly brought out of the dream state that we lose details and sometimes the dream altogether. To begin waking up without an alarm, try setting the intention that you will wake up just 5 minutes before your alarm goes off to give yourself a safety net at first. Continue increasing the time and practice daily until you are confident in your ability to wake up gently by your own internal clock, and enjoy all the dreams you’ll remember.

Using these methods, especially the first 4, will greatly increase your dream recall and help you to remember your dreams. Of course, even using these methods it’s important that you continue applying them even if you don’t see results the first night or two. With consistency and desire, you WILL remember your dreams!