I'm 17, and just starting year 12 in Australia. I'm doing Pyschology and was reading the text book we were given, because I find most of that stuff interesting. I came across Lucid dreams, and was so interested in it I looked in the internet and found this place!

My question is: I can barely remember any dreams of mine, if at all. how do I start on this, because although I haven't tried yet (I just found out LD existed yesterday ) I doubt I could remember things to put in a dream diary or nothing. Any suggestions on how to start remembering dreams? If I practise enough for long enough will they eventually come to me to I can remember for a "dream diary"?

Thank you

Go to "starting" in the top menu. There is about every thing you need to know to become lucid.


Remembering dreams

Before you can have a lucid dream, you'll have to remember your dreams. How else would you know you had a lucid dream when you wake up?

If you are somebody who wakes up and can write whole books of their dreams, you can skip this part. However, are you someone who can only remember dreams sporadicly, or you can just remember some dreams from your childhood and you have the feeling you don't dream anymore, then read on.

One of the most important things is to not want it too much. When you are trying to force yourself to remember a dream, it won't work. Try to let it come naturally. Practice makes perfect. When you are consciously intending to remember your dreams, your subconscious will pick this up and you will notice that you will remember more and more of your dreams. In the beginning it may be just a fragment, or a feeling. But it will develop into complete dreamscenarios. Be patient and persevere.

The following exercise you can do while you are in bed, ready to go to sleep. You can adapt it to your own insights, what's important is that you feel good doing it, and the things you say to yourself sound right.

To start you are going to clean your head a bit of everything that happened during the day. Relax and go with your attention to the center of your head. This is the point between your ears, behind your eyes. Feel how you are in the center of your head. Now visualise a big vacuum cleaner that cleans the inside of your head.

Feel how you breath. Breath in and out. Breath in and tense the muscles of your feet. Breath out and relax the muscles of your feet. Breath in and tens the muscles in your lower legs. Breath out and relax them again. Go on until you have come to your head.

When you feel completely relaxed say to yourself:"I'm going to sleep now, and I'm going to dream. When I wake up I remember my dream"

You can also ask for help. Ask your subconscious, your Higher Self, God, the Universe, your spirit guide, or whoever you want. Make contact with the one you ask for help and ask him/her to help you remembering your dream.

Now visualise how you wake up and write down your dreams in your dream diary, or record them otherwise.

Keep repeating your intention to remember your dream until you fall asleep.

You can also take a glass of water, and consciously drink half of it. While you drink you tell yourself that you are going to dream and remember your dream. Then visualise how you wake up, drink the rest of the water, and remember your dream. When you awake, you empty the glass and if everything goes well, your subconscious will be triggered to let your dream surface.

When you succeed in remembering at least one dream every night, you are ready to try to become lucid.

Along with all the things they recommend on this site, what I like to do if I can't remember a dream (which is rare now) is think of my first thoughts after waking. Besides "Boy do I have to pee," I usually am thinking about something in particular, like maybe I'll have Star Trek on my mind. Then I just lay back in bed in the same position I was sleeping in and expand on that thought. I almost always remember something more about the dream.

Be careful to also use this opportunity to do a reality check. False awakenings suck, so if you do an rc as soon as you wake up, you'll know if it's really a false awakening or not.

I like taking vitamins as a memory aid. B complex vitamins have been linked to improved memory. I have seen many references to B vitamins in various Dream related articles. Also Choline (also found in lecithin) is a good brain food vitamin.

Just the act of taking the vitamins in order to remember a dream can help you subconciously make the effort.

Pop the pill and think, "This is going to help me remember my dreams".

I find I do get improved recall after doing this. It's like a combination placebo and real vitamin memory enhancement trick. Never underestimate the power of your mind when it comes to decieving itself. Plus, vitamins are good for you, so it couldn't hurt (take the dosage it says on the label).

YOU WILL REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS.

--me

I'll take some of those in mind. Though I don't have any vitamins around the house, I think my mum would get a bit weirded out if I asked for some for dreaming purposes. :P

Actually i'm going away on holidays for a week so that might be a good time to practise dream remembering. thanks for your help you guys!