I had an interesting lucid dream last night.

That’s all i can tell you — because i didn’t WRITE IT DOWN! I was too busy with the thought of why i am awake so early on a Saturday. That didn’t last long though, as i turned over and passed out again.

Have a piece of paper or a notepad and a pencil beside you at night, and jot down a few words about your dream when you wake up. It’ll be easier to recall that way. You will also start to train yourself to pay more attention to your dreams.

Since this is a new blog all about Lucid Dreaming, I figure i’ll start with the basics. I’ll split it up into parts to make it easier to read.

A dream is what happens during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) period of sleep. It’s pretty much like a whole new world inside your head. A lucid dream is a dream in which you realize you are dreaming. Because it’s all inside your head, you can manipulate the dream world. This leads to you doing whatever you want; you’re in a reality which you have created inside your head.

You dream every night, whether you remember it or not. We experience around 4 or 5 dreams a night, due to having about 4 or 5 periods of REM sleep every night. So you can become lucid and not even remember it — in fact, you probably already have become lucid at some point in your life. What’s the point if you can’t remember?

The first step in the journey to lucidity is improving dream recall. This is just what it sounds like — the ability to remember your dreams when you wake up. Dreams are slippery; sure, you just had a vivid dream, but without practicing recall a couple minutes after you wake up you won’t even be able to remember the details of your dream. If you’re just starting, don’t worry if you have no recall; it takes time to develop.

Step 1: Don’t move
Remember, dream recall happens AFTER you wake up. So when you wake up, don’t move a muscle. Lie back in your bed and ask yourself, “what was I just dreaming about?” Dream recall has a correlation to sleep position, and you’re more likely to remember your dreams if you’re in the same position you slept in. Images, thoughts, sceneries, parts and maybe even your whole dream should come back to you. If you have a stray thought, don’t forget it — that’s probably your dream rushing back to you. Try to remember the major concepts, as details will come to you when you’re on to the next step.
Step 2: Write it down!
This is the most important step. Keep a pen and paper by your bed, write down the major things you remember, and then every last detail of your dreams that you remember. This will be your dream journal. If you don’t like writing, try a voice recorder. Do this as soon as you can remember your dreams, because every minute that passes, your dreams will fade. This happens until you develop good recall. Every now and then, read your dream journal and try to look for connections — these will be your dream signs, something we’ll talk about later.
Step 3: Self-Talk
Every night before you go to sleep, tell yourself that you are going to remember your dreams. Repeat it a couple times. If you engrain this into your subconscious, chances are that you’ll be a lot more likely to remember your dreams.

These are a few steps to dream recall, more will be discussed later. Remember, this is an important step in your journey to having a lucid dream. Don’t slack off on your practice, and don’t slack off on your sleep — the less sleep you get, the less you’ll dream. This should be practiced in conjunction with other beginning techniques discussed here. Don’t worry if you don’t get good results, recall takes practice. You can start to slack off when your recall gets better and you can remember dreams longer than a few minutes — usually it takes a couple weeks.

I’m ready, take me to Part II!

Related Posts
An Introduction to Lucid Dreaming: Part II
An Introduction to Lucid Dreaming: Part III