Strategies for Remembering Dreams ≥ 3 Minutes After You Awaken
March 16, 2018 11:32 PM Subscribe
Good evening. How do you remember your dreams once you've fully woken up?
I often wake, in the later portions of the sleep cycle, in the middle of an interesting dream. I think, "I gotta remember this. Surely, I will remember [AMAZING YET SURREAL THING], so there's no need to write it down I'll just ZZZZZZZ."
Or: I get up to pee, mumbling to myself, "Eagle, Carrot, Glove... Eagle Carrot Glove... No way I'll forget THIS dream. Flush Toilet. Eagle Carrot Glove, ah bed Eagle ZZZZ."
When I wake up, at some point during the day, I'll be trying to recount this crazy ass dream I had last night, but I won't even be able to recall anything but the vaguest scenery. "There were mountains and there was a seaside and clouds on the horizon." The plot, the flash of insight, the magical thing that did the other thing—all, gone.
When I was much younger, I found it relatively easy to keep a dream journal. I just did it. I think my ultimate goal back then was to dream lucidly, and once I did that a couple times, and thought "neato," I left it aside. But it wasn't hard for me to just pick up the habit for a few weeks, and then put it down again. Then again, I had many fewer distractions upon awakening, back then.
Nowadays, I just wanna remember them, period. It's hit-or-miss—sometimes, I will be able to recall a dream in fine detail, whether I've had an interruptive wakeup or a peaceful, slow wakeup. But most of the time: bupkis.
I have tried to restart the habit of keeping a dream journal a couple times, in a couple formats: "I have this notebook and this pen, right by my bedside, see how easy it is to reach?" Or, "I can dictate or hum into this iPhone." But, I have actually realized that goal maaaaaybe no times.
What helps you recall your dreams? I have no partner next to me in bed to murmur things to, but I do write an email to her every morning, only after I have woken up slightly. The light from the screen sometimes is enough to snap me into full consciousness. Can you, in the middle of the day, readily recount to someone, "Oh, I had this amazing dream about a cube-shaped donut and..."? How? Is it something that must be practiced before the ability flows back? Again, How?
Good night.
I often wake, in the later portions of the sleep cycle, in the middle of an interesting dream. I think, "I gotta remember this. Surely, I will remember [AMAZING YET SURREAL THING], so there's no need to write it down I'll just ZZZZZZZ."
Or: I get up to pee, mumbling to myself, "Eagle, Carrot, Glove... Eagle Carrot Glove... No way I'll forget THIS dream. Flush Toilet. Eagle Carrot Glove, ah bed Eagle ZZZZ."
When I wake up, at some point during the day, I'll be trying to recount this crazy ass dream I had last night, but I won't even be able to recall anything but the vaguest scenery. "There were mountains and there was a seaside and clouds on the horizon." The plot, the flash of insight, the magical thing that did the other thing—all, gone.
When I was much younger, I found it relatively easy to keep a dream journal. I just did it. I think my ultimate goal back then was to dream lucidly, and once I did that a couple times, and thought "neato," I left it aside. But it wasn't hard for me to just pick up the habit for a few weeks, and then put it down again. Then again, I had many fewer distractions upon awakening, back then.
Nowadays, I just wanna remember them, period. It's hit-or-miss—sometimes, I will be able to recall a dream in fine detail, whether I've had an interruptive wakeup or a peaceful, slow wakeup. But most of the time: bupkis.
I have tried to restart the habit of keeping a dream journal a couple times, in a couple formats: "I have this notebook and this pen, right by my bedside, see how easy it is to reach?" Or, "I can dictate or hum into this iPhone." But, I have actually realized that goal maaaaaybe no times.
What helps you recall your dreams? I have no partner next to me in bed to murmur things to, but I do write an email to her every morning, only after I have woken up slightly. The light from the screen sometimes is enough to snap me into full consciousness. Can you, in the middle of the day, readily recount to someone, "Oh, I had this amazing dream about a cube-shaped donut and..."? How? Is it something that must be practiced before the ability flows back? Again, How?
Good night.
I say go back to the dream journal. Even if you remember one object from your dream write it down. It subconsciously (and consciously) trains your brain to try to remember your dreams.
I also got into the habit of not fully waking up to write down a dream... so I have plenty of entries from randomly slipping out of sleep at 4am where I basically reached my hand out for my pen, scribbled down some notes in the dark, and fell right back asleep. Much of it is unreadable but it trains the habit of recording immediately because the more awake I become the faster the details of my dreams slip away.
posted by simplethings at 1:46 AM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
I also got into the habit of not fully waking up to write down a dream... so I have plenty of entries from randomly slipping out of sleep at 4am where I basically reached my hand out for my pen, scribbled down some notes in the dark, and fell right back asleep. Much of it is unreadable but it trains the habit of recording immediately because the more awake I become the faster the details of my dreams slip away.
posted by simplethings at 1:46 AM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Just put a whiteboard in your bedroom, then you can throw up a quick note /please sketch and then nod off again.i used to draw my dreams. my dreams mainly give me impossible machines that defy physics and mechanics - but in my dreams they work just fine.
posted by unearthed at 3:03 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by unearthed at 3:03 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
I find that when I tell myself, before I fall asleep, that I’m going to remember my dreams... I do! Simple, but it usually works for me.
posted by bookmammal at 3:41 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by bookmammal at 3:41 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Use a voice recorder kept at your bedside.
posted by jgirl at 3:41 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jgirl at 3:41 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
One thing that causes me to remember dreams is simple meditation. Just sitting and concentrating on your breath for a few minutes, soon after you get out of bed, or using one of the multitude of apps, podcasts and videos that exist. Might be worth a try, and if it doesn't work you'll have had a relaxing few minutes.
posted by howfar at 3:52 AM on March 17, 2018
posted by howfar at 3:52 AM on March 17, 2018
I've found that I don't actually remember my dreams; I remember my thinking about/remembering from the half-awake state. Instead of just "eagle, carrot, glove," you have to tell it to yourself like you're telling a friend about a book you read, with words. I end up remembering the words and the vague impression, not the dream itself.
It sounds like you're looking for a way to do this that lets you drift back to sleep and still remember. That might not exist; if you want to remember, you might need to do something (like writing or recording or waking up enough to tell yourself a story) that pulls you further out of sleep.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:00 AM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
It sounds like you're looking for a way to do this that lets you drift back to sleep and still remember. That might not exist; if you want to remember, you might need to do something (like writing or recording or waking up enough to tell yourself a story) that pulls you further out of sleep.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:00 AM on March 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Can’t help, mate. I have a similar issue in that waking is an instant erase button for my dreams. But is also an erase for my nightmares. When I wake I only have vague awareness of the feelings of the dreams (happy, sad, scary). This used to bother me, but now I see it more as a feature than a bug. Why do I need to know what my subconscious was doing when I wake up?
posted by terrapin at 6:39 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by terrapin at 6:39 AM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've definitely found that the only way to get myself to remember my dreams in more than just very vague details is to get in the habit of actually writing them down as soon as I wake up.
It sounds like you might be running into problems with remembering to do this step. A couple things that might help with that part:
1. Even if you don't remember any dream when you wake up, still get out your dream journal and write something down, even if it's just "I don't remember." I often found that the process of starting to write brought back more memories of the dream.
2. If you forget to write down your dreams when you first get up, as soon as you do remember, go and write in the dream journal, even if it's hours later.
3. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is go to the bathroom, so you could also leave a post it on your bathroom mirror with a "dream journal" reminder. Or put a post it on your alarm clock. Somewhere that you'll see it when you first get up.
4. As you are going to sleep, tell yourself "When I wake up, I'll remember to write down my dreams in the dream journal."
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:40 AM on March 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
It sounds like you might be running into problems with remembering to do this step. A couple things that might help with that part:
1. Even if you don't remember any dream when you wake up, still get out your dream journal and write something down, even if it's just "I don't remember." I often found that the process of starting to write brought back more memories of the dream.
2. If you forget to write down your dreams when you first get up, as soon as you do remember, go and write in the dream journal, even if it's hours later.
3. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is go to the bathroom, so you could also leave a post it on your bathroom mirror with a "dream journal" reminder. Or put a post it on your alarm clock. Somewhere that you'll see it when you first get up.
4. As you are going to sleep, tell yourself "When I wake up, I'll remember to write down my dreams in the dream journal."
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:40 AM on March 17, 2018 [3 favorites]
yeah, you have to make it a narrative. Instead of repeating "eagle carrot glove," you say, "the eagle swooped in with a carrot and landed on my glove. What else... Oh, before that I was eating crazins out of a salad and throwing the pepitos off the balcony. I was on a balcony looking out over the city below me. There was a beautiful mist. They were all my serfs! Everything I saw was my domain because I WAS KING OF THE PLANET! and then this eagle came with a carrot that was somehow also a communications device and it landed on my glove. then what, then what... I went back into the castle trying to make the carrot work as a phone, but the castle was actually an Arby's and I got in trouble for taking the carrot in there plus being barefoot because for some reason I was barefoot." You have to tell the story of it and keep trying to remember details and events that happened before and after eagle carrot glove.
posted by Don Pepino at 2:05 PM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Don Pepino at 2:05 PM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
I tweet my dreams, and the act of breaking it up into pieces of story that I can tell within that character limit and mentally rehearsing that helps. But writing it as soon as I can after waking is the best way—the times I go back to sleep without tweeting it or at least typing some notes to myself into my phone are the times I forget the details.
posted by limeonaire at 5:55 PM on March 17, 2018
posted by limeonaire at 5:55 PM on March 17, 2018
Seconding using a voice recorder. It was fascinating in the mornings to hear my half asleep voice discussing my dreams.
posted by wittgenstein at 1:31 PM on March 18, 2018
posted by wittgenstein at 1:31 PM on March 18, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! At this moment, I'm going to aim for the "voice recorder on iPhone" method. Two nights, nothing yet, but I am hopeful.
posted by not_on_display at 3:24 PM on March 18, 2018
posted by not_on_display at 3:24 PM on March 18, 2018
Response by poster: So I set it up with Audacity, to record any noise above [n] decibels. Results so far: I mumbled about six words regarding three dreams. The farts the mic caught were much much more interesting.
posted by not_on_display at 6:35 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by not_on_display at 6:35 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
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