Techniques to Improve Dream Recall

Since one of the steps to dream control involves remembering your dreams, you can use these tehcniques to improve dream recall.  Like any project, moving forward requires you break your goal into steps and tackle them one at a time.

Dream recall is different for everyone.  You supposedly dream an average of 5 times a night but many people will go months without realizing they've dreamed at all.  Dreams are really a great window into your subconscious and if you don't remember them you're missing a lot of messages that could be useful for self-improvement, decision making, and problem solving.  By problem solving, I don't mean you can use your dreams to give you the answer to that riddle your kid asked you the other night...I mean those day in and day out, fork-in-the-road kinds of problems that we you can't avoid when you're an adult.   You know, these kinds of problems:

• Should I consider getting a new job?
• How am I going to afford a family vacation this year?  Money's so tight.
• I wonder if I should keep seeing this new guy or if we're really not meant for each other?

Your brain is chomping away at these problems while you're sleeping and if you can improve your dream recall, you'll get all kinds of insights into what your true, often-hidden, inner self thinks about these problems.

Here are a few simple techniques to improve dream recall:

• Play more memory games.  Remember that game you played when you were a kid?  The one where you had a set of cards with two of each kind of card, you laid them face down and then you had to find all the matches?  Play games that improve your memory and you'll be training your brain to better recall your dreams.
• When you first wake up in the morning (or night...whenever your schedule), try not to open your eyes right away.  Lay back in bed and scan your memory for any dreams you might have just had.  If you tend to fall back asleep if you stay in bed and doing so might make you late for work, reserve this technique for non-work days.  No alarm, either, helps.  Just wake up naturally, lay in bed peacefully and force yourself to focus on any wisps of a dream that may still be hanging around in your head.
• Oh, yeah - dream journal.  Get in the habit of writing those dreams down somewhere when you do remember them.

Your brain is a constant piece of clay - always ready to learn something new.  You CAN teach an old dog new tricks.  So, practice these techniques to improve dream recall over the next few weeks and see if you don't notice a change.