MENU : Dream Dictionary : Articles : Remembering Dreams : On-Line Book : Tips
------------------------------------
REMEMBERING DREAMS

Neuroimaging has shown that people do not remember their dreams because short term memory banks are switched off during dreams. It seems that it is not necessary for us to remember them at all.

Remembering dreams is quite difficult. But there are some useful tips. Try to lie perfectly still when you wake up. It will help the details of the dreams slowly filter back into your concious mind. You will remember one detail, then another. then slowly the dream will drift back into your mind.

Keep a pen and paper by your bedside. Try to record the facts, but try to remain still as much as possible. If you get up turn on a computer, make yourself a cup of coffee and then try to type the dream on a computer, the whole thing will be lost.

The most important thing is that when you wake up you need to be in a state where you can think clearly. Its very strange to go straight into REM sleep early on it the night so quite often you won't dream until maybe three hours into the night. If you are tired when you fall asleep then its possible that you will sleep right through.

The trick is to get yourself to wake up. Some people set an alrm clock to wake themselves up at about three and a half hours. That will wake them up at about the time of REM sleep. But I think that is a little drastic. Try what I like to refer to as the Bart Simpson method. Before you go to sleep drink something. So halfway through the night you will be forced to wake up to go to the toilet. If you are lucky then you will wake up during dream sleep. By the way - its called the bart simpso method because in that episode bart drank tons of water to wake himself up early on christmas day. But if you have weak bladder problems then this method is probably not so good.

Also half way through the night I often drink a cup of something. That stimulant will make you a little bit more able to think clearly when you wake. A little sip of cold tea or coffeee, or cola will make you a lot more awake when you wake up at the end of the night.

Of course its a matter of finding something that suits you. There is no strict method.A chinese man found that when he slept on the floor he didn't dream . yet when he slept in a bed he did dream. So your posture is maybe important too. In your dream diary jot down if you woke up on your back or on your side. It maybe that a particular posture helps you to remember dreams.

Lastly just wanting to remember a dream can help. When you go to bed keep saying to yourself you will remember your dreams then that may work.

------------------------------------
ON-LINE BOOK : Hundreds of real dreams

A BASIC INTRO to what dreams are about

BASIC TECHNIQUES to interpret dreams
DREAM DICTIONARY A to Z of symbols complete with essays on symbols in everyday real uses
BASIC SYMBOLISM
- DREAM SYMBOLS : Basements - Your boss - Best friend - Babies/pregnant - Brothers - Cafes - Cars - Castles - Children - Creative dreams - Clothes - Churches and cathedrals - Deaths - Demons,witches and goblins - Dogs - Drink and drugs - Farms, gardens and plants - Factories - Fathers - Faucets/taps/pipes - Food - Earthquakes and volcanos - Foreign Countries - Grandparents - Guards - Guns and knives - Horses and animals - Hauntings - Hospitals - Hotels + huge buildings - Houses - Locks - Men(unknown) - Military - Money - Mothers - Monster - Mountains - Movies - Music - People - Police - Phone - Politics - Planes and flying - Prison - Rivers - Rapists and intruders - Railways - Roads - Schools - Sea - Sex - Shops - Sisters - Skies in dreams - Skyscrapers and tall buildings - Snakes and spiders - Space - Sports - Street - Teeth - Tidal waves - Time - Toilets in dreams - Towns and streets - Trees - Water - Weddings and engagements - Windows - Work
OTHER SUBJECTS: external causes of dreams : Music in dreams : Premonitions : Telepathy : Specific dreams : Synonyms in dreams : Children's dreams and dreams about your child : Recurring dreams CASE STUDIES : 1 2 3 4
------------------------------------