“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.” ~ T.E. Lawrence
So I’ve been designing a brand new training for our Kwik Learning online students, on an interesting topic… How to Recall Your Dreams.
* if you are enrolled in our Kwik Learning Online Training Program, we will be uploading this bonus training video this week for you to enjoy as our gift. If you are not yet a member, you can find out more by clicking the banner at the top right of this page.
While part of our Dream Recollection program requires a background in Kwik Recall techniques, I thought it would be fun to post a few instantly useable Kwik Tips.
Now there are many theories as to why we dream, how we dream and what dreams mean. That’s a conversation for another time, but let’s first start with a few dream facts:
- About one third of our lives is spent sleeping, roughly 25 years.
- Around 6 years of it is spent dreaming. That is more than 2,100 days in the dream world.
- We dream on average 4-7 dreams, about one to two hours total, each night.
- Everyone dreams. Just because you do not remember your dream does not mean that you did not dream.
So here are just a few kwik tips to recall more dreams:
1. Decide to Remember – the night before you sleep, make a conscious choice that you will recall your dreams.
2. Affirm You Will Remember – set the intention before you sleep by saying out loud, multiple times “I will recall my dreams.”
3. Manage Your Sleep - rest and clear your mind before bedtime. Get plenty of sleep and establish regular sleep routines.
4. Stay Healthy – some suggest it helps to not eat heavy/fatty meals or drink excess alcohol before bed, as it may hinder dream recall and reduce REM sleep.
5. Record Your Dreams – the act of recording trains your mind to be more sensitized to your dreams and to start paying more attention to them.
- Keep pen and paper by your bedside to record any lingering remembrance when you awake. Better yet, use a dedicated Dream Journal.
- You can also use an audio or phone recorder.
6. Share Your Dreams – get in the habit of talking about your dreams with others. The more often you acknowledge your dreams and bring them to the surface, the easier it will be to remember them.
Like all the memory training we do, whether it is for names, faces, numbers, speeches, foreign languages, etc, the ability to recall your dreams is a skill, and a skill you can learn with a little practice and persistence.
Expect to recall your dreams, but don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t come right away. At first, you may only remember small parts, but the more you work with your dreams, the easier it will be to recall them.
An interesting potential ‘side effect’ of dream recall training is the experience of more LUCID DREAMS. Lucid dreaming is the process of dreaming while knowing (being aware) that you are dreaming. Lucid dreamers report sleeping adventures, problem solving, creative endeavors, and a multitude of other fantasy/learning experiences. As you can imagine, for many, this is a very desired skill and ability.
If lucid dreaming is your goal, good dream recall is often described as the first step towards lucid dreaming, since better recall increases awareness of dreams in general. We teach many strategies for lucid dreaming in our Kwik Thinking course, if there is interest, let me know and we will post more training on the subject here!
My Kwik Question(s) for You: How well do you recall your dreams? Have you ever experienced lucid dreaming? Have you tried any recall/lucid dreaming methods that have worked well for you?
Be Unforgettable And Sweet Dreams! ~ Jim Kwik
I had a test to check if I was dreaming. I would find something to read (it would just magically appear). If I was dreaming the words would look Greek and letters falling off of the page. After several years though, my mind conquered that test and began to be able to read inside dreams. Since then, I have no test, I simply realize it’s not reality; but I rarely have this knowledge. Recently I dreamed I was a word on a page going from right to left and looking out at the reader. And I could feel the letters rising and falling within a word like musical notes. So I “saw” the unique power or signature each word has.
It is very interesting… myself i have more dreams when is something more important around me… i’ll recall a particular dream when i’ll wake up and i concentrate on it, otherwise i forgot all dreams… i believe, it is very important in what phase you will wake up (REM).
Marcy, I think that was an amazing experience and thank you for sharing…I dream every night…The dream time is very special to me so I remember a lot of my dreams but I don’t feel lucid much of the time…I’m going to try testing myself as you did…Blessings and sweet dreams…Joy
One way to test if you’re dreaming is to wear a loose elastic band on your wrist and flick it if you think you’re dreaming. Another is to try to switch on an electric light in your dream. Aparently you can’t.
I have had many lucid dreams. My dream signal is being able to levitate. I constantly check if I’m able to do this all the time (both while sleeping and while awake). The reason I do it while I’m awake is to get into the habit to do it in my dreams. The other reason to do it while I’m awake is because I shift perspectives from assuming I’m awake to assuming I’m dreaming. In other words it doesn’t make sense to assume I’m ever awake because this doesn’t help me in my dreams. If my default assumption is that I’m dreaming, I have a better chance of becoming lucid. Since my perspective is always “real” to me, I “assume” if I can’t fly I’m awake and I “assume” if I can fly I’m sleeping.