|
HOW TO
ENHANCE DREAM RECALL
Alan Siegel, Ph.D.
Copyrighted Excerpt from
Dream Wisdom: Uncovering Life’s Answers
in your Dreams
by Alan Siegel, Ph.D. (Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2003)
Remembering dreams does not require complicated procedures or high-tech
gadgets. Your attitude and receptivity are the most influential factors.
If you approach your dreams with an attitude of curiosity and interest,
you are likely to succeed no matter what procedures you use.
The right way to remember and document your dreams is whatever way works
best for you. Most people prefer to record their dreams in a journal first
thing in the morning. Others use a tape recorder or a sketch pad, or
simply tell their dreams to a partner or supportive friend.
Probably the single most important thing we can do to enhance our recall
of dreams is to keep pen and paper by the bedside. A special notebook or
journal that is esthetically pleasing can become a treasure chest of your
inner life. Both children and adults, enjoy decorating their dream journal
with illustrations of their dreams symbols, photos of recurrent dream
characters or collages of different aspects of their dreams.
Another helpful technique for improving your memory of dreams is to make a
review of the day’s events in the evening before going to sleep. Your
review can be written in your journal or shared with your partner. Focus
on interactions and events that provoked strong feelings. This can make
you more sensitive to the issues you’re most likely to dream about and
heighten the probability that you’ll remember a dream. At the same time as
your evening review, you may also want to picture the faces of the people
who are most important to you and about whom you are most likely to dream.
Visualizing them will sensitize you to the issues and feelings that are
dominant in those relationships. This process will help you establish
linkages between your dreams and the challenging aspects of your close
relationships.
If you are having difficulty remembering your dreams, try to relax in the
evening by listening to music, taking a bath, or practicing relaxation or
meditation exercises. Avoid alcohol, drugs, and medications, and limit
your caffeine intake, as these suppress dreaming. As you are falling
asleep, give yourself a simple suggestion that you will remember your
dreams in the morning. This suggestion strengthens your intention and
reminds you to remain alert and ready to receive dreams when you awaken.
Each night of our lives, we enter four to six phases of REM or Rapid Eye
Movement sleep, which is highly correlated with vivid dreams. The first
REM dreaming cycle of the night may only be ten minutes but each
subsequent phase, which occurs about ninety minutes after the previous
one, gets longer. Because the last dream period of the night is the
longest, you have the greatest chance for recalling a dream in the
morning. To maximize your chances for remembering a dream, plan to wake up
naturally or set a (non-music) alarm about fifteen minutes earlier than
your usual wake-up time. If you do awake during the night with a dream,
make sure to jot down key phrases or you’ll tend to forget it by morning.
This is true because a word or image stored in short-term memory requires
ten minutes of wakefulness for our brain to transfer them into our
long-term memory banks.
When you awaken, reserve a few quiet moments and lie still with your eyes
closed or unfocused. Some people find it helpful to stay in the same
position in which they awoke and to avoid turning. You can linger in a
half-dream state and your dream will often stay with you as you make a
gentle transition from sleeping to waking. In the half-dream state of
waking up or falling asleep, you may also see vivid images that are akin
to dreams. The imagery can be enjoyable to witness and meaningful in much
the same way as your dreams. The technical term for the half-dream state
of waking up is the hypnopompic state and images seen while falling asleep
are called hypnogogic.
Always record a dream, no matter how fragmentary, frightening or
unimportant it may seem. During the night or when you awaken, begin by
jotting down key words and phrases even if they are not in a logical
order. Often, one word or phrase will later trigger the recall of many
more details from a dream.
For children, encouragement, parent modeling, and night and morning
rituals can enhance dream recall. Children who are encouraged to remember
and value their dreams will develop heightened recall that will often last
a lifetime. When children perceive that their parents or older siblings
find dreams interesting, they will want to get in on the action. If they
witness family dream discussions, they will be eager to participate. A
nightly ritual that refers to the value and enjoyment of dreams and
conveys parental interest will act as a suggestion to the child. Morning
dream checks, breakfast discussions, emotional and even physical
reassurances to ease nightmares and praise for the originality of each
dream will also lead to frequent recall and meaningful discussions and
dream-related ideas and projects.
Obstacles to Dream Recall: Many people have difficulty remembering
their dreams. They get tripped up by assumptions and attitudes that cause
them to dismiss dreams as unworthy of further consideration. Obstacles to
dream recall include the beliefs that a dream is:
1) Fragmentary and therefore useless
2) Too trivial or just a repeat of daily events
3) Illogical, nonsensical, or confusing
4) Bewildering, morally repulsive, or terrifying
5) Inadequate in some way; for example, lacking universal symbols or an
appealing coherent story line.
If you occasionally dismiss your dreams as worthless
for any of the reasons above, you increase the likelihood of having
difficulty remembering dreams. It’s important to value every dream as a
potential source of insight and change. If you find yourself tempted to
minimize the importance of a particular dream or of your dreams in
general, keep in mind that even the tiniest, confusing, mundane dream
fragment can have profound meaning.
GUIDELINES FOR REMEMBERING DREAMS AND
RECORDING THEM IN YOUR DREAM JOURNAL
Remembering dreams is more of an art that a set of
procedures. If you are willing to risk discovering new insights into your
deepest feelings, learning to record your dreams will be richly rewarding.
If you are sincerely interested in your dreams and read the following
guidelines it is likely that you will begin to remember your dreams within
a few days.
1.) It is important to keep your Daily Dream Journal
at arm's reach every night. A bedside lamp or small flashlight will help
to record any dreams that awaken you during the night.
2.) Plan a few moments in the morning before talking
or getting up. A tone alarm is preferable to a radio alarm. Keep quiet for
a few moments to let images surfaces.
3.) Write all dreams down (no matter how brief) as
soon as possible. Sometimes it helps to assume the position that you were
sleeping in and allow images to come to you.
4.) Any image, feeling, idea or fragmentary dream
should be recorded no matter how garbled, incomplete, weird, or mundane it
may seem. We have a natural tendency to feel that our dreams are
unimportant, fragmentary or too confusing. ALL DREAMS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
LEGITIMATE NO MATTER HOW FRAGMENTARY THEY SEEM.
5.) There is no need to try to organize the dream or
edit it. Just write whatever comes to your mind even if it does not seem
logical. Please be as open and candid as you can in writing the dream
down.
6.) Use a separate sheet for each dream noting the
date and time at the top of the page. Use the back of the page for extra
space if needed.
7.) Note any feelings or associations that you have
after finishing writing the dream down. Use the back of the page. For
example: " I woke up terrified" or "It reminded me of my old childhood
house" etc.
8.) It is important to not try too hard or pressure
yourself to remember your dreams. A playful attitude and a heightened
interest in the images of your dreams will help to make your Dream Journal
an enjoyable adventure rather than a chore.
9) Experiment with drawing or tape recording your
dreams to see if it suits your needs.
10) Write dreams on your computer and catalog themes
so you can search for recurring themes.
DATE OF DREAM:
REVIEW: Note important emotional issues of
the past day or two especially reactions to important interactions and/or
changes in relationships, work, health and mood.
KEY: Jot key words and phrases from the dream when you awaken.
DREAM: Write the entire dream without waking associations.
TITLE:
DREAM F A C E T S :
Guidelines for exploring a dream.
INSTRUCTIONS: Choose a recent dream. Close
your eyes and spend one to five minutes immersing yourself in the feelings
and sensory images of your dream as if you were re-entering and
re-experiencing your dream. Complete the following F A C E T S of your
dream in the space below. Write as fast as you can without planning or
censoring your thoughts and feelings.
DATE OF DREAM:
FEELINGS: Describe the
feelings you experienced during the dream, after waking or in the present.
ASSOCIATIONS: Focus on
your dream again and jot down any ideas, thoughts, memories, or insights
that spring to mind no matter how odd or unrelated they may seem.
CHARACTERS: List all
the main characters and describe your reactions to them in the dream and
in waking life. Be aware that characters may represent the real person or
symbolize a part of your own personality and that dream characters are
often distorted, or combine features of more that one person.
ENDING: Describe how
the dream ends and note whether the ending provides partial or total
resolution or is unresolved. Note whether the dream ending mirrors any
trends in your current relationships.
TITLE OF DREAM:
SUMMARY: What are main emotional themes of
this dream and how are they linked with current issues in your life and to
important relationships?
|
