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| HOW
TO REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS By Rosemary Watts, © 1994 |
One of the myths
about dreaming is that only certain people remember their dreams. Starting
in the 1950's, sleep laboratories discovered and began studying the
stages of sleep where dreams occur. This stage, called R.E.M., for Rapid
or Random Eye Movement, dispelled the myth about who dreams. Scientists
proved that everyone dreams every night. Since then, it has been the
focus of dreamworkers to educate and assist people in remembering their
dreams.
So how can we remember our dreams? Intention is the biggest factor. By giving simple pre-sleep suggestions, such as, "I honor my dreams and easily recall them upon waking," you can program into your subconscious the desire and goal of remembering any dream. Have a pen and paper by the bed to record your dreams immediately. If you prefer, use a tape recorder. Immediately upon waking write any story, images, sounds, impressions, feelings, symbols or themes. Record the dream in present time, as if the dream is happening now. Also date and title the dream for later reference. Dream fragments are important to record as well. Don't get out of bed and begin the day's activities until you have recorded the dream(s). If you wait until after you shower, have breakfast or go to work, most of the dream, if not all, will have disappeared by the time you go to record it. Do not depend on your memory. Try to recall your dreams on a daily basis. The more regular you become about writing dreams down, the more you will remember. Train yourself to wake up just before the alarm. In this way, you won't have your dream interrupted by the buzzer or music, and you can wake up more slowly retaining more of the dream. You might drink a glass of water before bed, and when you need to get up in the middle of the night, catch your dream images. Some "tricks" to aid recall for more stubborn memories include reviewing the previous night's dream (or the last remembered dream) before falling asleep. This gives a message to your subconscious that you are honoring the dream images, thereby eliciting more dream memory. Another trick is to return to your dreaming position -- we each have a particular body position that we turn to when entering R.E.M. This movement often will prompt the dream images to filter back to conscious awareness. If you still have trouble recalling your dreams, change your sleep pattern, the position of your bed or the room you sleep in. Some shift in your surrounding or habits will help trigger your memory of dreams. Dreams do mean something and paying attention to them is helpful for almost every area of our waking lives. Utilizing the wisdom, problem solving tools, suggestions and insights from our dreams can aid in understanding and improving the quality of waking life. But before this can happen, we must employ basic dream recall techniques to begin the learning process. (Original printing: The Women's Voice newspaper, Volume III, Issue XII, St. Louis, MO, August 1994.) |