Top 15 Proven Ways To REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS Better Tonight

It’s important to learn how to remember your dreams, after all what’s the point of lucid dreaming if you can’t remember the experiences? There are some simple things you can do to improve your dream recall.

Even if you NEVER remember any dreams. 

Let’s dive in:

Dreams are often the only time in which we get to test our limits, explore new ideas, and act out our desires. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to forget them! Luckily, there are numerous ways of remembering your dreams so you can enjoy these benefits every day.

Improving dream recall

Remembering dreams comes down to this; Writing in your dream diary, believing you’ll remember, and practice. The most important thing is that you write dreams down in your dream journal.

IMPORTANT: We’ve just created the most effective course for remembering your dreams out there. This course and methods literally force you to be able to VIVIDLY recall dreams (lucid or normal) from yesterday, last week, or YEARS ago. You won’t want to miss this. Click here to learn how to recall dreams instantly

What Are Dreams?

Dreams are a fascinating and unique experience for people of all ages. It has been theorized that dreams can be a way to escape a reality a person may not want to face, but they can also be a reminder of something they might need to work on in their waking life. Dreams are also thought to be a very important part to the subconscious mind and how it works.

Some people believe that dreams are a way for the subconscious mind to communicate with the conscious mind, and help them to develop and improve on certain behaviors.

Why Do We Have Dreams At Night?

People have dreams because their brains are still active when they sleep. Their brains might be working on solving problems that occurred during the day or it may just be playing out what happened before bed.

Nobody really knows why people dream, but there are theories about it including PTSD, overstimulation of the brain, and hallucinations.

There could be a number of reasons.

Why Do People Struggle To Remember Their Dreams?

People sometimes have trouble remembering their dreams because they don’t stay awake long enough for the brain to finish making new memories. When you sleep, your brain is still working and creating new memories.

The longer you’re asleep, the more likely you are to remember the dream because it’s been put together in bits and pieces inside your brain before you woke up.

If you wake up after a few minutes, it’s likely that you won’t remember what you dreamed because the brain needs to finish making the memory before it can be put into long-term memory.

How To Remember Your Dreams More (Improve Dream Recall)

You can either choose to do all of these, or just one or two.

These are our best tips, techniques and methods for remembering more of your dreams naturally, every morning.

After that, we’ll look at some extra tips, and some common questions people have about remembering dreams.

Here we go!

1: Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up

By writing in your dream journal as soon as you wake up, you don’t give yourself time to forget your dreams.

  • If you start getting up, making breakfast and then trying to remember, you won’t.
  • It will be very difficult because the brain is not yet trained to remember dreams. Try and do it before anything else, before even getting out of bed if possible.

It’s all about training your brain to remember your dreams as soon as you wake up, and in order to start doing this, you need to be able to have it as the ‘first thing’ you think about when waking up.

This can’t be stressed enough, whatever you do, write ‘something’ in your dream journal every morning.

2: DECIDE to remember your dreams more

This is a psychological tip more than anything else:

Tell yourself every night before you go to sleep that you WILL remember your dreams.

Even if you don’t at first, keep telling yourself that, and after a few days or weeks, you will.

This is because your mind picks up on these messages you’re sending it, and actually takes them on board, and makes more of an effort to remember your dreams.

By doing this enough, you’ll find yourself thinking much more clearly in the mornings about your dreams and what happened.

It will get easier for you.

There’s a lot to be said about the power of intention, and in many cases, just by INTENDING something to happen in your life, it will. 

It’s sometimes called the law of attraction, but it has many other names as well.

Simply put, your mind can do much more than we think, so starting now, DECIDE that you’re going to remember more dreams. 

3: Get higher quality sleep

Sleep quality is VERY important..

Keep yourself healthy, and keep your sleep patterns normal and regular. In order to have the best dreaming experience, you might want to look at the bigger picture, and improve your overall sleep and health.

Do some exercise, eat the right foods, and most importantly, get enough high quality sleep.

This doesn’t mean go to bed at 3 in the morning and wake up at noon the next day, it means go to bed in the evening when you’re tired and wake up in the morning preferably before 8-9.

The body naturally wakes up at this time, but by progressively staying up later and later you push your body clock round so that it needs more sleep the next morning, and you lay in until 12.

It’s not healthy to stay up so late, and it can affect your dreaming as well as your overall well being.

If you’re serious about Lucid Dreaming and improving your health and dreams, try and establish a regular sleep pattern.

To start shifting it, the easiest and FASTEST way is to set an alarm for the new time for example 8AM.

Get up at this time every day no matter how tired you are, and in a few days you’ll find you get tired enough to sleep at 10-11 at night. You can quickly change your body clock and sleep patterns this way.

Getting low quality sleep or sleep that is broken into several fragments means you’ll get less REM sleep, which is when most dreams happen! By suffering low quality sleep you not only feel worse the next day, but you don’t remember as many dreams!

Get rid of noises, lights, and anything that could disturb or distract you at night. This is the first step to having a better nights sleep. You could also try a sleep optimisation program to make sure you get the highest quality of deep sleep.

4: Use a DREAM ANCHOR!

This is part of a neuro linguistic programming technique (NLP).

Choose an object in your room that you see every time you wake up and tell yourself ‘Whenever I see that object, I WILL remember my dreams’.

Practicing real skills in lucid dreams

After a few days or weeks of doing this, you’ll notice that you actually DO start remembering more dreams as a result.

You’re training your mind to remember dreams whenever you see that object, and it’s a powerful way to boost dream recall!

5: Don’t open your eyes as soon as you wake up

Opening your eyes when you wake up is a good way to forget the dreams you just had.

Are you surprised? 

Unless they were really vivid, chances are the images of your room and the physical world will just distract you from your dreams, and stop you remembering them. Lots of people fall for this and end up FORGETTING most of their beautiful dreams.

But you can avoid it very easily!

Try to wait a few minutes after waking up before opening your eyes, so you have time to think about your previous nights dreams, what happened and what you’re going to write in your journal as soon as you open your eyes. Really think with FOCUS before opening your eyes!

Then, when your eyes are open, you should be able to remember the dreams enough to write them down.

And you should write them down, every single morning. Don’t forget to do that!

6: Use a dream recall supplement

One of the best ways of remembering more dreams is sometimes to try a supplement. 

We’ve written a lot about lucid dreaming supplements before but you can use many of the SAME ones to improve your dream recall!

Learning to lucid dream with pills

Particularly the ones with things like Valerian root or Mugwort or even Huperzine A! Check them out, but remember not to get used to them! You don’t want to be dependant on supplements to remember your dreams. 

Another great thing to try is Vitamin B6. I’ve used vitamin B6 for a number of years and the effect it has on memory is very reliable and proven. Start by just taking a small B6 supplement every morning, and the good thing about it is the dosage doesn’t matter so much!

I’ve found that even high dosages of B6 don’t really have many side effects, 

But of course do your own research on this stuff!

Always make sure to check it doesn’t react or interact with medications you’re already taking. But i’s still a powerful aid for dream recall!

7: Calm yourself down before bed

Before going to bed it’s important to REALLY focus on calming your mind down. 

The calmer your mind is before bed, the less likely you are to have nightmares, and you’re MORE likely to remember the dreams you have.

It’s a really easy tip because you can easily calm yourself down before bed. Everyone can! Here are some things you could try before bed to calm down and relax:

  • Have a warm bath (Even better if you add one or two drops of essential oilsl!)
  • Meditate or do a deep breathing exercise
  • Think about what you would like to DREAM about that night
  • Do some drawing or doodling in a notebook
  • Read a book! I love reading before bed, and it’s really relaxing
  • Make sure to turn DOWN most lights and artificial light sources about an hour before bed

There are plenty more ways to relax, but the chances are you have your personal favourite already.

Just making sure you’re relaxed before going to bed can improve your sleep by as much as 40%, and your dream recall REALLY improves as well!

8: Record dreams DURING the DAY!

It’s not ALL about writing your dreams in your dream journal

Dream journals are very important for learning to remember more, and getting more involved with your dream life, but it doesn’t end when you put your journal DOWN in the morning. You can use it throughout the day as well!

lucid dreaming rut,dream journal,

  • A huge part of dream recall is about remembering dreams DURING the day, when you’re going about your business.
  • Often we remember fragments or little parts of our dreams randomly throughout the day, and it’s VITAL that you write those little fragments down.
  • They might trigger your memory of another part of the dream that you’d completely forgotten about. Most of us have these little dream flashbacks and just forget about them..

From now on make sure to write down all those little dream fragments. 

9: Go back over the DREAM PLOT

Once you’ve written a few dreams in your journal, have a look back at them a few days later. 

You might find that by READING old dreams back from several days ago, you can actually remember NEW parts of the dream that you’d previously forgotten! 

I like to call this the ‘plot recall’ technique, but it’s just a very simple tip you can use. 

With this I tend to be able to add about 10-20% onto old dream journal entries that I thought were FINISHED! 

10: Keep going even when it’s HARD

Here’s the thing about remembering your dreams:

It’s DIFFICULT. 

At first, you just won’t be able to remember ANYTHING. But don’t let that put you off.

Because the thing about dream recall is, once you’ve LEARNED how to remember your dreams it DOES get easier.

But you have to stick with it even if it’s really difficult at first, and you just don’t know what to do. EVERY MORNING, write in your dream journal! 

I know I keep saying this, but even if you don’t remember any dreams, what do you write? 

You write ‘no dreams recalled’!

11: Use a reminder ANCHOR sticker

This is actually a lovely dream hack. 

You can REMIND yourself to remember your dreams by putting a few stickers around your house that say ‘WHAT DID YOU DREAM?’.

This is a perfect addition to the reality check reminder stickers, and you can get them or make them very easily. 

By reminding yourself to ask yourself what you dreamed about, you will hack your subconscious mind to THINK about remembering dreams. And that’s a powerful way to recall more.

12: Set specific times for recall

Another mind hack here:

Set specific times during the day when you’ll FOCUS on dream recall and trying to remember your dreams. You can try and remember the previous NIGHTS dreams, or even dreams from days ago. 

By flexing your ‘dream recall’ muscle, it gets stronger. 

The more you use a muscle or thought pattern, the stronger it gets. So tell yourself every day I’ll remember my dreams at the following times:

  • As soon as I wake up (and write in my dream journal)
  • Just before lunch (and write more notes in the journal if you remember them)
  • Just before bed (and read through previous dream journal entries)

13: Cycle through potential memories

One trick I love using is to sit down and think about RANODM things.

Cycle through your memories of everything including people, places, feelings, events and so on. 

things to do in a lucid dream,time travel,

After a few minutes, you’re bound to think about something RELATED to what you’ve dreamed about. 

And it triggers your dream memory! Suddenly you can remember something about your dream that you would have forgotten otherwise. Beautiful! I find it’s effective to watch random YouTube videos or read random entries in Wikipedia for this as well.

14: Eat more fruit!

Eating fruits like bananas actually helps our brains remember more dreams. 

Not only dreams, but it helps our brains remember ANYTHING better. 

Try eating more foods like: 

  • Bananas
  • Spinach (fresh and RAW)
  • Nuts
  • Seeds
  • Omega 3-6-9 (found in some supplements)
  • As much of a vegan or plant based diet as you can

Eating things like that will help your brain remember WAY more dreams and other things. 

15: Drink loads of water

Not only does water help your brain function properly, but there’s actually another way drinking water helps you RECALL more dreams:

By drinking a glass of water before bed, you’re likely to need the toilet during the night. 

  • By waking up randomly in this way, during the night you’re likely to wake yourself up in the middle of an REM sleep cycle. 
  • REM sleep is where our dreams happen, and we can remember MORE of them if we can manage to wake up DURING a REM sleep cycle. But that’s normally quite hard to do.
  • But by drinking the water, you’re likely to just happen to wake up during REM, meaning you’ll be right in the middle of a dream.

This means you can more easily remember it!

Common questions about remembering dreams

Here we’re going to talk about some commonly asked questions about remembering your dreams, and how you can best improve your recall. If your question isn’t here, please let us know!

How FAST Can I Boost My Recall?

This depends on how much effort you put in, and how much time you spend doing it. Like anything, you need to practice it, and get better and better over time. Most of us aren’t good at remembering dreams naturally, because we just very rarely practice it.

Lucid dreamers should make it a part of their daily routine to think about their previous nights dreams, before going about their day, and you should too!

Being connected with your dream life is very important and will help you stay more grounded and happy throughout your day.

Why Do We All Have Bad Dreams?

Bad, or scary, dreams happen when we sleep. It is a natural thing that every person does. When we go to bed, our brain starts to shut down and relax. Then all of a sudden, different thoughts and memories may pop into your head.

This can cause you to have a bad dream because the thoughts in your head might be new and unfamiliar for you.

Does everyone dream, EVERY night?

Yes, everyone dreams every night.

With a few rare exceptions, in the case of those with rare sleep disorders, everyone dreams every night.

The difference is that not everyone REMEMBERS their dreams, and there lies the confusion. People sometimes assume that because they can’t remember their dreams, they DIDN’T dream, but that’s not true.

Can I remember a dream I had two years ago?

It depends on your memory, personally. It also depends on the dream, but there are some ways you can try to remember a SPECIFIC dream, provided you know at least a little bit about the dream.

If you can remember a fragment, sound, feeling, location etc then you might be able to recreate the dream memory:

  1. Focus on what you DO remember about the dream: This can be a sound, sight, person etc. Really try and feel that again
  2. Relax your focus and see what you naturally feel next: This is the hard part, especially if the dream was a long time ago
  3. Let your mind drift into seemingly random other thoughts: If you get lost or confused, focus on the first fragment again; the first thing you remember about your dream
  4. Write down anything you feel, hear or remember in your mind: Refer back to it, and try and remember more and more of the old dream at a set time each day
  5. If you remember a fragment of the dream, such as being on a beach, go onto Google images or YouTube and search for that thing. Watch videos of people walking on beaches, for example and it might trigger other parts of the dream memory you thought you’d forgotten.

Using Supplements To Improve Your Dream Recall

Supplements are small drugs that you can take to help your body do various things. Some supplements may make it easier for you to get better sleep and remember your dreams without having to take a sleeping pill. The supplement we could use for this purpose is called ZMA (Zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6).

We need these vitamins and minerals in our diet because we get them from eating fruits and vegetables, milk products, and meats.

Does vitamin B6 help with dream recall?

Yes! A great way to increase your dream recall and remember more of your dreams is to take something called Vitamin B6. This vitamin really boosts your memory and brain power, especially for remembering your dreams.

We need vitamin B6 to make the neurotransmitter serotonin. If you don’t have enough vitamin B6, you can’t make serotonin and may be more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Vitamin B6 is also needed for proper brain function. ADHD is a disorder that may require use of vitamin b6.

It’s best to take it with a multivitamin, just to make sure you’re all balanced out and healthy.

ZMA For Dream Recall

You can get ZMA as a supplement or as a liquid powder. ZMA is a supplement that can help you remember your dreams better. It’s a combination of Zinc and Magnesium. The Zinc helps your body use more oxygen and the magnesium helps you relax and sleep better.

ZMA is a supplement that helps your body make more testosterone to improve your sleep as well.

IMPORTANT: We’ve just created the most effective course for remembering your dreams out there. This course and methods literally force you to be able to VIVIDLY recall dreams (lucid or normal) from yesterday, last week, or YEARS ago. You won’t want to miss this. Click here to learn how to recall dreams instantly

That course/ebook is the most effective way of learning more.

It contains lots of information and secret techniques on remembering your dreams that we didn’t cover here. 

How To Improve Your Entire Memory

There are many ways to improve your memory. One way is to create a system so that you can remember information easier. For example, if you have a grocery list, write down the items with aisle number on the list. This will help you find the items faster in the store. Another way to improve your memory is through repetition.

You can use flashcards or quiz yourself by asking ‘what are five things on my grocery list?’.

You can also use mnemonic devices like rhymes or visual images. For example, the rhyme “Thirty days hath September” is used to help people remember how many days are in each month.

Useful resources for remembering your dreams

A good all round memory boosting vitamin like vitamin B6 will be a good thing to get but there are also some other things that might help you remember your dreams better: