We all have days where we wake up and can't remember diddly-squat, right? No dream recall at all, despite all efforts to coax out at least a tiny little thing. It would be all too easy to say: What's the point of writing in my dream journal today? Nah, I'll just skip the day...
But actually, we should not do that – it's important to continue with the daily ritual of dream journaling in the morning even on zero recall days. I'm pretty sure that my dream recall picks up again faster when I don't neglect my journal on those days. Trust me, I've skipped days in the past and that led to more days of radio silence.
I write down what I last remember from the evening before, how I slept, if and when I woke up during the night, if I tried out any technique, anything I can think of... And/or I re-script dreams I had before the dry spell – how they would have gone, had I become lucid. We talked about that yesterday with a few people, and @Conner Edgar summed it up perfectly: "Just map the night, even if you can't remember any dreams. This helps your brain understand that what happens at night is very important to you and you want to remember what happens during that time."
A few times, just when I was ready to admit defeat and write down "no dream recall", my brain at least coughed up something like "a lot of people in dark clothing". And sometimes, a dream just pops up in my mind later in the day. What do you write in your dream journal on zero-recall days?
Regardless of what you write, I think the most important thing is to make sure you're taking the time each morning to keep your head clear and simply THINK. Take those few minutes when you wake up to fish for dreams, and if you can't recall anything, just think about any important details that night and write them down. Regular people don't do this. They just wake up in the morning and immediately start thinking about their day. I think its important for us dreamer's to make sure we are consistently using our journals every single morning and not rushing into the day.
I've made it a routine each morning to sit with my journal, drink my coffee, and keep a clear head while I think back on the night and anything I remember. Even on those mornings I can't recall any dreams, it's still a nice way to start the day. Its nice to wake up and spend a few minutes with my thoughts and my dreams before thinking about the stresses of the day. It's become sort of like a meditative practice for me. I like to think of it as a way of setting intentions. Everyone talks about setting intentions to remember your dreams before going to bed, but if you know that you are going to write something in your journal each morning no matter what, I believe this is another great way to set intentions to remember your dreams 😴
It may also be helpful to write what your bedroom was like - such as light coming into the room, whether it was hot or cold, any electronic devices in your room, anything else that could affect your sleep - and try to map out what your sleep cycle, in terms of when you had the different stages of sleep, might have been - having no dream recall is likely because you woke up during NREM. Factors like temperature and light, and what you did and ate before bed can affect the quality of your sleep and how long you spend in each stage. This information could possibly explain why you had no recall.
Oh yes, I also have these random thoughts popping up! Actually, today is one of these "zero recall" days, but after writing in my journal, a thought popped up that I'll keep mulling about – it would not surprise me if it solidified into a dream in the course of the day.
Just the act of writing something down in a dream journal is really important, so I have no fully empty pages there. I write the time I went to bed, time I woke up, what I ate before bed, techniques I used... (I write all this every day). When there's really just void, I pay extra close attention to my feelings and record that. Often I find some random thought popping up in my mind, which just keeps coming back. This may or may not be a "frame" from a dream, but I immediately write that down. That just gives me the feeling that I recorded something important, so I stay motivated. This probably works because I usually don't have more than 2 "no recall days" in a row.. Actually that didn't even happen to me in a really long time, my dream recall seems to be quite solid at this point 😃