Hello everyone!
I have been into Lucid Dreaming off and on for almost 17 years now, and thanks to Daniel's 30 days of Lucid Streams and his continued content, I hope to keep that interest for the rest of my life. I'm here for the long haul.
One thing that has always bothered me about Dream Recall is that, for me, I have to awaken directly during a dream, or shortly after to remember them. This is common, I understand that. What bothers me is as follows: I have an almost 0% chance of remembering anything past that point. If I wake up and do not remember a dream, I will not remember a dream. Even if I lay there and let my mind wander, or try to focus on specific persons, locations, or what have you, I rarely remember anything past that initial point of awakening.
In waking life I seem to mainly be an auditory/ kin-esthetic learner. My dreams seem to be complicated in how they are remembered.
Whenever I recall a dream, all sounds are muted: I get the impression of a sound, but not the actual sound.
When it comes to touch, I very rarely remember the sensation of touch unless it is intense, or the sole focus of the dream.
Finally my visual sense is also spotty at best, only really ever showing tunnel vision of whatever is directly in front of me. I could probably not tell you a single thing about what was at my side.
So now that you have all of what I consider the pressing information, here are my questions:
How am I supposed to use my learner type to help me remember dreams if all of those elements are blurry, non-existent, or simply implied?
How do I narrow down my digging for dream memories, or should I widen the search instead.
I've always been so bad at remembering anything past the point of waking that I feel a huge sense of overwhelming when I attempt to....
Stay Lucid,
Morgan
First of all, seeing your renewed dedication for the long haul is inspiring! I hope to do the same. At least one good thing to come out of this situation right?
Other people may be able to answer your questions better than I, but I'll throw in my thoughts. (also, maybe eat some eggs for extra choline for dream recall, or see Daniel's dream food stream for more foods with choline, that can lead to improved dream recall in anecdotal reports). As far as remembering only past the initial point of awakening, maybe don't try to remember the entire dream all at once. Just start writing immediately, even minute details, emotions, anything. I find when I do that, some more memories just flood back as I'm writing. I'm not actively trying to fish more memories out, they just come as I write the first details. Even when I think I'll not end up with much, I'll keep remembering more as I go and impress myself with the length of the entry sometimes.
Addressing your first question: I would say in regards to remembering sounds, maybe stop focusing on trying to remember the sounds themselves, but instead, for example, a conversation with a dream character. Or the general topic of the conversation. That way, you aren't really remembering the specific sounds of their voices, but you are still able to pull memories from your dream via something that originated as sound - if that makes sense.
Another example is if you saw a common occurrence in a dream, you can extrapolate what sound typically occurs with that occurrence or scene in waking life. For example, if you dreamed of being on a beach, you could imagine the sounds of waves crashing from real life, and that is probably similar to how it sounded in the dream.
As far as touch, you said you are a kinesthetic learner. Maybe instead of focusing on touch, focus on proprioception (proprioception = your perception or awareness of the position of your body / limbs in space and in motion). So for example, if you can remember running, or sitting during the dream for example- that could trigger some additional memories to flow back. Or any action you were doing, driving for example.
For your second question, yes, I would widen your search. Kind of like what I said above: include more senses you haven't originally thought of. Maybe if you remember any smells, tastes or emotions. Emotions are a big one, and could potentially trigger more recall. And if not, you could just use your emotions from dreams as a dream sign, performing reality checks with them in waking life. Like if you are anxious in dreams a lot, perform a RC when anxious in waking life.
Lastly, seeing as your dreams slip away from you so quickly, write them down immediately upon waking, even if in the middle of the night if possible. I personally use a digital dream journal on my phone as it allows me to type everything as fast as possible, to retain as many details as I can. Then the next day I'll transfer them, hand writing them into a physical journal where I analyze them.
Hard question to answer because it is so personalized haha but I hope this helps at least a little, and hope others provide answers as well! Good luck!