For the last two years+, I've had very good dream recall for the most part. There have been short stretches where I do not remember as many dreams as usual, but I still had decent recall during those stretches. I'm currently in a couple week stretch where I remember a dream less than half of the days, compared to my usual average of 2-4 dreams per night. Any tips for how to build my recall back up?
As a note, I have been thinking about dreams a lot lately and I've gotten lucid a couple of times in the last few weeks, but those memories were not very vivid and I don't remember many non lucid dreams in this stretch. Very excited for when the recall is built back up though. Good luck getting lucid to anyone who reads this
Update: Thanks to @StumpedSlicken and @Mikka Liest for the help. I've followed your advice, reading old dreams before bed, meditating and doing yoga before bed, and journaling whatever I remembered from the night (waking up with dry throat, body temperature, etc.) and I've remembered 2-3 somewhat unclear dreams each night for the last few days and last night had the most vivid dream I've had in months.
I've found over time that doing video games or things that cause the mind to have a harder time winding down before bed has made my recall much harder! I was having pretty decent recall for a couple days in a row after getting more sleep, but on the night I helped you with Minecraft modding recently, I was mad with the technical difficulties and how late it got and recall was so much harder that morning! The next day, I avoided this and it came back just like the previous days. I believe this happened because it caused hardly any NREM-3 (hinders recall) to happen in the first half of sleep and most of it happened in the second half where I normally recall dreams. This is probably the same reason I've found my dream recall is so much higher when exercising more, especially within the last couple hours before bed. It probably causes me to get very little to no NREM-3 in the last few sleep cycles because the requirement was higher and it happened earlier in the night and the body was just done with it afterwards.
That being said, I would start by just giving one night where you maybe wrap up video games preferably at least an hour before going to bed and do something simpler, like watching Daniel's videos or something of that sort that helps wind the mind down. Maybe you would consider following the same advice you gave me and do yoga, or even meditation before bed. Just try it for one night and see if you notice a difference. If you do, then obviously keep trying on good nights and stick to it like you do with your exercise! I'm sure this is the very reason my dream recall isn't that good when we do our motocross nights during the weekend. Ironic? I think not. Give that a shot and see if you notice a difference. I can't guarantee anything, but try it out as I've noticed a huge difference and correlation for myself.
Good advice here already. Something I wanted to add is to eat some foods with high acetylcholine levels. I can't say it like Daniel does but acetylcholine high foods help with dream recall. When I have a couple of days without recall I try to eat a lot of eggs, which have a high level of acetylcholine.
Another thing that I find kills my recall is looking at my phone first thing in the morning. Now I sleep with my phone out of arms reach which has really helped. If I have a busy mind upon awaking, I'll often lose the dream, or it'll take some time to come back to me. I remember more of my dreams when I'm on top of everything in waking life, which is a good incentive to live well
Not sure if it'll help but Daniel has this video "How To Remember Your Dreams". You might know some of these things already but maybe there's something in there of value https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eWMne8-pPc
@StumpedSlicken already had great tips, do I'll just add: I've recently found that decreasing the time I spend on social media, especially in the evenings, seems to lead to more and vivid dream recall. Also, I go through my dream journal for half an hour and then meditate before I go to bed. This also seems to have an impact, because my dream recall seems worse when I forget or don't feel like doing that.
Well, I might not be the best for tips on this topic, but, input is still input, I suppose.
I've just got out of a small stretch of not having great dream recall about a few days ago, remembering to about where I was before the stretch and a little bit more. Advice I can give is to recite old dreams to friends/people that are interested in them. I personally did this and it did spike my dream recall up. It probably has something to do with reactivating the part of the brain that is associated with memory. Using that logic, it's probably beneficial to use past recall to somewhat "wake-up" that small part of memory to prioritize the system of dream recall since you had used it earlier in the day.
Another tip is to try and focus on your senses before bed. I've been trying to do WILD attempts lately (and though a bit lackluster) they have helped with my senses in my dreams. In my attempts, I do try to focus on four of my senses (taste is a weird one so, I don't include it in my attempts) as well as playing along with a dream that I want to happen. I don't know if it's a roundabout way of achieving something else, but, I have found that it has given me more vivid senses in dreams.
Also, try and focus more on reality checks. Even though I forget mine at my dream signs, I do incorporate how I got to the place I am at and why I am doing a reality check. Since I've started taking more time and retracing my steps while doing a check, my dream recall bounced back.
Lastly, as a side note, I've seen on the forums that temperature can affect dream recall as well as lucidity. If possible, try and lower the temperature when sleeping. It may help, though, I haven't had personal experience with it. I do know that waking up sweating is not a delightful feeling though!
Hope this helps and isn't hard to read! I tend to sometimes clump things together to much and not explain clearly, so, if more of an explanation is needed, I'll be happy to give more!