INSIDE: We can experience so much through our subconscious during sleep, but dream recall is often elusive. By learning how to remember your dreams, you can tap into the messages that lie waiting for you there.

 

We tend to hear the advice that between 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night provides a healthy dose of rest and relaxation to recharge our bodies. It’s necessary to our wellbeing and energy.

We know that the body and mind don’t simply stop when we fall asleep. Yet when we wake up, we often forget what passed through our mind during those hours even if we have a faint sense of a dream.

This has to do with how we experience sleep and dreaming. The REM stage receives a lot of press – rapid eye movement occurs in cycles as we settle into ever deeper states of rest through the night. These stages provide the most opportunity for clear dreams, but we actually need to experience hypnogogic dreaming to have truly memorable dreams.

Hypnogogic dreaming happens as we ease into sleep early in the night and it requires a calming process rather than a sudden dive into sleep. Likewise, suddenly waking from sleep with a start triggers noradrenaline, and at elevated levels, our mind draws a blank on what has happened before we awoke.

So how do we find the perfect balance in all of these states so we can achieve dream recall? We’ve compiled some suggestions below so you can attune your patterns and remember dreams.

How to Remember Your Dreams

While we want to hold on to the thrilling dreams we experience at night, hopeful of important messages sent from our inner spirit and divine guides, we shouldn’t feel bogged down by the process of recall.

By introducing some of the following habits into our sleep routine, we can help dream remembrance feel more natural...

Keep a Journal & Pen By Your Bed

We understand the importance of writing in a manifestation journal when it comes to helping us envision and create the lives of our dreams. Similarly, journaling is a key tool that can enable us to learn how to remember our dreams.

To begin work on dream remembering, use a dream journal more generally as a sleep log. At first, you may not remember a dream at all, so just make notes about how well you slept in the night, if you woke up periodically, or how comfortable or secure you felt while sleeping. Soon, you will begin to notice a shift in your notes to a more detailed description of your dreams.

Make sure that your dream journal rests nearby so that you can easily reach for it whenever you wake up. Try to make a habit of picking up your pen and paper whenever you rouse from sleep, even in the middle of the night, to make a simple note that might help you recall that moment of wakefulness.

We do think that keeping a real paper notebook matters in dream journaling. Relying on the notes function in a smartphone can be detrimental to healthy sleep cycles because of the sudden burst of screen light and EMF radiation.

Set an Intention to Remember Your Dreams Each Night

Although it won’t happen instantaneously, if we set the intention to work on dream recall, we are more likely to develop those skills. In the same way that repeating positive affirmations everyday can instill a real shift in our confidence, habitually aiming to dream and remember those dreams can eventually lead us to vivid nightly experiences that we can clearly recall the next morning. 

We can combine this step with our dream journal by writing a dream affirmation at the top of a new page each night, such as:

“My mind leads me to exciting cosmic depths as I sleep, and I will remember this journey in the morning.”

Place a Piece of Amethyst Under Your Pillow

Getting some help from our trusted crystals always amplifies our abilities. Amethyst has a strong resonance with the crown chakra, and we know that the maximal activity of our bodies during sleep happens in the brain. Placing a piece of Amethyst under your pillow at night sends frequencies to your crown chakra that hones focus and recall.

Amethyst exchanges energetic vibrations between ourselves and divine beings. Therefore, when we keep Amethyst nearby when we sleep, it ferries spiritual messages between our minds and the universe. As you practice how to remember your dreams, you will more clearly recognize the elements of wisdom embedded in your dreams.

You might also want to try placing any of these crystals for dreaming under your pillow.

Consume Dream Herbs

There’s something soothing about a warm drink to end the day. The liquid passes through our system, leaving us feeling cozy and comforted before we ease under the covers. While chamomile tea is often a choice beverage for winding down, we can infuse our evening elixir with herbs that target our dream experiences as well.

Herbs like Calea Zacatechichi, Blue Lotus, and Mugwort enhance the vivid colors we see in our dreams. Particularly brilliant colors can trigger our memories when we wake up and may even carry subliminal messages about something we need – like paying attention to a particular chakra.

Ginko Biloba sharpens our memory, making it a potent substance to try when learning how to remember your dreams. The added benefits of Ginko Biloba includes enhanced recall of thoughts and messages from our awake hours, too!

An important component to remembering dreams that we mentioned before is that we still need restful sleep, so we should avoid feeling stress and pressure to recall our dreams. Clary Sage helps to calm us into a gradual state of sleep and dreaming.

Listen to Binaural Beats While Falling Asleep 

Another way to tune into our dreams involves our sense of hearing. Listening to binaural beats as we doze off into sleep brings tonal waves to our own auric frequency that guides us into a lucid dream state.

Binaural beats consist of two different tones played in each ear. The patterns of sound create a chamber of clarity so that all of our physical faculties gain a steady pulse that leaves our minds free to process and visualize. 

Due to the nature of these sounds, it is important that you wear headphones when listening to them.

Meditate Before Bed

Hypnogogic dreaming relies on an unhurried, measured passage into sleep. Meditation as a closing practice before bed provides the space to clear our minds of worries, doubts, and distractions. Having a clear head to invite in visions also provides the space so that your mind knows how to remember your dreams when you wake up.

Meditation can incorporate many aspects we’ve already covered. You can focus on the intention of dream remembrance as you meditate, you can let the steady binaural beats set the tone of the room as you focus inwards, and of course, we love meditating with crystals for an enhanced experience.

Let Yourself Wake Up Slowly

As important as a slow and steady entry into sleep is, the way you wake up impacts how to remember your dreams as well. A sudden start after waking amps our noradrenaline levels, and when these are heightened, whatever was in our mind tends to flee.

We can create an environment around our waking that contributes to a soothing experience. Having a gentle alarm, whether it be with gradual light, a soft sound like wind chimes, or the sound of Om, stirs us out of sleep into wakefulness, rather than startling us into the day.

Setting aside a few minutes to begin to move our bodies and to reflect on how we rested, including making notes in a dream journal, all contribute to a slow, mindful morning.

Learn About Dreaming

We’ve briefly explained some things that contribute to our dream state, but there’s so much more to learn. The more you know about sleep and dreaming, the closer you move towards knowing how to remember your dreams.

But we mean more than just the science behind our brain processes and dreaming. Learn about dream interpretation and find out about what certain patterns or symbols that might pop up in dreams typically mean.

It’s still important to let this process be light, so don’t get mired in deep meanings and messages too early on. However, understanding the real potential of recalling our dreams can be exciting, inspiring us to truly manifest this skill.

Reflect on Your Dreams

This has come up several times now, but learning how to remember your dreams only truly matters if we are willing to eventually glean meaning from them. The purpose in recording our dreams in a journal comes from our ability to return to those moments and experiences.

As we become more adept and remembering our dreams, we can explore questions that come from them and try to use our intuition to find answers. We may even be able to trigger a return to certain dream worlds if we reflect on them, allowing us to continue our spiritual journey towards a divine goal.

Final Thoughts 

Now that you have the tools for how to remember your dreams, maybe you feel ready for a nice nap! Grab your dream journal, make a warm cup of dream herb tea, settle into a few moments of meditation, and slip into a peaceful, rejuvenating slumber. We wish you sweet dreams!