Good Dream Recall: No dreams, No Dream Yoga Good dream recall is essential. Even though we have at least six dreams each night, many people don’t remember them. LaBerge says that until you can remember at least two dreams each night it’s better not to even try the lucidity techniques. Good dream recall begins with your attitude. Value your dreams, and then plant the seeds for better recall. If you make your dreams important, they will come to you more frequently. As dream researcher Patricia Garfield says, “Those who do not “believe in” dreams or who believe them to be nonsense do not remember their dreams or have only nonsensical ones. Dreams are what you make of them. Dream states respond to waking attitudes.”  Tell yourself that you will remember your dreams. Get plenty of sleep, and allow yourself to sleep in. The fun part of dream yoga is giving yourself permission to languish in bed. Start a Dream Journal Dream journaling, or a dream diary, really helps. Getting a dream journal sets the intention that you’re taking this seriously. You’re putting your money where your mouth is. Anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann writes, “Many years ago, I joined a group that decided that we would write down our dreams. And my dream life changed. I seemed to dream more. I remembered more detail. I sometimes had dreams of mythic intensity.” If you have a hard time remembering dreams it helps to write down any snippet of any dream you can remember. When you wake up, ask yourself “Was I dreaming?” Close your eyes and try to go back in to recapture any part of the dream. Don’t Move Moving as you are waking up from sleep engages waking consciousness and pulls you out of the dream world. If you’ve already moved and think you did have a dream, return to the position you were in when you first woke up. Memories are lodged in our bodies. I have often recaptured a dream by returning to the position I was in when I had it. Make Use of “Primetime Dreamtime” To most effectively learn lucid dreaming, it helps to understand and take advantage of our sleep cycles. There are times when it’s best not to disturb sleep, and other times when we can make use of a sleep cycle to trigger lucid dreams. There are two main kinds of sleep, non-REM and REM sleep. REM sleep, which accounts for 25% of sleep, is associated with rapid eye movement (REM), muscle twitches, sleep paralysis, an active brain, and dreaming. The first REM period of the night is short, about five to ten minutes. This is why we rarely remember dreams from the early part of the night. If we have a non-REM dream, it tends to be less intense and emotional, often just a recollection of events from the day. As the night progresses, REM periods increase, and non-REM periods decrease. The first half of the night is mostly non-REM, and the second half transitions into mostly REM. Just before awakening we can be in REM sleep for 45 minutes to an hour, which is why we mostly remember our morning dreams. This is primetime dreamtime. On the weekends you can practice this by setting an alarm to wake up about two hours before you normally would, then stay up for fifteen minutes or so, and then going back to sleep. This will greatly increase the likelihood that you will remember a dream. With these tips it’s easy to start remembering your dreams.

Start with Strong Motivation and Intention Motivation creates momentum that carries into the dream world. It’s as if you are “seeding” the lucid dream, a technique that is basic to any level of dream induction or incubation. Intent comes from roots that mean “to stretch toward” (in- ‘towards’ and tendere ‘stretch’). Dream yoga begins by stretching the mind with intention. In order to wrap your mind around the dark you have to stretch towards it. You eventually want to stretch your awareness into previously unconscious states of mind, and the warmup for that elongation begins with your intent. Stretching in this intentional way therefore begins to expand your mind. Have you ever had to get up early and not had an alarm clock? By setting a strong intention to get up at a certain time we often wake up at that time despite not having an alarm. In the same way we can set an internal alarm to wake us up within a dream by setting a strong intention. Say It Out LoudTo actually practice intention, say to yourself throughout the day “Tonight I will remember my dreams. I will have many dreams. I will have good dreams. I will wake up within my dreams.” Don’t just mouth the words. Mean it. Really meaning it expresses that intent. You also strengthen the intention by saying it out loud. As you’re lying down in bed, ramp up your intent, like a sprint to the finish line. Strong intention has a connection to the power of hypnosis, which can be effective in lucid dream induction. Saying to yourself that you will have lucid dreams etc. can be viewed as a form of autosuggestion, or self-hypnosis. Soak in The Material Studying the view behind lucid dreaming and dream yoga strengthens this intent. Other expressions of intent come from reading books, taking courses, and basically spending as much time as you can with this material. When Stephen LaBerge was doing his PhD dissertation on lucid dreaming he was soaking in this material and had lucid dreams almost every night. My own work in writing my soon to be released dream yoga book echoes this phenomenon. Plant lots of seeds and you’ll harvest lots of plants. Do not underestimate the power of intent. Dream researchers Robert Price and David Cohen write, “Lucid dreaming appears to be an experience widely available to the highly motivated.” There are a number of good resources; we have provided a reading list in the above FAQ.