Documenting Your Dreams for future reference is the first stage of working with dreams.
Many people claim never to recall their dreams, and some deny having dreams at all while still many can give you specific details. This is what we should all be after is the details. With practice, and the right techniques, it is not unusual for each of us to remember five or more dreams each morning.
Here are some guidelines:
1. Wake up with a positive attitude.
Remembering dreams must become a habit, and can be cultivated. The best way to tell yourself during the day that you will remember your dreams, and upon awakening lie still for a while, focusing your conscious mind on whatever ideas or emotions have emerged from your sleep, allowing them through assocation to prompt dream recall.
2. Keeping a dream diary makes it possible to build up a detailed, sustained picture of your dream life. You could actually start a dream journal right here at HM.
In this diary/journal write down everything you can remember
small details as well as main themes and make note of any emotions or associations that emerge from the dream's contents. Try having a collum just for the emotions your feeling).
3. During the day, think back to the dream of the night before, even it its details have faded, and try to re-live the emotions associated with it.
Reread your notes and be patient as it will take time and practice. Good recall could take weeks or months before you regularly remember your dreams, bus success will come if you persevere.
4. To speed things up, occasionally set an alarm clock for about two hours after you usually fall asleep: you will stand a good chance of awakening immediately after the first, dream laden period of REM sleep.
5. After you have written down a good months worth of dreams then go back to see what themes are present and anything that may be connected. Most reserchers wouldn't even begin to analyze your dreams until you have 100 documented in a diary..
6. When documenting your dreams from the night before or perhaps before you even go to bed the night before. Have a small section where you can write any important events that happened during that day. As your dreams has a reason for choosing events that show up in your dreams and you want to see what connection there is to your conscious life.
7. Keep in mind that dreams can lead us to forgotten experiences and memories which the dream is trying to draw your attention to. This could be an event from the week before or something in your long lost past.
8.Sketching after you dream is also important. Sketching can often capture the mood of the dream better than a written record as it doesn't necessarily require a mental adjustment like writing does. In your diary have a sketch area and before you write go straight here and close your eyes if needed and let the pencil go in your hand.
9. Have the diary/journal right beside your bed, give yourself time in the morning to wake without rushing. If you need a visual clue here a little technique. Have a glass of water. Drink half while saying you want to recall your dreams when you wake. Then the next morning wake up, lie in the bed and process your dreams prior to moving then when your ready get up and go to the water that is remaining and tell yourself your ready to document your dreams and drink the water. See what comes to mind
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Hope this guide helps.