Dream Recall - Dream Journal, part 2

To increase your dream recall, all you will need to do is remind yourself as you are falling asleep that you wish to awaken fully from your dreams and remember them. A major cause of dream forgetting is interference from other thoughts competing for your attention. Therefore, let your first thought upon awakening be "What was I just dreaming?". Do not move from the position in which you awaken, and do not think of the day's concern. Rebuild your dream from faces, feelings, places, to the most complete story you can get. Write down ALL you remember.

If you feel like you don't usually awake from dreams, set an alarm clock to wake you at the time when you're likely to be dreaming. REM periods occur at approximately 90 minutes intervals. Aim for later REM periods like at 6 or 7.5 hours after you go to sleep.

To remind yourself of your intention and get into the spirit of your dreams, read through your dream journal at bedtime. Learning to remember your dreams may seem difficult at first, but if you persist, you will almost certainly succeed, and may find yourself remembering four or more dreams per night. Of course, when you reach to that point, you probably won't want to write them all down, just the significant or compelling ones. And the more familiar you become with the style of your own dreams, the easier it'll be to remember you're dreaming while you're dreaming.