A Lesson on Dream Memory
I have been wanting to share a post about the subject of Dream Recall as it relates to brain function and self awareness. Especially what I have learned via personal experience of what can happen to the brain when you become too busy, always working, always focused on doing and getting things done, and not creating time for yourself everyday for structured or unstructured play or rest. What can happen is a form of cranial burnout if you overtax your brain. Here is what I went through and how I got out of it.
In the summer of 2021 during the dog days of summer, typically the hottest forty days of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere that coincide with the heliacal rising of Sirius before the sun each morning, I became especially busy. The busyness was working on multiple projects at the same time, including my hypnosis schooling, aggressively rewriting and revamping the novel trilogy my Walk-Out had started, creating and refining my facebook groups and doing online research into things like the dog days of summer in Egyptian Traditions and the connection to the Sirians to name a few interesting things. That summer, I had also visited three volcanic mountains in Washington, and near two of them I had some visual sightings and close experiences of what I can only describe as Light Beings in the woods. I feel that something related to those experiences with non-human phenomena activated something in me.
The work on the novel trilogy continued at a steady pace with passion, and that fall I decided to create my website and New Being Hypnosis. Then I started writing book two in the trilogy while the book one manuscript was starting the bet-reading process. And working with people to coordinate the many moving parts of my upcoming wedding. My life got busy with so many projects, catching up on hypnotherapy homework, experimenting with a meditation I did not learn from a human source that lead to new consciousness experiences for me and working part time. After months of this type of lifestyle of frequent meaningful work, deep healings and busyness, I noticed an uncomfortable ‘symptom’ that I became frustrated with and knew that I needed to correct it. I knew that I experienced interesting and meaningful dreams every morning, but the second I would wake up, which was quite sudden sometimes, I would be instantly cut off from the dream and almost completely awake in my physical body. Coupled with this, I would experience increasing short term memory loss during the day, although I was still able to ‘tune into’ the novel trilogy and write it without forgetting the story in my mind. My mind has often been, and still was very sharp, with an ability to hyperfocus on the things that excite me.
So, you ask, what helped me recover from such acute dream memory loss? The first tool that helped me start to remember my dreams again was a practice of laying in bed after waking up, relaxing, and allowing anything I can remember from the last dream to linger in my mind. It has never been helpful for me to ask what happened or try to force my dream recall. I feel that one thing that helped me start to remember my dreams again was what some call dream incubation; the practice of focusing on positive messages and suggestions in your mind while falling asleep. A self-suggestion like “As I allow myself to fall into a sound sleep, my dreaming awareness increases, and will allow for clear recall of meaningful dreams upon awakening,” may prove to be helpful to foster dreaming and sleep dream recall. You can experiment with different wording and phrases to help you sleep, dream and remember. Consistency and specificity is key to success in this. The practice of dream incubation can be helpful in inspiring the subconscious mind to respond to your questions.
The second element I have found helpful in restoring and assisting dream recall and memory function, is simply slowing down, reducing the tasks I push myself to accomplish in an hour or a day. For some, if you find yourself multitasking and dividing your attention to multiple things at the same time frequently, then it may help to cut back on that and practice paying your full attention on one thing at a time until it is done. Or, if you are like me and you have multiple things cooking at once, it may help to break each project into increments. Work on a section of one project or complete one small task in a timely manner, then take a break, rest or eat and work on one of the other projects for a while with focus and attentiveness. I have found for me that being mindful of what I am doing in the moment and paying my attention helps with focus and memory. Paying attention mindfully in your waking life may help build the neural circuits for attention to dream recall. With practice, you may learn to pay attention while you are dreaming.
The third, and perhaps most tangible and common tool I have found helpful for increasing dream recall is my dream journal. Many people in the psychotherapeutic and spiritual crowds, and even lay folk keep a dream journal and write down their dreams. Some do it religiously every morning, write down a whole dream they can remember or just feelings or an object or character if they forget part of it. The psychosomatic benefit of dream journaling is called an ideomotor response, and as the memories from your mind talking to your brain get sent down your arm and hand to write about the dream, your eyes feedback that information into your brain and mind. This feedback loop maintains and over time builds the neuron synapses in your brain that facilitate dream memory. On a more metaphysical level, the practice of journaling about your dreams maintains a connection to the subconscious, or whatever other realm or state the dream took place in. I had not maintained a consistent practice of dream journaling for quite some time before this major memory loss episode, and since my recovery I will never stop the practice again.
The fourth, but not least important practice I have found helpful in maintaining and increasing dream memory, is something akin to dream meditation. Although I seldom focus on a dream during my deep meditations, I do regularly daydream, or simply think about what I can remember of a particular dream during the day. Even daydreaming is a light state of hypnosis and accessing the subconscious mind. It is the state that artists are in when they are “in the flow” and get some of their best ideas from. Similarly, if you have a friend or coworker who is into dreaming or open to talking about such subjects, it can be helpful to verbally share and discuss your dreams, as this also stimulates recall and access to the dream realm.
Do you want to remember your dreams again? Do you want to learn from them?
Ask a friend if they have a dream they are open to sharing. Or if they want to hear about your dream.
Has it been a while since you wrote in your dream journal? Do you remember a recent dream you want to write about?
What thoughts do you practice while falling asleep? Do you talk with yourself? Do you give yourself suggestions? Do you ask specific questions? Do you focus intently on one topic? Or do you allow your mind to wander endlessly and worry about the future?
What are your dreaming practices during the day or night?
Be light with yourself & practice patience.
