I recently had a dream that I really liked. After waking up I had a very pleasant and bright feeling. However, no matter how hard I tried throughout the day to remember the dream, nothing came of it. I talked to a friend about this topic, she claims that she doesn’t have dreams at all. But this is not true. All people have dreams, we just don’t know how to remember them.
In dreams, signs of fate are often given, sometimes you have prophetic dreams, then it is doubly offensive that you remember little later. I decided to study techniques to help me not forget my dreams. I share them with pleasure, and will also tell you how to remember dreams.
Dream theories
There are many opinions and theories about the origin and nature of dreams. Scientists of different generations tried to unravel the secrets of night visions and their influence on real life. At the same time, people learned to interpret dreams and unsuccessfully sought connections with the other world. Esotericists are still confident in the mystical nature of dreams, but modern scientists exclude the influence of supernatural forces and offer their own theories. Let's highlight the most interesting and popular:
- The appearance of dreams is influenced by external stimuli: stuffiness, a feeling of cold, an uncomfortable posture or location of the sleeping place.
- Night visions are information that we receive during the day. Daytime impressions and thoughts, positive and negative events are sorted, processed and reproduced in the form of appropriate stories.
- Dreams arise solely from the work of the human imagination. New events are intertwined with stories from the past, resulting in mixed pictures and images.
- Everything we see in a dream is the result of our experiences, fears and difficult relationships with others.
There are a lot of contradictions and ambiguities in the issue of understanding night messages, but even a minor detail from visions arouses curiosity, a desire to remember the dream and get to the bottom of it. We look into dream books, try to connect what we saw at night with the events of reality, and look for answers to exciting questions. This is human psychology.
The only problem is that after waking up, dreams are not remembered, and attempts to remember are unsuccessful.
Is mental activity maintained when falling asleep?
When awake, the brain is constantly working: receiving and processing information, sending signals. At night, during sleep, the activity of this important organ also remains, because it is responsible for the regulation of processes occurring in the body and the functioning of internal organs.
But at night, during the rest period, the brain works differently. He does not perceive most external stimuli, but he systematizes the information received during the day. And this data influences dreams. But since the consciousness interprets the data in a special way, and the subconscious is connected to the process, the sleeper sees scenes that reflect reality. At the same time, dreams can be unrealistic, strange, and absurd.
The more active the subconscious, the more colorful, emotionally charged and mysterious the dreams. With strong consciousness, the sleeper can be aware of himself in dreams, control them and control actions. This is called lucid dreaming, and not everyone can do it, although by choosing the right technique and constantly practicing, you will be able to achieve results.
Scientific explanation
The scientific explanation of the origin of dreams is based on the characteristics of human reflex and brain activity. Remembering a dream is not easy, because past and real events in life are reproduced chaotically. If we take into account the state of a sleeping person, when the muscles of the body are maximally relaxed and the nervous system is inhibited, it becomes clear why fantastic landscapes, illogical plots and unfamiliar people appear in visions. Brain performance decreases, but does not stop. When a person is immersed in deep sleep, surrounding stimuli are perceived distortedly and reproduced in an unusual form. After waking up, it is difficult to remember what dream you had today, but if you wish, you can recall what you have forgotten.
How to remember your dreams
The chaotic presentation of information, the interweaving of images and plots scatter the attention of the sleeper. You can remember a dream, but to do this you need to work with the technique of self-hypnosis and provide all the conditions for proper rest.
Write down what you see in your dream in your diary.
It's not always convenient and requires self-discipline, but if you want to improve your memory and understand the workings of the subconscious, it's worth a try. Place a notepad with a pen next to your bed and write down everything you dream about. The information must be detailed. Write about the sensations you experienced, describe small details, including colors seen, symbols, actions, and be sure to indicate the date of sleep. When rereading and analyzing recorded dreams, the brain is activated.
A clear mind promotes memorization
It is unlikely that you will remember the visions in the morning if you drank alcohol the day before or were carried away by watching a horror movie. Take care of your own comfort and peace of mind. A comfortable bed, fresh air, a clean room, the absence of noise and light improve the quality of sleep and have a beneficial effect on the well-being of the sleeper.
Much depends on the condition of the body
Healthy and rested people remember dreams better. A tired, hungry, sleep-deprived person rarely remembers what he saw. Sleep more, don't overeat at night, limit physical activity and take B vitamins. They stimulate brain function and increase stress resistance.
Work with self-hypnosis
Consciousness is receptive to orders on the border between wakefulness and sleep, this state is called drowsiness. If you give yourself a clear instruction to remember the dream in the morning, your brain will respond.
When you wake up, do not rush to leave the bed. When you suddenly change position from horizontal to vertical, your chances of remembering something decrease.
There are many effective techniques for remembering dreams. You can practice any, but the result of your efforts will largely depend on the state of your memory. Its volume is associated with nerve cells involved in the process of information accumulation. If you notice yourself being forgetful, try improving your ability to remember.
Providing yourself with “help”
If a person really wants to see and remember dreams, then he needs to place a table near the bed with a certain arsenal that will help him in this process.
You will need a notebook, pen, colored pencils or markers, and, if possible, a voice recorder. All this is necessary in order to record what you dreamed upon waking up. Having opened his eyes, a person will need to take a notebook and write down everything that he remembers, trying to maintain the order of the events that occurred in the vision. Colored markers are needed to show details. Sometimes shades are very important, and in order not to waste time describing them in words, you can simply use markers.
A voice recorder is an alternative to a notepad. And it is used by many people interested in how to remember dreams. People who sometimes wake up in the middle of the night. This is really convenient - after waking up, you can turn on the voice recorder and quickly dictate key points that will help you remember the vision the next morning. And you don’t have to look for a notepad while you’re asleep and try to write something down.
Ways to improve memory
Remembering dreams requires a good memory for details and objects. Force your brain to constantly work: analyze, use your imagination, reflect, try to reproduce the events of the past and present in detail. The main thing is not to relax, concentrate and develop observation skills.
In your spare time, you can memorize poems, solve puzzles, read and retell the plots of your favorite books. All methods are good, and the only thing that can get in the way is your own laziness and passion for gadgets. Smart technology makes life easier, but makes it impossible to think independently.
An active lifestyle helps improve memory. Develop physically, do exercises in the morning, visit the pool.
Moderate exercise normalizes blood circulation and stimulates brain function. Supplement your healthy habits with a balanced diet, and you won’t have problems remembering your dreams.
Medicines
There are many causes of memory disorders, and each case requires an individual approach. If you don't know how to remember a dream, and this is the only problem that worries you, you may be prescribed sedatives and recommended exercises to train your memory. Doctors turn to drug therapy in cases where other methods of correction have proven ineffective.
Among the popular drugs that improve memory and stimulate brain activity are Nootropil, Glycine, Phenotropil, Cavinton, Cerebrolysin, Phezam, Encephabol, Picamilon, Vinpocetine. Some of these medications can be purchased without a prescription, but choosing the medications yourself is not recommended. Coordinate your appointment with your doctor and protect yourself from unwanted reactions and consequences.
Herbs
You can preserve and improve your memory without pharmaceutical drugs. If no serious deviations are observed, the problem can be solved with folk remedies. Medicinal plants have a therapeutic and preventive effect. Decoctions based on mint, chamomile, nettle, lemon balm, sage, red rowan bark, and motherwort are very popular. Infusions prepared at home can be drunk at night or during the day.
The stimulating effect of medicinal herbs improves mental performance and solves problems with remembering dreams.
Exercises
Exercises to train the brain and improve memory do not require serious physical activity. You can come up with them yourself or use those that have already proven their effectiveness:
- Choose any letter from the alphabet and remember the words that begin with it. Having exhausted your supply, switch to other letters and practice until you get tired of it.
- Play cities. Remember the names in alphabetical order and say them out loud (Astana, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Gelendzhik).
- When communicating with a person, remember any little things. Pay attention to his appearance, clothes, emotions, gestures. Remember the content of the conversation, and after parting, try to mentally reconstruct all the details of the meeting and your dialogue.
- Count backwards, for example from 50 to 10.
- Choose words and come up with synonyms.
- While walking or on the way to work, remember the numbers of houses and passing cars.
- Remember the price tags of purchased goods and compare them with prices in other stores.
- If you find an interesting recipe and decide to cook a new dish, try to remember the list of ingredients and cooking method. In the kitchen, try to do without cheat sheets.
The main task of all exercises is to activate brain activity. If you train constantly, you won’t have to see doctors or take stimulants. This is a good way to independently maintain memory productivity, live without complexes and remember dreams.
The process of remembering dreams
It's no secret that special parts of the brain are responsible for dreams. There are also areas (leaving out the scientific terms) where impressions are formed. There is a special department where they are remembered and stored for a long time. Using this mechanism, we can recall and analyze thousands of once remembered moments. However, the synchronous work of the departments of “creating impressions” and “memorizing impressions” is possible only in a state of wakefulness. When we dream (in the fast phase), these areas of the brain become desynchronized. We still see dreams, but, unfortunately, we remember them poorly.
