Mnemonics: A Simple Guide to Remembering Dreams
People often remark that my dreams seem unusually detailed. How do you remember so much, they ask. I didn't used to. But being a stubborn little boy, I didn't leave the problem alone.
It's alarming, after all, to discover you're not in full control over your own brain. Why should it have some sort of automatic mechanism for forgetting dreams when I don't want it to? It's like an irritating "convenience feature" on your phone you go looking for a tutorial on how to turn off.
Anyway It seemed to be the case that the human brain is wired to quickly forget any memories formed while sleeping. Dreams, namely. It's not easy to see why, dreams are unimportant to survival and need to be deleted to make room for survival pertinent stuff.
So, how do you flag dreams as "do not delete"? You'll have to do it right after you awaken, for one. That's when the memories of the dream are freshest. You will need to create a bridge between the memories formed while sleeping, and a memory formed while awake. This will be your "mnemonic device".
A mnemonic device can be an acronym or other assembly of words the only purpose of which is to help you remember something much larger and more complex. Like how the first letter in every word of "My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Noodles" is used to recall the order of planets in our solar system.
That's crucial: Information can be stored not just in the words you choose, but their order. More on that in a little bit.
First, let's say you have a dream in which you're walking on a mountain when suddenly it erupts, having in fact been a dormant volcano. Magma flows down the sides and thinking quickly, you fashion a tungsten boat in which to survive the journey. You wind up on a beach where before you, a sea serpent arises. Many people on the beach point to the serpent and make remarks about it. You then climb up the serpent like a beanstalk into the clouds, where you find a treasure chest filled with candy.
Now, let's break that dream down into scenes. The first scene would be the volcano. Then the beach, then the cloud world with the treasure in it. Now, what was the most remarkable, memorable event in each scene? The lava boat was the focus of the volcano scene. The sea serpent was the focus of the ocean scene. The treasure chest full of candy was the focus of the cloud world scene.
"Lava boat sea serpent candy treasure" would be a serviceable mnemonic device for this dream. As I alluded to earlier it records not just the most noteworthy events, but the order in which they occurred. This will become important if you later which to reconstruct them into a coherent narrative.
Guess what? That sentence of seeming nonsense words is a memory you formed while awake! That makes it more durable than the memories of your dreams. But if you made a mnemonic device, then it's connected to those memories. Anchored to them in a way which, even after your brain erases them, can be used to dredge them back up out of the neurological recycle bin.
Anyway, I hope that's helpful. Let me know if you use it to recall your own dreams!
Stay Cozy!
I need to try this I literally have to sit and think so hard to remember something it’s like I remember when I wake up then totally slips out as the day goes by
very cool post!!!!
https://steemit.com/science/@kickassfacts/25-kickass-and-amazing-facts-about-dreams
That's pretty much what I do too, although I've found that writing them down regularly helps me more than anything. The more I pay attention to them and write them, the less the auto-forget mechanism kicks in at all. I'll get to the point where I'm remembering four or five dreams a night and can write them a day later, if I have to, without losing much. It gets a little overwhelming though, so I only do this kind of deep mining on rare occasions.
I'm going to try it with my next dream. I suppose, like most people, some of my dreams would make a good story.
It can be a great source of originality. Your unconscious mind dreams up ideas that would never occur to you while awake.
That's for sure. Most of my dreams I wish I could write down. They might not make much sense after I do, but we can always say it is Sci-Fi.
You can also just pick out the individual elements from the dream you liked and use those, you don't have to use the entire thing. The way somebody was dressed, or the setting, or a particular event.
Some of my best ideas for my stories are from my dream and as such I need to remember my dream when I wake up.
I had read this somewhere when I was 15 and this is what I do:
When you are on bed, close your eyes and try to focus your attention as if you are trying to see something that is right in between your eyebrows and then tell yourself that I will remember my dream and you can even dictate what you want to dream. You also say that I will remember what I dreamt when I wake.
Quite often this works for me:)
@alexbeyman,
Interesting, once you said about "mnemonic" and I forgot to do a research! Now I will do! Hope I could capture my dreams in this way too! Great article friend!
Cheers~
Based on your posts lately, I project your recent dreams' mnemonics to be along the lines of:
teleport kung-fu zombie skulls underwater refining helicopter waves victory hamster dance
Haha! I'd watch that movie.
I wrote a book on dreams and how to use them to change your future , fight evil and how to recognise certain types of dreams here :
http://37.247.51.130/downloads/Remote%20Manipulation%20A1.pdf
Alex - Can we use this technique to remember our studies? I'm very interesting about it. You got very nice updates everytime.
To get more audience, I wish to ReSteem your post.
+W+ [UpVoted & ReSteemed]
really excellent advice alexbeyman!! i will use it to remember many things besides my dreams.
you wrote "dreams are unimportant to survival and need to be deleted to make room for survival pertinent stuff." - that is right for most of the people. However, i have an observation based on real life experience regarding that fact: for some creative people like writers or artists, dreams can be very useful. it happened to me more than once that i've been working on a story and couldn't find the ending - then it came to me in a dream. i've found many of my story's idea from my dreams. same happened to my film director friend. - i'd really like to know your thoughts about what i've said.
ps: i wish i had known of your technique earlier, then i could use it to remember my dreams more perfectly. (i always keep a pen and pad beside my pillow to write down my dreams)
Oh indeed that's true. I meant from a survival standpoint why our brains work that way. But for sure as a writer I draw very heavily on imagery and feelings from my dreams. You will discover writing down a short, one sentence long mnemonic device saves you the trouble of trying to fully describe the dream in writing before it fades from memory.
i used to write my dreams in details in order to remember them; and i'm really grateful to you for your advice - it would help me a lot from now on. May Allah bless you :)
Good post alex.Your writing is too good.I just upvoted you.