More About Dreams

When you first wake up, most people tend to jump out of bed and spring into action—a sure way to forget any lingering traces of a dream. If you can instead lie still upon awakening and pay attention to anything you might be feeling or thinking, you may better recall your dreams, particularly the last one.

If you don’t notice anything, try shifting positions back to the position you were dreaming in, perhaps it will trigger a memory. You may get something right away, or it may take some practice. Whatever you feel—even if just a little piece of a dream, write it down! If you don’t want to write, try using a tape or digital recorder, or leave yourself a voice mail. Even a snippet or seemingly insignificant clip of a dream holds interesting advice and amazing insight. So pay attention and respect your dreams enough to figure out what they mean. Keep paying attention every morning, writing down what you remember. Increasing your dream recall requires practice, like exercising a muscle. Soon, you too will recall whole dreams and have plenty to work with later!

If you see in full-color, you likely dream in color. Some thing that the idea of dreaming in black-and-white never occurred until the invention of black-and-white movies.

People blinded from birth have no visual images in their dreams. They experience their dreams as they experience their waking life, using other senses such as sounds, taste, touch, and smell. People blinded later in life sometimes retain visual images in their dreams.