How To Dream

A person who needs to learn how to dream probably is not human. Dreaming is an automatic process. Many people do not remember their dreams. Whether or not a person remembers the dream depends on a number of factors. There is no guide on how to dream, but there are strategies a person can use to remember the dream or force a certain dream topic.

1. Set a sleep schedule. A person is most likely to remember a dream if he wakes up within a half hour after it ends. If a person can arrange his sleep schedule so he wakes up within a half hour of dreaming, he is likely to recall all of his dreams.
2. Think about the problems. You can control the topic of your dreams to a limited degree. A Stanford University study conducted in 1974 asked participants to dream about a word problem before going to bed. The 20% of participants who dreamed about the problem had a higher success rate. A similar experiment was conducted recently in which patients were asked to navigate a maze.
3. Get a good full night's sleep. A person needs to go into the first stage of REM sleep before he can dream. The long dream cycle does not occur between REM sleep. It is here when the longest and most vivid dreams usually occur.
4. Keep a dream journal. Keeping a dream journal will not help a person dream more often. It will let a person recall the elements of his dreams and see repeating themes. Sometimes the recurring themes mean something. Sometimes they do not. Only the person who had the dream can figure this out for certain.