Remembering Dreams and Dream Programming

I've been asked several times lately on how to remember dreams better and what dream programming is. To help everyone, I thought I would copy some of my class notes onto my blog so folks can work on remembering and guiding their dreams at home.

It's important to place your dream journal right next to your bed with the page you want to write on open and the pen ready. You need to be able to reach this and write in it during the night without having to get up or turn the light on.

To train yourself to remember your dreams better takes several nights (this can be more than a week) of telling yourself affirmations before you go to bed. These affirmations would be statements like: "I'm going to clearly remember my dreams. Remembering my dreams is important to me. I will awake at the end of the dream long enough to remember and write down my dream. I will fall back into a deep sleep easily afterwards."

In a nutshell, dream programming is purposefully posing a question to be answered in your dreams or asking to dream about a particular subject.

One hour before you go to sleep, relax your body physically. Take a hot bath, practice stretching or gentle yoga, get a massage, have sex...do anything that will satisfy your physical senses.

Next, climb into bed and review the day's events slowly in sequence. Do this as impersonally as possible...like a reporter watching your day unfold and describing it in an emotionally neutral tone. The sequence is important.

Determine what area you want to direct your subconscious attention to or what question you need the answer to while sleeping. Then, lights out. Keep the issue in your head as along as you can without expending too much energy. Other thoughts will intrude. Allow them to float gently aside. Keep your mind on your objective without hanging on to it too tightly or becoming rigid. You may want to mumble or say aloud what you want to dream about just before you drift off.

Programming brings about varied results. Sometimes the solution to your problems will appear the very night you request help. Other times it may take a few days and nights. Sometimes you will remember the whole dream and sometimes just the solution.

Practice, practice, practice! It takes a little while to get the hang of this, but the benefits are enormous!