Kwik Brain Episode 14: How To Remember Your DREAMS

Welcome to Kwik Brain, bite-sized brain hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Kwik. Free your mind. Let's imagine if we could access 100% of our brain's capacity. I wasn't high, wasn't wired, just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it. I know kung fu. Show me. Okay, Kwik Brain, how do you remember your dreams? Dreams are some of the most mysterious and interesting experiences of our lives, aren't they? Yet, have you ever woke up in the morning only to forget what you dreamt about? Now, I'm in a hotel room sitting on my bed, ironically, going to go on stage in a little bit. I wanted to create this episode for you not to talk about interpreting your dreams. Instead, I'm going to share with you 6 quick tips to better recall them. Now, you know from prior episodes the importance motivation plays for for your memory. So why would you want to remember your dreams? I'll give you 2 reasons. Number one, it takes time of your life, you know, doing this activity. We dream on average about 4 to 7 dreams a night, about 1 or 2 hours total each night. That's about 6 years of time spent dreaming. That's more than a couple thousand days in dream world. And it's interesting because everyone dreams. Just because you don't remember your dreams yet doesn't mean you didn't dream. The number 2 reason I would say in terms of motivation about why you want to remember your dreams is problem solving. What do I mean by that? While we sleep, our subconscious minds continue to work on problems that our unconscious minds have failed to solve. Most people have struggled with a challenge from a life situation to something at work, something with their family, their health, or they're doing a crossword puzzle only to find the answer easily after. Sleeping on the problem. Now, when people say sleep on it, it actually does help. Sleeping on it actually has led to major discoveries in music, in art, in literature, in science, in invention, because the subconscious mind is very powerful, provided the conscious mind absorbs plenty of data while it's awake. Using these kind of methods, you could process and make sense of the data while you sleep. Now, I was saying that some of the incredible discoveries in history are a testament to the importance of sleep. And dream recollection. For example, Paul McCartney came up with Yesterday, the song Yesterday, in a dream. Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein in a dream. Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity in a dream. Even the periodic table, where we did a prior episode on how to memorize technical information like the periodic table— chemist Dmitri Mendeleev actually came up with the periodic table in a dream. He's quoted as saying, I saw in a dream a table Where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper. I mean, it's amazing. René Descartes came up with a framework for the scientific method in a dream. Athletes like Jack Nicklaus changed his swing in a dream. Elias Howe, the inventor, came up with the idea of a sewing machine in a dream. So are you excited? This is how you could problem solve. Dreaming is an incredible tool to be able to solve challenges, solve problems. If you're an entrepreneur, Create new value. So now here are 6 quick tips to remember your dreams. And I want you to remember the word dreams. The D in dreams stands for decide. Decide. Decide that you're going to remember your dreams because Ralph Waldo Emerson said, once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. So the night before you sleep, make a conscious choice that you will recall your dreams. Number 2, the R in DREAMS stands for record. You want to record your dreams because the act of recording trains your mind to be more sensitized to your dreams and to start paying attention to them. So keep a pen and paper by your bedside to record any lingering remembrance for when you wake. Better yet, use a dedicated dream journal. If you can't see at night, go on to online and get one of those pen lights to help you to be able to write and see in the dark. You could also use an audio or phone recorder, anything to help you remember. Now, the E in DREAMS stands for your eyes. Your eyes. And what I mean by that is keep your eyes shut. Dreams can disappear within minutes of waking up. If you keep your eyes closed, it'll help you to be able to reflect and not distract yourself with what's going on in your environment. The A in DREAMS stands for affirm. Affirm. Meaning affirm that you will remember. Set the intention before you sleep by saying out loud multiple times, I will recall my dreams. I will remember my dreams. Have you ever had to wake up— this is a good point— have you ever had to wake up at a certain time the next morning? Let's say it was 5:30 or 6:00 AM, and you had that intention. You affirmed that you're going to wake up at that time, and you actually wake up a couple minutes before your alarm goes off. That intention, that affirmation is important. The M in DREAMS stands for manage. And what are you managing? You're managing your sleep. It's important to get deep rest, deep sleep, to be able to have your dreams. So rest and clear your mind before bedtime. Get plenty of sleep. Establish regular sleep routines and hygiene. We're going to do a whole episode in the future on the best tips on quick, deep, restful sleep. And finally, the S in DREAMS stands for share. Share. And you're sharing your dreams. Talk about your dreams with others. The more that you acknowledge your dreams and bring them to the surface, the easier it's going to be to remember them. Now, like all memory training we do, whether it's for remembering names and faces and numbers and speeches and foreign languages, et cetera, the ability to recall your dreams is a skill, and you can learn it through practice and persistence. I highly recommend, if you want to go deep in this, to take our Kwik Recall Masterclass. It is the most advanced online memory training system in the world. 12 weeks of memory training. You can find out more information at kwiklearning.com. So remember this: expect to recall your dreams, but don't get discouraged if they don't come right away. At first, you might only remember certain parts or small parts, but the more you work on remembering your dreams, the easier it will be to recall them. Now, an interesting potential side effect of dream recall is the experience of more lucid dreams. Do you know what lucid dreams are? No. Have you ever noticed when you're dreaming, have you ever been aware that you're actually dreaming in the process of dreaming while you're dreaming? So lucid dreaming is the process of dreaming while you're becoming aware that you're dreaming. Lucid dreamers report sleep adventures. They could solve problems, they could have creative endeavors, and they can learn a multitude of experiences and information in their imagination. So as you can imagine, this is a very highly desired So if you would like me to do an episode, a future Kwik Brain episode on how to lucid dream, let me know on social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, @JimKwik. Until then, remember the acronym DREAMS to recall more of your sleep adventures as you activate and enjoy more of your Kwik Brain. Sweet dreams. Want to double your brain speed and memory power? If you'd like to learn rapidly and get ahead faster, I'd like to give you my brand new Quick Brain Accelerator program. You will discover exactly what I teach my clients to learn, read, and remember anything in half the time. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. That's kwikbrain.com, or simply text the word podcast to 916-822- 916-82-BRAIN. Growing up struggling with learning challenges from a childhood brain injury, it's been my life's mission to help you have your very best brain so you can win more every single day. Now, want more Kwik Brain? Here are 4 ways to fast-track your results and lock in what you just learned into your long-term memory. Remember FAST. F-A-S-T. A, S, T. The F stands for Facebook. You're not alone on this journey. I invite you to join our free private online group. There you can connect with me, your fellow brain lovers, links to resources, and even submit your questions for me to answer in future episodes. Go to kwikbrain.com. That's K-W-I-K brain dot com. The A stands for apply. Act on what you learned today. Remember, knowledge is not power. It's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it. So use what you just learned. The S stands for subscribe. Don't miss the next episode and other free brain training. And finally, the T stands for teach. You want to learn faster now? The key is to lock it in right away by teaching it to someone else. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Here's a simple way to do that. Leave a review on iTunes. Leave a review with your biggest takeaway from this episode. You could also post and share this podcast on your social media. It helps us spread our mission of building better, brighter brains. And of course, tag us so our team can properly thank you. #KwikBrain, K-W-I-K Brain. Mine is @JimKwik, K-W-I-K, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. So what does FAST stand for? Facebook, apply, subscribe, teach. I'll see you in our next episode of Quick Brain. Until then, remember, you are faster and smarter than you think.