People vary greatly in how much they remember of their dreams. Perhaps most important reason why people forget their dreams is that they don't care. Western culture does not regard dreams as especially important, rather it regards getting out of the bed in time as survival factor. This is bad in two respects as most dreams occur at the end of the sleeping cycle and are often interrupted, and the necessity of getting up fast and keeping up with the schedule occupies peoples' minds and prevents them from thinking about their dreams in the morning.

Most dreams occur in REM sleep. REM = Rapid Eye Movements. Dreams last typically in the range of 5 to 45 minutes. The technical term used for the art and practice of divination by dreams is "oneiromancy."

Dreams seem to be a way for the subconscious mind to sort out and process all the input and problems that are encountered in waking life. Dreams can also improve your emotional well-being, reduce stress, improve your creativity, and provide a playground for your mind while your body recovers and repairs itself. Dreams can help us diagnose health problems, encourage us in the decisions we make, or reprimand us for negative behavior in our relationships. They can be instructive and practical, lighthearted fun or spiritually uplifting, depending on what we need most at a given time. Even major life issues are addressed in dreams; in fact, nothing of importance happens to us without it first having been foreshadowed in our dreams.

Begin a dream journal, in which you write everything you remember of your dreams, even the slightest fragments. You will remember the most if you record dreams right after you awaken from them. Before falling asleep each night, remind yourself that you want to awaken from, remember and record your dreams. Try to write the dream as it occurred leaving out nothing and adding nothing. Were there Colors? Buildings? Numbers? Other people? Animals? Draw pictures if necessary. Was there something that may have triggered the dream?? (re-appearance of a lost love, an incident that made you remember aspects of your dream, something you read or did that pertains to the dream) Don't forget to record the date, and how you felt after during and after the dream. Were you happy, sad, angry, agitated?