Dreams can be and often are immersive. When you’re dreaming, you can’t always tell the difference between the waking world and the world of your dreams.
If you don’t value the ideas projected in dreams, they’ll fade.
One way to tell the difference between dreams and reality is to change something up when you’re dreaming. If everything feels the same between dreams and reality, you’re less likely to notice a difference. When dreaming, you’ll be more likely to accept anything your subconscious projects as fact. It doesn’t matter how crazy it is when compared to your day-to-day reality.
A good way of doing this is to go to sleep wearing a dream memory device. These can be worn on the wrist. A wristwatch or a fitness tracker can serve as a memory device. To use it this way, switch the arm on which you wear it during the day.
Memory devices can also be put around your ankle. They can also be fitness trackers or bracelets.
You can even use a piece of duct tape as a dream memory device. The important thing is that you can feel it, if only slightly.
If you customarily wear a watch on your right arm, put the memory device on your left leg. If you wear a watch on the left, place the memory device on the right leg. When or if you switch them at bedtime, switch the memory device on your legs as well.
The ankle is a great place to wear a memory device. It’s unobtrusive and serves as a reminder to take note of the events in the dream that you can then understand to know yourself and your environment better.
The important thing is that your orientation to know the difference between sleep and waking states changes.
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James Cobb, RN, MSN, is an emergency department veteran and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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