Today I remembered a dream. It was the first time remembering in a couple weeks, and so it was a special thing. Not the dream itself, but remembering it was the special thing. And perhaps because it was special, I also remembered how I woke up.

Looking back on the days when I remember my dreams, I can see a pattern. It appears that if I wake up slowly (without an alarm clock), this seems to have an effect on my ability to remember my dreams. As in, I’ll just lay in bed quietly, sort of ‘adjusting’ to being awake without thinking about much of anything. This may seem like a small thing, but if I could do this every day I think I would remember a lot more dreams. 

Just laying in bed without immediately getting up and going about my morning routine gives my mind a chance to recall what I was doing in the Subtle World just before waking up. If I give my body tasks to perform, my mind seems to track along with those tasks and I’ll forget everything. Or, if right away I start thinking about the upcoming day and the list of things I need to accomplish, the same thing happens - no dream recall. 

So it looks like the ‘just laying in bed for a little while’ part is just as important as the ‘being awake without thinking about much of anything’ part. This got me thinking about how we wake up in the morning, and how much that matters. 

Have you ever owned a drugstore alarm clock? You know, the one that sounds like the raging screed of a very pissed off, meth-addled Godzilla going off every .5 seconds next to your head? Many of you may not be old enough to remember such things. Since the advent of cell phones and their various utilities such as built-in alarm clocks, many of us (mercifully) don’t recall such things. But if you do remember, you know what I’m talking about! I can remember actually flinching so hard I threw my back out a couple times. I even used to get anxious when I would hear any alarm clock sound that remotely resembled my own, like when I was watching TV. Short of being doused with a bucket of ice water and simultaneously having your leg hair removed with duct tape, it was the worst way to wake up, ever. 

The. Worst. And it was every day!

All this got me thinking about how we wake up, and how we should wake up. 

We all know that some of us are very deep sleepers, and some may require having an alarm sound that is loud, brash, so annoying that nothing could possibly sleep through it. To these folks I say this: I get it. It’s totally understandable, and if you need this to get out of bed and get to work on time, then use what works. If you are interested in more dream recall, I might suggest trying out different sounds to wake up to, maybe on a weekend when it doesn’t matter if you oversleep. Keep in mind that we need to be able to trust our alarm clocks to wake us up, otherwise the anxiety over whether or not we’ll be awake on time will cause us to actually lose sleep. So definitely experiment and test out new things over the course of a few nights - just make sure what you settle on will do the trick.

Anyway, please read on!

If you don’t have a cell phone, or don’t use one as an alarm clock, I would guess that you use a proper alarm clock purchased anywhere from a drugstore to Amazon. Try listening to the sound your alarm clock makes (when you are already fully awake) and take a few notes. What does the sound remind you of? How does the sound make you feel? What kinds of thoughts does it trigger in you? If the notes you take reflect predominantly negative feelings, perhaps you should look into changing the sound it makes if it has several to choose from. Or if it doesn’t make any sounds that you like, maybe it’s time for a new alarm clock.   

Note: The long-term effects of cell-phone proximity have not been studied. Nor have the effects of cell-phone proximity ever been studied in relation to human sleep cycles. This article does not explore these issues.

Lots of people use cell phones to wake up in the morning. It sits beside the bed and does its thing at the appointed time. Obviously the same questions apply as with the store-purchased alarm clock: What does the sound remind you of? How does the sound make you feel? What kinds of thoughts does it trigger in you? Again, take a moment for self-reflection and decide whether you should change the sound you use as an alarm. If your cell phone doesn’t have one you particularly like, maybe purchasing a new alarm clock with more pleasing sounds would be best, since getting a new cell phone is a major purchase for most people. 

I don’t consider myself to be a deep sleeper, and nor do I consider myself a light sleeper. But over the years I have found that it doesn’t take an ear-piercing racket to wake me up. In fact, quieter, soothing sounds can do the same job and it’s been great. 

I’d like to make one more point with regard to how we wake up. Here are a couple things that I take as facts because my experience has confirmed them (your experience may vary but I think these things are pretty universal):

• Dream recall is best when the body is in nearly the same state as when asleep
• Dream recall is best when the mind is in nearly the same state as when asleep
• If upon waking the mind is kept on the task of remembering dreams without being dispersed in several directions, then dream recall is better
• Alarm clocks that jar us awake with the use of annoying or otherwise displeasing sounds tend to hurt our chances of remembering our dreams (and really, it’s just not a great way to start the day)

With these points in mind, I would suggest that an alarm that begins as a soft sound (that you could just barely hear) and gets louder over time would be best. It should be a sound that you don’t feel unnerved or upset about when you hear it, and yet it should effectively wake you up. The reason I think this would be best is that our consciousnesses would then be slowly moved from the awareness we have in the Subtle World to the awareness of the physical. This in contrast to an unpleasant shock that disturbs the mind in such a way that it cannot hold onto the dream-like state and loses all memory of it.  

Once awake (snooze alarms will be covered in a later article - stay tuned!) one should avoid thinking about any minor concerns (grocery lists, getting the kids to soccer practice after work, etc.) for a little while. Maybe give it five minutes and just hang out in bed…and see what you can remember from your time in the Subtle Realm! 

I do not endorse any product or retailer, but below are a couple links for “gentle-awake” alarm clocks that I found after a quick internet search. If you find something that works for you, please don’t hesitate to post a comment and link to it. Tell us what kind of a difference it’s made in your life and in your ability to remember your dreams!

http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-gentle-wake-alarm-clocks.html

https://www.amazon.com/slp/gentle-alarm-clocks/czmvzs9jowzb4p8