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If you can remember more of your dream, you are better able to analyze it. You can increase your chances of remembering your dream by taking a few extra minutes both to go to sleep and to wake up. If you allow yourself to wake up gradually, you're less likely to startle the dream out of your head. Dream memories are fleeting, and almost always dissipate unless you catch them early on. As soon as you awake, take a pen and jot down whatever you can remember, whether it's a colour, shape, or feeling. Every little detail will help you to make better sense of your dream. When you wake up, you won't have long to catch your dream memories before they fade away. Having a pen and paper at your bedside will give you the fastest way possible to get your thoughts onto paper. When you wake up, try to get the main symbols in your dream down on paper so they don't disappear from your mind. You can write them or draw them, whatever is easiest for you. Obviously, you dreamed about a doll, but think about what else you saw. What other symbols showed up? Were other people there? Just try to get down the main ideas right now. The emotional impact of the dream is often more important than the visual symbols in your dream. As you write down the details of your dream, think about the emotions that accompanied it. Did you feel upset when you woke up? Did the dream make you happy or anxious? Try to identify what you're feeling upon waking, and write those thoughts down, too. Now that you've got the main ideas down, fill in the details. The details are any extra things you can think of that happened in the dream but weren't necessarily the main focus of the dream. The details can help put the symbols you see into context. For example, think about the setting. Was it night or day? Did you notice anything else in the dream that you may have left out? Maybe a particular color stood out to you, or maybe you saw a recurring flower. Just try to fill in as much as you can.
Don't spring out of bed. Write down everything as soon as you wake up. Keep a pen and paper at your bedside. Write the main picture down. Reflect upon whether the dream was positive or negative. Fill in other important details.