I'm in my late middle ages and for years, when discussing dreams, I'd simply say that I never remembered my dreams. For the most part that was true. I'd have vague memories but no longer than a couple of minutes after waking and then the memories would be gone. This was true up until a couple of months ago when I began writing down bits of the dreams and keeping a journal. I typically have to get up once or twice each night and I began keeping a note pad and pen handy and jotting down notes and then transcribing the notes into a dream journal.

All that effort and mental power sometimes kept me awake longer than I liked so I bought a relatively inexpensive digital recorder and I keep it in my bookcase headboard so I can now simply record into the device without getting up or concentrating on writing and play bay the recording the next morning - and drift right back to sleep. Sometimes I'll begin replaying the recorder and not even remember having the dream until 3-4 seconds into the recording when it all returns in a flood. The result is that, from not being able to remember 1 dream a month for many years, I can now remember at least 2-3 dreams each night, and remember them in vivid detail after only a couple of weeks effort. It's a great system that really works.

As an added bonus, the recorder has a USB port that also allows me to record self hypnosis scripts and affirmations to upload to my computer and download into my MP3 player.