Dreams can be an effective method to learn how to receive communication from your Higher Self, from your spiritual guides, or from the astral plane. The best way to refine and develop this tool is to learn how to remember your dreams.

Before you go to sleep, tell yourself you want to remember your dreams. This will alert your mind to pay attention and to bring back images, feelings, impressions, and details. Over time, your ability to bring back details of your dreams will improve.

Next, when you are starting to wake up, there are moments when you are "in between" sleep and being awake. Use this time to initiate your thoughts to start the recall process. Much of the recall can become engaged in this "in between" time between sleep and wakefulness.

The next step is to record your dreams. This is one of the more established aides to help you remember your dreams. You can record your dreams on paper or in the computer. Create a "dream diary" or "dream log". Some find it useful to place a paper and pen by their bed to record the dream immediately upon waking.

In addition to recording details of the dream, record your feelings about the dream. And also record it the dream felt significant or not to you. You may want to use a significant rating scale, such as 1 = very significant, 2= somewhat significant, or 3= not significant. This type of information may be helpful as you review your dream diary and can evaluate themes or messages of communication from your higher self.

For those dreams that feel or seem significant, allow room in your diary to come back and record the over all message or interpretation of the dream. Also record the insight of the dream.

Here is an example of a form used to record dreams:

Date:		Significance:
Summary of Dream
How I felt
Overview of Dream
Interpretation
Insight

Eventually you will start to remember more and more details from your dream state as your mind learns to bring back the information it has gathered to the waking mind. And as your memory improves, so will your ability to determine what type of dream (a regular dream, a significant dream, a warning dream, etc) you have had.