I think most people who try to learn lucid dreaming are aware what prospective memory is: remembering actions you want to perform in the future.
"After work, I will return this book to the library."
"When I go shopping, I will remember to buy milk, cottage cheese and salmon."
"Each day, I will remember to take my vitamins before I go to sleep."
And for us hopeful dreamers the most crucial:
"Tonight, I will remember my dreams."
"The next time I'm dreaming, I will know that I'm dreaming."
"When I see this dream sign, I will do a reality check."
I can't be the only one with really bad prospective memory – nowadays, we have our phones to remind us of shopping lists, appointments, birthdays and so on. We are outsourcing our prospective memory, and a muscle that isn't used will astrophy over time.
Here's a video on Daniel Love's Youtube channel about this topic:
So, I'm currently trying to build up that muscle and re-train my prospective memory. At the moment, I do prospective memory training as suggested by Stephen Laberge: Set yourself four target events for the day. (This can by anything: The next time I see a dog. The next time I hear the train go by.) When you get up in the morning, memorize the day’s targets. Look for your targets during the day and do a reality check the first time you encounter them. If you realize during the day that you have missed a target, you have failed this target for the day, even though you've remembered it later. At the end of the day, see how many targets you've hit. Additional to this list of targets, I also try to add little tasks here and there – at the moment, I'm trying to use my sweet tooth to train my prospective memory by telling myself: WI will eat this cookie the next time the neighbour's dog barks (and no sooner)." I also keep in mind what Daniel said in the video above about ditching external reminders like notes or lists. How are you training your prospective memory?
I train my prospective memory just by trying to remember all there is to remember without external reminders (except for those really important ones like my kids dentist visits etc. for which I put backup reminders). I went to the grocery store yesterday and remembered 31/33 purchases without looking at the shopping list :D
I’ve been thinking about adding back LaBerge’s practice because I feel it made me focus on reality tests better and made me possibly more attentive in my dreams.
Hey there! Thanks for posting the video, I think I may not have seen that one yet.
Say, is the Lucidity Level app offering the same "MILD trainer" as that free app of the same name? That one gives you four targets (prolly taken straight from LaBerge's book EtWoLD) and you write down how many you hit during the day. Then switch to a different set of targets the following day.
Mikka, I know that you use Lucidity Level right? That app has a tab that helps you practice this exercise (called the MILD trainer). That's what I used to use when I did this exercise a lot. It helps you keep track of how many targets you hit, etc.