@pathfinder@arisummerland@actuallyautistic I have a suggestion on how to remember, based on similar experience: by recalling the reaction you had during the dream as an observer to its content.
I recently confirmed to myself my dream visuals are much higher fidelity than my waking visualization this way. That's because during a dream I had a strong reaction to how visually beautiful an island was, though when I woke my visual memory of the island was too foggy to have caused that reaction.