The paper aims to develop a direct approach, namely, the Cauchy matrix approach, to non-isospectral integrable systems. In the Cauchy matrix approach, the Sylvester equation plays an central role, which defines a dressed Cauchy matrix to provide τ functions for the investigated equations. In this paper, using the Cauchy matrix approach, we derive three non-isospectral nonlinear Schrödinger
equations and their explicit solutions. These equations are generically related to time-dependent spectral parameter in the Zakharov-Shabat-Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur spectral problem. Their solutions are obtained from the solutions of unreduced non-isospectral nonlinear Schrödinger equations through complex reduction. These solutions are analyzed and illustrated to show the non-isospectral effects in dynamics of solitons.