Thread: Info in your dream journal

Firstly, as soon as I wake up and recall a dream, I scribble down key words and emotions on a small pad of paper next to my bed - this way small details won't be forgotten when I get out of bed (changing positions kills my recall). Then I record the dream in my actual journal.

My dream journal is a Word document on my computer.

At the very beginning of the journal, I keep a list of dream signs and characters that I can add to (or delete if outdated). Also I have my personal Lucidity Level chart for reference.

1. I record the date of the dream and a title. Usually, I'll write out the dream first, then title it last.

2. I record the dream itself in present tense, with every detail and emotion I can remember.

3. I highlight all dream signs and characters in a different color.

4. In another color, I record my feelings and thoughts directly after waking up from the dream (happy, sad, scared, disoreintated, relieved, etc.). And also the time I woke up. If don't remember waking up from the dream at all, I skip this part.

5. In another color, I record my state of mind before going to sleep, or any other factors I think may have influenced me.

6. In another color, I try to interpret my dream.

7. If I'm lucid, I highlight the point at which I become lucid, ending where I think I lost lucidity.

8. I have my own Lucidity Level chart (levels 1 through 5), so I record what level of lucidity I reached.

I find the different colors help me to quickly recognize patterns.

In the past when I kept extensive dream journals I found that hand writing triggered more recall of the dream that I was recording. Are you people that are using the computer for journals just re-entering details from a hand written notebook?? I'm wondering if typing at the key board will trigger more memory just like hand writing does??
Thanks

Originally posted by booker
In the past when I kept extensive dream journals I found that hand writing triggered more recall of the dream that I was recording. Are you people that are using the computer for journals just re-entering details from a hand written notebook?? I'm wondering if typing at the key board will trigger more memory just like hand writing does??

Personally, I jot down a few keywords and notes on a piece of paper, then type the entire, detailed dream into my journal.

I don't feel like I have better recall handwriting vs. typing. I could understand why some people may like handwriting better, but I've found typing to work better for me. Plus, I'm an extremely organized person, so the Word document with the different colors works best for me.

Everyone is different - just do whatever works for you.

So far my dream journal has been fairly compact.

The date, keywords and a brief description of what I felt. Mind you, not every night am I remembering dreams.

I put down a title, but it' is often hard to think of one title becouse my dreams hardly ever follow one logic storyline.. Then I put down the month and year, I keep forgetting the exact date anyway.

Lucids just put some lines on the left side of the text, can't miss it.

Any weird jumps of scene-changes I put a _ between the sentences.


Allso, sometimes I draw a simple map of the place, or I add some text, like or I tried a WILD or whatever.

Currently, each time I wake up during the night or morning remembering a dream, I reach for my TI-89 (graphing calculator with built-in simple text editor) and a flashlight and type in all the details I remember in abbreviated form. (I don't like to just jot down main ideas and try to remember the rest later, because I tend to forget details when I do that.) Then I go back to sleep. This cycle repeats until I get up.

Then I rewrite all the dreams into an OpenOffice.org document on my computer. I arrange them under headings by date and subheadings by dreams (and special subheadings for fragments and any other strange non-dream experiences I had, if I want to record those). The document automatically numbers all the dreams, and lucid dreams are also numbered, and the headings for lucid dreams are highlighted in a different color.

I record the times I woke up from the dreams, and if I recognize any connection with the events that occurred in a dream and what I did or thought about the previous day, I'll note those too while I'm retyping the dreams. I'll also record any other details I remember that I didn't type into my TI-89 when I woke up from that dream.

I'm also recopying all other dreams I've found documented in all my older journals/diaries so they can all be in the same document.

I haven't yet decided if I want to add any other "feaures" to my dream journal at this point. I want it to include information that could come in handy, but I also don't want to make it such a chore to keep up with that I wind up using it less often.

I used to do the standard way, just writing until I couldn't write anymore, and put a title on the top. But I rarely ever go back and read them, actually, something about not wanting to look at my past. But maybe I should just do it and make peace with myself!

Now I only jot down a few main points and elaborate on the dream later, because I can't afford to lose sleep,...no wait, I don't want to lose sleep. But sometimes I just stay up after recording my dreams because I totally killed my sleepiness by then.

I've done it a number of ways. At first i would write out the entire dream (with title and date of previous night). When i first started ir was around the time i first read "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge, so i was eager to try some of his methods. With that in mind, after i had written out my dreams i would go through and underline anything that was out of the ordinary. Then, on a seperate page, i would indicate what category they belonged in (context, action etc.) and then i would write down repeated dream characters and objects (from previous nights as well) and try and make sure i did reality checks whenever i saw these people or objects, provided they were real people/things. Also so i could perform reality checks whenever something was out of context, or i performed a weird action. Didn't work for me though.

Then i got really lazy and started jotting down things in point form, very brief point form. Then i would write them out later when i could be bothered. However, the problem with this was that my points were too vague and i couldn't remember any details of any dreams, if i could remember any points at all.

Now, since i've gotten back into keeping my journal, i simply lay in bed as soon as i wake up and try and recall and solidify as much of my dream/s as possible. Once i've got as much as i think i can get, i write the whole thing out in my dream journal, even if it's the middle of the night. Often i'll get little bits and pieces come back to me as i'm writing. If my journal ends up messy, so be it, that doesn't matter.

It might be a good idea, though, to go back to the points for the middle of the night and just make them more detailed, using the same lay-in-bed-and-solidify method before and after i jot them down to help make sure i remember more details in the morning.

And wow Burns, that's a very organised and detailed dream journal you've got there!