Thread: What Is The Deal With This Dream Journal?

Are you serious?

Anyways... dream journals improve your recall even if its bad... and its only lame if you think it is, and it generally improves the quality of your dreams. And if you are tired when you wake up, GET MORE SLEEP.

You should learn what a reality check is. The answer is "yes." sometimes because you do it when you are in a dream. Just read the tutorial... try using the search button at the top for these type of questions.

Okay. Thanks. Do you keep a dream journal? Does it help you?

i guess

btw how old are you?

"11" heh

17

That's exactly the attitude one needs to fight to do effective reality checks.
In dreams your mind rationalises to make you think that it is reality. Thus, just like you stated the swift "I'll always know when I'm awake", your mind states the same in your dreams.
Lucid dreaming occurs when you realise you are dreaming. The way to achieve this is to train one's mind to question your state - are you awake or dreaming?

Thus, keeping a dream journal not only has some magical effect to increase dream recall but it is important to know your dreams. Knowing them, having many of them recorded, will allow you to see periodically appearing events or concepts in them - dream signs, as they are called.
This, in turn, is yet another object to grasp on the road to lucidity.

Good luck and I recommend you read Stephen LaBerge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" - it's a great compilation of information and a thorough guide all in one.

I just posted a topic on my crappy dream recall. And when I say crappy dream recall, I mean only remembering like one dream every two or three months. I decided to get a dream journal a little over a week ago and I still had no results for the first few days. Last night was the first dream that I had remembered quite a bit about in probably two months or more!! I feel that it definetely was a success. I was very skeptical too, but just try it.

Originally Posted by Hypnosis06

I just posted a topic on my crappy dream recall. And when I say crappy dream recall, I mean only remembering like one dream every two or three months. I decided to get a dream journal a little over a week ago and I still had no results for the first few days. Last night was the first dream that I had remembered quite a bit about in probably two months or more!! I feel that it definetely was a success. I was very skeptical too, but just try it.
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I had a horrible time with recall as well, only remembering truly horrible nightmares and suchlike. I started a dream journal on here, but when it became too much of a burden, I gave up on it. I still do journaling about half the time, privately. The point is that I can usually remember at least one dream per night now - and if I am actively keeping a journal, I can remember three plus!

As for asking "those questions", well it is important. They are called reality checks because (and this sounds obvious, but stick with me here) you are checking your reality. If you get in the habit of asking "Am I dreaming?" often when you are awake, you will practice it in sleep as well. By noting what you experience when you ask said question in waking life, you learn what an appropriate response is by tuning into your surroundings. You aren't just saying "no, I'm awake", you are learning to observe your behavior and the world around you. When you are asleep and you ask yourself that question, you are signaling to yourself to check your reality. It helps you distinguish that you are in fact dreaming, and moves you towards the controlling your dreams part of lucidity.
Of course, not every reality check works for everyone, so take a look at all the different ones there are, and pick which suits you. You want something you will feel comfortable doing, not hokey!

dream journals directly relate to my lucid dreams, so yes, it helps a lot. when I am good with my dream journal my dreams become more vivid and longer. and the more vivid they are the easier it is to become lucid. I can have a lucid dream every night potentionally when I keep up with my journal

when I'm lazy or overwhelmed *some of my vivid dreams end up being pages typed, it takes a while!!* I ignore my journal. and slowly my dreams become less vivid, less lucid. and slowly I remember less and less and I experience the total oppisite, remembering NOTHING for an entire week.

then I have to think about dreaming and grab the journal and the cycle starts all over again

I havent actually found a technique that works best for me, my lucids just happen out of a desire for them to happen and keeping up with my journal.

I have to say Scar that I have always felt pretty much the same way you do about dream journals, but my view is changing.

I have a very good natural dream-recall, provided I get enough sleep, and have achieved lucidity without a dream journal or looking at my hands every five minutes.

But as time has worn on and i've gotten over the initial rush of excitement at discovering LD, I've found my motivation has started to wane, and so have my lucid dreams.

I've started trying to keep a dream journal and I think it probably does help in generally saturating your subconscious with dream-related information.
I've only been doing it for about a week though so no solid results as yet.

At the end of the day, though, I doubt that so many lucid-dreamers would swear to the usefulness of keeping a dream journal if it was a waste of time.

I'm having to concede to the general consensus here.

I don't have trouble with recall unless I have something urgent to do the next day (cutting sleep at 6 hours with an alarm clock for class almost always makes me forget everything). I didn't notice any improved recall or lucidity either when I was recording everyday. I agree with you juroara that recording mounds of detail gets tiresome, especially when I drift in and out of many dreams late morning. Interrupting each time to write down more would start to wake me up too, I rather relax and try to continue.

I haven't completely abandoned the journal though. I'll write down anything that seems to stand out. Or if it's a good dream that leaves me wide awake, I'll record all of it. Those types of dreams tend not to fade from memory, so I can write them down sometime later if I didn't want to right off.