Thread: Dream Journaling Questiom

Three to four dreams! That is impressive.
I would when you wake up, write down the 'key points' to jot down the dreams before you forget. Then you can later write properly the ones you think are most relevant.

If you are a beginner then yes you probably should start to do that. However, technically, you are not required to. For me, I usually write 6 to 8 dreams a night and sometimes more in my Dream Journal. You could jot down the key points in your dream before you forget. I would do this so it would be easier to remember heavy detail dreams. Especially if you have so many.

To add onto the pile here, do what they said ^^

Haha, but the true balance is finding how much you need to write to both improve your recall, and keep it consistent when you are remembering your dreams well.

I would ask yourself these questions:
* How many dreams do you want to remember each night?
If you aren't there, you need to write more.

* How much do you want to remember the dreams in the future?
Look back on old dreams. If you can't remember the dreams that were good, you didn't write enough at the time. It's the details you will forget later, so if you have a dream you want to remember, it's probably worth writing it down well... even at the expense of not writing other dreams.

* How long do you want to write every day?
Push longer than you want to until you've acheived your goals. Once you're there, see if you can maintain your progress while writing only as much you want to.

Don't jump the gun too quickly either. I find that sometimes it takes a week or two of consistency before your journaling begins to see results.

Why nobody talks about storing your dreams in your head instead to write it in dream journal? I found it multiplies my dream recall once I learned how to store them all in my head. Probably most people write Dream Journal because nothing new requires to learn e.g most people can write and ask them self a question upon waking up, what was I just dreaming about... However it not the most reliable way to remember things. E.g Your friends ask you what did you dream about last week or you want to go over your last couple dreams to analyse you dream signs on your way to work. But wait you don't have your dream journal with you. So you can't do it unless you have stored it in your head.

Originally Posted by Dragnets

Why nobody talks about storing your dreams in your head instead to write it in dream journal? I found it multiplies my dream recall once I learned how to store them all in my head. Probably most people write Dream Journal because nothing new requires to learn e.g most people can write and ask them self a question upon waking up, what was I just dreaming about... However it not the most reliable way to remember things. E.g Your friends ask you what did you dream about last week or you want to go over your last couple dreams to analyse you dream signs on your way to work. But wait you don't have your dream journal with you. So you can't do it unless you have stored it in your head.

Dragnets, that is an interesting point. However, I personally find that writing down my dreams will simply affix the memory in my mind, and I can have a near perfect memory of the dream for years.

Originally Posted by naturespirit

Dragnets, that is an interesting point. However, I personally find that writing down my dreams will simply affix the memory in my mind, and I can have a near perfect memory of the dream for years.

Well storing information in your head has the same effect if done right.

You are saying that writing your dreams in a dream Journal, You can recall all your dreams for a particular week that you had two month ago without looking at your Dream Journal?

dragnets how many dreams do you have per night? how many dreams did you have back in lets just pick June 12, 2015. what were your dreams about that night?


Writing down information is actually a way to relieve your mind of the stress of trying to remember things and moving them into longer term memory. Now if you can do this withoit DJing, that is awesome, and good on you. For me, I like being able to relive my dreams from years ago and actually not forget key points. So for another point, may 15th 2012 (Do you remember your dreams from that night?) I had a lucid that I knew I wouldn't forget for the longest time. I went over it in my head almost every day. I had it written in my DJ on here and in an old paper book. I knew that I knew this dream back and front. Then I reread my paper journal once and realized that I had misremembered the beginning of the dream. as I read it, it came flooding back correctly. Had I not written it down, I would have not only not remembered a key part in the dream (and my dream mythos), but would think that I had remembered it perfectly.

I have this issue as well, I wonder if I have to jot down my dreams on my DJ constantly, however, I decided to write only some key notes on a sheet, and in the morning, I write the whole dream in my DJ. Nevertheless, it's time-consuming... and the more time goes by, the more you could forget some key part. That's why you should rewrite in the morning imo.

Originally Posted by Sensei

Writing down information is actually a way to relieve your mind of the stress of trying to remember things and moving them into longer term memory.

I get that. Sometimes when I wake a few times over the night with recall and am too lazy to write dreams but I keep them in mind, it feels as though I'm carrying them through the night and am less available for the rest of the night...that said I'm listening to a book on memory and playing around with memory systems that are effective and easy. There might be a way to store the bits of a dream in a memory system, like the journey method, and either not need to write them, or at least not until later in morning. I haven't done this yet, but people who work with memory systems don't neccesairily need to write notes for anything

Originally Posted by Dragnets

Well storing information in your head has the same effect if done right.

You are saying that writing your dreams in a dream Journal, You can recall all your dreams for a particular week that you had two month ago without looking at your Dream Journal?

Honestly this isn't quite true on account of how memory functions and is stored. The simple act of recalling a specific memory results in degradation of that memory. Over time, the degradation builds up until the memory you believe fully to be accurate and true has significant differences--it's unavoidable. To put it a bit more accurately, the memory is being altered. Degradation itself happens naturally over time and actually results in the fragmentation or outright loss of a memory. Specific memories aren't located in isolated areas in the brain, but instead exist widespread throughout the brain as the result of interactions between networks of neurons that are able to... sense, for a lack of a better layman's way of putting it, when coincidence occurs. Essentially new path ways are formed that can later be used to allow the travel of specific messages that couldn't be formed without the network being established in the first place (or rather, the network and the signals it allows to form and be sent are mostly dependent on each others existence and can't be viewed as separate in the normal sense). Neurons projecting through the hippocampus and temporal lobe (parts responsible for forming and storing memory) that extend to other areas of the brain that repeatedly detect the same signals stay activated for longer periods of time through a process called Long-Term Potentiation. This facilitates the forming of memories and the ability to learn.

So, taking it further, think about how your brain is constantly repeating this process in order to continue learning and store new information about perceptual experiences. All of the new associations, concepts, beliefs, emotions, etc. that are allowed to exist by this process forming new networks. As you continue to grow, so do all of your perspectives, beliefs, and the associations you make with the various phenomena you experience, it means that when you recall old memories, you are no longer reliving that experience or those ideas using the exact same networks as before. It makes it impossible for that memory to remain unaltered. On top of that, unused or seldom used pathways do fade over time as the new pathways generated encompass the previous ones to the point entirely different pathways are used for what appears to be the same concepts or perceptual phenomena.

On top of all of this, memories are formed much more effectively the more senses are involved and the more activity you can stimulate throughout your entire brain. The ability to think, the ability to speak, and the ability to write are all handled differently by the brain. Incorporating all of the ways you can use language, physical actions involved communicating those concepts (even if just to yourself), visual stimulation caused by seeing symbols representing the concepts expressed by that language, and emotional stimulation that can be caused by the scenario involved in the memory itself or evoked by something like music, etc. means widespread integration of the memories formed. The more networks you can get your neurons to generate involving the same thing, the less likely it is that newer pathways in the future can end up bypassing the ones initially created and less information will be lost. Creating a physical record of your memories lets you keep check on how accurate your current memories are, and are a means to prevent outright loss of the information recorded. It's not something you do to avoid remembering things in your head, but something you do to make sure that you do, and that you remember it accurately.