Is a Dream Journal Really Required

[Solid Air]

Hi I have been lucid dreaming since last November and have had 55 DILDs. I have kept a dream journal for all this time but now am feeling as though my motivation for keeping the journal is slipping. I was wondering if there are any lucid dreamers that can lucid dream without keeping a journal (other than than recording the lucid dreams) by simply doing MILD or WILD when they awake from a non-lucid dream. Let me know what has happened to you if and when you stopped doing a dream journal. I would be interested to know. Keep It Lucid! Solid Air

[Luminous]

I've seen other people say that as soon as they stopped keeping a dream journal, they had less dream recall and less lucid dreams. I started keeping a dream journal a few months ago , and I've doubled to maybe tripled my dream recall and probably lucid dreams (though I know I can forget lucid dreams). In an attempt to get your motivation back: it's pretty fun to look back in your entries, and remember the dreams you had months ago.

[DuB]

Required? Nothing is "required." However, there is nothing to gain from not using your dream journal. You can have lucid dreams without using a dream journal. Recently I went the better part of a year without making a single entry in my dream journal. I still had lucids, but they were fewer and farther between than when I was using my dream journal. Also, I inevitably forgot them within a day or two (to this day I can only remember some scattered bits and pieces of the lucids I had during that period). It depends how much you are into lucid dreaming. Currently I only record my lucid dreams, as you are considering doing, and I have them much less frequently than I did in my hey-day (although still more than I did when I was not into dreams at all). This is acceptable for me because I consider lucid dreaming to be of secondary importance, an added bonus to being asleep if you will. However, if you are serious about developing and enhancing your lucid dreaming ability, you need to use your dream journal diligently.

[Solid Air]

Thanks for the input you guys. Maybe I just need a break from dream journaling at the moment. I do find that when I write out my dreams in the middle of the night right after waking I can remember every detail. This has given me many high level lucid dreams but it does take a lot of effort. If I just take notes or write key words then the resulting entry's the next day don't tend to be as long or as detailed as writing them out straight after waking. Do people who WILD need to keep a dream journal of non-lucid dreams? All advice welcomed. Solid Air