The Lab Notebook

Like many others, I was attracted to lucid dreaming by Inception. Unlike some others, I was very quick to let go of the misconceptions it offers, and to learn and embrace the lingo, the practices, and the understanding of dreaming that are accepted by the community of real people I found here.

I titled my dream journal "The Lab Notebook" because of the way I'm naturally inclined to write the portions of my dream journal entries that are commentary and side notes on my dreams. I always write with the vocabulary, style, and mindset of a scientist recording the observations she's made during her experiments. That's the framework in which I can best make sense of what I'm learning about dreaming.

I always write about dreams in the present tense, because I remember reading somewhere that doing so helps the events of the dream seem more immediate and real to you, and helps you recall them.

The color-coding system I use in my dream journal is:

Dark red: Things I did while awake
Teal: Non-lucid portions of the dream
Deep sky blue: Semi-lucid portions of the dream
Dark orchid: Lucid portions of the dream (because it's my favorite color)
[Black within square brackets:] Commentary added by me while I was writing the dream journal entry