Hand-written dream journal tip for those who share the bedroom

Ever since I started keeping a dream journal, I wanted to make it hand-written, because I had read dream recall improved a lot this way. Of course, sharing the bedroom with my sister was a major problem, because I couldn't just turn on a light in the middle of the night to write down my dreams. So, I had always used phone apps for this.

Some days ago I came up with an idea. I got a dinA5 sized ring folder (this size seems the most convenient). I thought every night I would get a sheet of paper and put it under my pillow with a pen and my tablet, with its screen brightness turned to the lowest. What I do is use the tablet not only as the surface on which I write, but also as a light source.

I have used this as my dream journal for 10 days now and I certainly have noticed great improvement in my dream recall. For those who don't want to turn any lights on at night and have a tablet (or iPad), you can give this a go.

Hope this is useful to someone, it definitely would've been to me :)

We should make a list of clever ideas people use to Dream Journal, this would certainly make the list ^^ At first I was skeptical when you mentioned I-pad, since a recent study pointed out that those can be disruptive to our sleep due the bright light, but that idea of putting it behind the paper seems pretty smart! Before I found out the joys of audio recording I still tried writing in the dark, which resulted in:

http://i.imgur.com/TkfYXPn.jpg

Thankfully, my tablet lets me set the brightness to a very low level, and putting the paper on it, it still dims the light more. Writing directly on my phone used to disrupt my sleep, like you said, so I ended up avoiding using it during the night.

Poor Dr. Johnson.

I use a flameless candle. Works great!

I try to make sure the dreams worth recording happen in the morning!

And, when a nighttime dream must be recorded, I tend to get up (slowly!) and go to another room to write so as not to bother my wife; keeping bits of the dream swirling in my head on the way keeps it from dissolving while I'm making my way to a well-lit spot. Primitive, yes, but effective.

Ah! Sleeping with others and wanting to dream-record!
I have used a number of different (very low) lightnings including tiny clip-on reading lights, table lamp with black casing in which I have put a low-watt fridge lamp etc. I have even tried using the OP technique when I first got my ipad but finally didn't do it as I liked my paperback dream journal - having pages attached wasn't so attractive :tongue:
Then I switched to recording. At the beginning it was definitely bad for my dream recall but after some time I was used to it and it seems now to be as good as (or not much inferior to) hand-writing, which definitely takes much more time, so it worths the price!
As for my paperback dream journal, I still keep it, writing down a few key points of every dream and drawing all images I can remember! :wink:

Yeah, I thought of audio recording too, but I find many setbacks to it. To start with, I should go far from the bedrooms to avoid waking anyone up or startling anyone. Secondly, in a few days my phone storage would be full of audio recordings and I wouldn't know what to do with them. Finally, for studying the dreams it's a lot easier if they are written, I should script the audios or something. Writing a few things down, even if it's just keywords, sounds like a better option to me :)

Going to another room seems a good idea as well, only I try not to wake myself up too much because I have a hard time falling back asleep... But I'll try it sometime.

What about the pens that have a small LED attached that illuminates the page on which you're writing?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by martakartus

...I should go far from the bedrooms to avoid waking anyone up or startling anyone...

---

Yes, that's what I am doing and it's certainly not very convenient. But for me, it's still better than hand-writing. As for storage space, there is something called a PC where you can store all this and free your phone... ;-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

What about the pens that have a small LED attached that illuminates the page on which you're writing?

---

They are quite bright actually- I've used them. If your wife (like mine) or roommate is a light sleeper, it can still be annoying. The method Marta proposed (and I had used) gives a much dimmer light - can be set to almost zero, or the least you need for writing - plus the page is uniformly illuminated.