Stopped recording a dream journal

[Ripull]

I recently stopped recording a dream journal because my recall went from 6-7 dreams recalled per night with great detail and plot direction, to patchy sporadic dreams which have little to no plot at all. They became incredibly hard to recall due to this. This has gone on for the past week now. I'm not sure what changed but I don't know what to do. Any ideas?

[ParanoidLlama]

Well dreams don't necessarily happen like a story, though considering you went from that to senseless dreams, that does bring up a question. But you could use that to your advantage. Since they don't go like a story, just don't write them down like a story. You could write down the people and things you've seen, their actions, and every other little thing that you experienced in the dream. You could try writing it in bullet form, etc.

[AstralMango]

I recently stopped recording a dream journal because my recall went from 6-7 dreams recalled per night with great detail and plot direction, to patchy sporadic dreams which have little to no plot at all. Wait, I'm confused. You stopped dream journaling because your dream recall went down? Or did you mean something else?

[Ripull]

Wait, I'm confused. You stopped dream journaling because your dream recall went down? Or did you mean something else? Pretty much stopped because they became extremely sporadic and hard to retrace.

[spellbee2]

It's fairly common to have random dry spells in recall from time to time, but that's no reason to give up journaling. Even if you can't remember full details, just try to put anything - it can be a couple words or even just whatever emotion you feel when you wake up. The act of attempting to write stuff down is enough to improve your recall, even when it's struggling in a dry spell. So I'd encourage you not to just drop journaling completely, but try and stick with it. One thing that might help if your dreams are sporadic and have no plot is to use what's called Mental Map Recall (MMR). Instead of writing out paragraphs of a story and trying to fill in the gaps in the plot from memory, MMR lets you put key concepts in an organized way so that you can recall the dream without having to struggle with connections and transitions between what bits and pieces that you remember. You can read about it here: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-sign...ml#post1947583

[VivianVector]

If it has only been a week, my advice would be to ride it out. I wouldn't stop journalling because of this, as tempting as it may be. Spellbee2's MMR recommendation would be excellent for making the most of sporadic dream fragments. If it helps, think of it as moving up to the next weight bracket. By spending the time to practice recall on more difficult dreams, you are actually exercising more of your recall ability than if you remembered everything without trying. Dry spells happen. It could be due to a number of factors; hormonal, diet, exhaustion, psychological, even just a disruption of your normal routine can sometimes throw you out. If this has aligned with the holiday season, it might not be a coincidence. Good luck, I hope it all returns to normal for you soon.