I have a dream journal app on my phone and was wondering (from no recall) to amazing dream recall by just typing it on my phone?
The reason I don't want to write it down is because my sisters go through my stuff and they already have read alot of dreams of mine (When I use to lucid dream but stopped)
If you have no recall at all of your dreams, then you need to work on dream awareness before you work on recall. What you're recalling when you wake up is what you were aware of during the dream. So, if you're not aware during your dreams you're not going to have anything to recall, no matter how you try to recall it.
To increase your dream awareness, just try to be more aware while your dreams are happening. The more aware you are during the dream, the easier it is to recall.
If you don't need to remember the dream for more than a few hours, then you don't have to write down your dreams. Just recalling details from the dream mentally will still exercise your dream recall in the same way as writing them down.
If you do want to remember the dream for more than a few hours, then typing it on your phone will solve that same purpose as writing it down.
To add to what dolphin said, but more specifically about the different ways to DJ - all of the ways are about the same. Keeping a dream journal helps lucid dreaming because of:
1. When you write / record a dream you are purposely trying to remember it, and as much detail as possible. This is very important for dream recall and lets your brain know that you want your dreams to be remembered.
2. It lets you go over your old dreams, which is great for motivation. It might seem to you at some point that your dreams are boring or that you're bad at recall, but by reading old entries you'll probably see you were wrong.
3. It lets you identifying dream signs, common themes, common moods, etc, in your dreams. By using this data you can aim more precisely in your day practice (awareness, etc..), for example RCing at dream signs, or visualizing a dream with a dream sign and how you'll spot it.
4. It keeps LDing on your mind.
Notice that the reasons have little to do with how you keep a DJ (typing / writing / recording voice / recording video). It is true that some people perceive voice more, while others are better with written text, but the effects of that are minimal (since you wouldn't need to memorize an old dream). The only downside I can think of, of typing on the phone, is that the screen is bright at night and wakes you up too much if you're DJing during an awakening and want to wild later - but that depends on the particular WILDing method and your sleepiness, plus apps exist to deal with that...
I also wondered this same thing, I'm not a big pen and paper fan so have been using a DJ app called 'Lucidity' which is awesome and has a feature that scans your entry's for common themes/possible dream signs. Also in regards to what Spock said about the screen not being good during the night, I agree completely. After some research I found an app called 'Twilight' which applies a red filter to your screen and dims the screen with intensity that get stronger later into the night, turns out the blue light emitted by the screen is what messes with your sleep, losing the blue and making the screen very red helps a lot. I have been using this for the past week and have found a big difference in eye strain when using my phone during the night and also find it pretty easy getting straight back to sleep after.
I'm also trying hard to improve my recall, we have to just keep at it and keep motivated, hope you find success, good luck.
As dolphin was saying. DJ is good if you have something to DJ, but it isn't the only way to recall dreams. If you have 0 recall, then I recommend changing when you fall asleep and when you wake, because the easiest dream to remember is the one you just woke up from. After that (success or fail) doing micro wbtbs and just waking fora few minutes ans tagging some dreams on your phone and back to sleep. The big steps need to be.
Remember a dream sometime after waking
Remember a dream every time you wake up
Being present in the dream to notice that you wake up.
Have you ever noticed that in lucid dreams, unless you lose awareness, you remember the waking? Well with high enough awareness, you will just remember when a dream ends because you will be present, like dolphin said. There are lots of ways to remember dreams. But the way I have found is the most significant, is making dreams important to you. Doesn't matter what you have to do to make them important, just make them important. DJing is a great way to raise importance, but I don't use one anymore because my dreams are important enough to me without taking that hour or two a day to DJ it.
Since ive started keeping a dj(off and on for like 5 years now) ive always used my phone and each time ive gotten back into this it has always improved my recall. Actually just found a dj from like a year ago on my phone; pretty fun to go back and read.
But yes your phone is fine to keep up with it IMO. Just stick with it and date things.