dream journaling and the such

[Stintman]

Hi. I've been having this problem for years where I'm too lazy or something to journal my dreams. Either I completely forget about it or I can't bring myself out of bed. Is there some way to help this chronic problem?

[dolphin]

Imagine successfully getting past the discomfort during each of the many awakenings at night. Then imagine starting the day seeing the large amount of dreams recalled and how excited and good about yourself you would feel upon seeing this. Then challenge yourself to do exactly as you imagined. Climb the mountain of discomfort to savor the view you get upon climbing it.

[kamenriderbaron]

How useful is dream journaling btw?

[FryingMan]

How useful is dream journaling btw? It's pretty darn important. Developing a close relationship with your dreams is important in lucid dreaming. You need to become highly aware *of* your dreams in order to become aware *in* your dreams. In journaling you repeatedly probe those memories while you're writing your journal entries. It's that repeated, deep probing where the benefits accrue. It's also a form of intent, showing to your subconscious that dreaming is important to you. For a similar reason, it's very beneficial to review your dream memories repeatedly before getting out of bed. Having a journal entry though allows you to see patterns that emerge over time, track changing dreamsigns, and so forth. It's also fun to look back and see all those dreaming adventures!

[kamenriderbaron]

I figured. I've been slacking off a little with my lucid dreaming but I least keep a journal. Do dreams sometimes feel like memories, cuz that is what it is starting to feel like.

[FryingMan]

There is fundamentally no difference between memories of dream experiences and memories of waking experiences. Starting to realize that is a big step forwards!

[DeDromer]

I could have lucid dreams without journaling, but a main difference that I see is that by journaling I give more attention to what are the dream signs, plus I see that the memories of dream vanish significantly after two days. By journaling I can revisit my dreams and the dream signs and so going to bed with the intention to recognize the dream signs or investigate the reality looking for dream signs. For example: in my dreams it looks like I change clothes accordingly with the activity I do. What I didn't do is to actually change my clothes. If I can't remember when I changed my clothes, it must be a dream. Other example: I see often myself during the dreams. But I can't see myself in the reality, other than in front of a mirror (that is a chapter on itself and constitutes both a very useful and very terrifying way to reality check), so it must be a dream. But that I realized only journaling. Journaling increases your awareness.