Welcome back for another class of eyeball torture and text walls. Let’s begin


Dream Journals

Dream journals are the single most powerful tool you have to improve dream recall. And recalling more dreams leads to having more lucid dreams. How? Consider this: What if you’re already having lucid dreams, but you can’t remember them?

There’s no wrong way to journal, it’s all a matter of personal choice. I tend to prefer writing lots of details, because I will recall more details in later dreams. For example, say I dreamed about someone buying a plate of food at a buffet. I will describe what was on the plate, what other foods were served, and also how much might have been paid, if that detail arose.

The other benefit to dream journals is the ability to start picking out dream signs. Dream signs are things that happen a lot in your dreams. More on that, in a bit. From your journal entries, you can start to glean information on things that you tend to dream about a lot. If these signs happen to show up a lot in waking life too, then bonus! You can start training yourself on how to recognize dream signs and reality checking to them when you see them during the day. The goal is for it to carry over into your dreams and check on them at night.

Dream journals also prevent memory loss. There sometimes comes a dream so awesome that you may never truly forget it. However, you might lose memory of some of the finer details. This is true for most dreams. As soon as we wake up, we already start forgetting details from our dreams, which is why it’s so important to try recalling your dream upon waking up. Even if you don’t have time to journal straight away, try to write as many short notes as possible to trigger your memory for later.

Lastly, some people use their journals to track times. It could be very beneficial to you to track what time you go to bed, wake up for a WBTB, go back to sleep, and then also when you dreamed each dreams. If you take any LDS’s (lucid dreaming supplements), note what you took and at what time. Also if you had any difficulties in getting back to sleep.


Dream Signs

Dream signs are common things, people, pets, places, themes, etc. which show up often when we dream. They could be things you see a lot in waking life, or not. These are individual dream signs, and are personal to you.

Universal dream signs are things that tend to happen to everybody when we dream. These can include (but aren’t limited to)…
Lights may not turn on or off.
Machinery doesn’t operate properly.
Hard to use cell phones.
Elevators act erratically.
Time looks weird, or changes drastically.
Text looks funny or changes when read twice.
Hands look funny.
You can breathe through blocked airways.
Driving… for some reason, we don’t often drive well in dreams.

Metaphors and symbolism
Dreams can sometimes be showing you one thing, but the overall message from you subconscious might be more profound. For instance, the other night, I had a dream about sorting silverware, but I may have been sorting out thoughts and feelings.. or those things need to be sorted out.

There are also dream dictionaries that you can buy or look up online. These definitions are often based on the history of a certain symbol, be it a religious, literary, cultural or spiritual history.


Recall

Recalling dreams is sometimes very difficult for people, but there are a few things you can do to improve it.

Keep an awake journal and record your day. Try to be as detailed as possible. This can be a double-whammy, as this often helps sort out your feelings from the day or things that may be bugging you, and keeps your mind fresh and clear for dreaming!

Take notes in the middle of the night. Just enough that would help trigger your memory of a dream. I usually include people present, location, and something major that happened. They can be recorded with a voice recorder, cell phone app, or good old pen and paper. Whatever makes it easiest for you. Keep it beside your bed, whatever you do.

It’s important to record notes as soon as you can. From the moment you wake up, you will start to lose details of your dreams.

Upon waking up, start running the dream through in your mind. It’s often easiest to ask yourself, “What was I just doing?” Remember the last scene, and run the dream backwards in your head until you can’t remember anymore.

Sometimes, what happens with me, is I remember everything completely out of order. That’s fine too, just make notes until you can’t remember anything else.

If you wake up without a scene, try getting back into the position you woke up in, and let yourself drift. It might not be safe to do this without a snooze alarm! Sometimes, going back into the position you woke from will trigger a scene.

If you still wake up with nothing, ask yourself if certain dream signs may have been present. Run through a list of all your really popular ones.

You can also run through a list of things that might be currently prominent in your waking life. Chances are, you might have dreamed about something bothering you. This also holds true if there’s an event coming up you’re looking forward to.

Remember that when you wake up, it’s important to not think about the day ahead or all the things you need to get done. Set aside some extra time for yourself (like, 15 minutes or longer) for recall and journaling.

You may find it helpful to wear a sleep mask to block the sunlight from your eyes. Sunlight is a major recall killer for me.

Lastly, don’t stress about forgetting a dream. If you still cannot recall anything, make an entry about there being no recall. Note whether you woke up feeling happy, sad, indifferent.

You may also find that during the day, you will see or hear something that will trigger your recall. Try to remember what it is until you get the chance to write it down!!


Live Chat

The live chat will take place on Friday, September 24, 2010 at 1am UTC (equivalent to Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 6pm, PDT, in US/Canada).


Assignment

Go through your dream journal and see if you can notice any reoccurring signs that are popping up. Make a list!
Bonus marks: Find out which sign occurs the most and incorporate reality checking to the sign into your daily routine.