Online DJ vs. Personal DJ

[GMoney]

I was looking over some of my dreaming stats and I noticed something pretty major: Dreams recalled per day using private DJ: 1.978 Dreams recalled per day since getting a public DJ on Dreamviews.com: 6.333 6.333 to 1.978!? That's an enormous discrepancy! I thought I should share this with the community and see if anyone else has noticed similar results. Of course, this was over a relatively small sample period and there could be other variables involved - getting better recall over time, having more time to sleep, etc. Still, that's a huge jump in my recall ability and it correlates exactly with the time that I began my public DJ here. I wonder if that's a global trend, and if it is we should encourage people to make their DJs public even moreso than we already do. I'd like to see some other people's stats to back up my conclusion (or disprove it so we know to look into the other factors).

[spareohs]

I'd venture to guess that the same thing that is motivating them to start the online journal (and maybe join DV as well) is also motivating their recall. I haven't started my online journal yet. Perhaps, after any excitement I have about LDing has already had it's affects on my recall, I'll start journaling on here without copying any of my old dreams here first. I could see if anything changes. You would have to wait a while for my results though. Even then, a bias may be present.

[KristaNicole07]

That is interesting. Maybe it's due to the feedback you get from others. I know that I'm actually better at keeping up with a public online journal than a personal written journal.

[Cacophony]

I don't really keep track of stats. But I think that when I started posting my dreams on DV, my recall increased dramatically.

[GMoney]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It might be the things associated with keeping it public: added motivation, peer pressure to keep posting, and knowing that people will be watching to see how many dreams you've had. It would be interesting to see how you fare, spareohs. I wonder if the results would change if you separate the time of getting excited about LDing and deciding to keep a public DJ. That would isolate one of the factors and get closer to the root of the problem. KristaNicole07, the feedback of others is definitely a factor. Perhaps the mind recalls better because it knows that it needs to recall because others are expecting it to? It's good to see someone else experienced the same thing, Cacophony. Maybe we should promote online DJs more if they really are as helpful as my initial results indicate (tripling recall, now that's insane! ).

[deathsdream]

I believe it might have something to so with the typing. Say, while I am writing down my dreams I recall more details but you can only write so fast, that sometimes when it comes to the time I would write that particular detail/dream down it has completely or partially escaped my mind by this time, and I can no longer recall it as I did when it first popped into my mind. Versus, when im typing I am getting the ideas own faster, and getting to that part of the dream in shorter time so that its still fresh in my mind and also if I remember another detail along the way its easier, and faster for me to go back and punch it in real quick. Just a thought.