Thread: Dream journal doesn't work

slight increase in the number of dreams I have each week.................................... thats a start and 4 weeks isnt long enough to map your dream signs

Originally Posted by Vandalf

I've been keeping a dream journal for four weeks. There are no noticeable effects, apart from a slight increase in the number of dreams I have each week.

Wat do?

Surely your recall must've increased? How much do you recall every night? And when you say four weeks, do you mean 4 weeks consistently?

Originally Posted by XeL

Surely you're recall must've increased? How much do you recall every night? And when you say four weeks, do you mean 4 weeks consistently?

It took me a lot longer than 4 weeks of keeping a (consistent) dream journal to noticably improve my recall.

Keep it up. I took a psych class with sleep doctor Prof Maas. Basically by keeping the journal not only will you begin to recognize your dreams, but also your brain will realize that thye are important to you and pay more attention to them when they happen.

Ed

A dream journal [like everyone has already said] is to helps in many ways

It helps remember dreams not just right after you wake up, but in the future too. It is proven that by simply writing something, it increases you ability to retain that information by up to 250%.

Writing it down, and consciously access your Short-Term memory can trigger your subconscious to recall parts of the dream of which you had forgotten.

(example: You have a dream, you wake up, you only remember 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 ...as you begin to write your dream down, the more detail you use, the more you focus, the more you remember, soon, you will remember that "2, 6" were in your dream, as well as where/when)

Now, If you are able to remember your dreams when you wake up, that means you can cipher between your sleep_state, and your awake_state. The more you do so, your subconscious will learn the difference, recognize that it is important to you, and then allow you to use slightly higher levels of logic and memory while dreaming.

Hell... after a while you can even let people read the journal, get some laughs, etc... After you begin to get good at recalling your dreams vividly and in detain, and writing them.. When you look back at your earlier entries, you will see a HUGE difference in detail, length, plot, etc. You will be able to recall your dreams as "events" rather then simple 3rd person vague dreams..

Dream Journal doesn't do much for me either. I started a month ago as well. As long as you spend enough time THINKING about dreams it should up your recall. I remember multiple per night up from not even being able to dream before a month ago.

Dream signs on the other hand... you probably need a journal.

EDIT: For remembering long term, definitely use a journal. I can only remember the few I've actually written down. But for knowing your dreaming, just spend some time thinking about dreaming, or surf dreamviews, and it should make you more likely to remember your dreams in the morning.


...Okay, goodnight... finally tired enough to fall asleep at 5:55 AM.