Dream Journals Take Too Much Time

[cousinsteve]

Hey, Writing down my dreams every morning takes too long, especially as I start to remember more. By the time I'm done writing everything down, I could have taken a shower or gotten more sleep. I've started to try to retain dreams in my head now instead of on paper, I won't be able to remember every last detail forever now, but in general I'm still able to recall dreams if not better than before, now. Anyone else give up on dream journals, or resort to mental dream journals? Any other techniques that I may not be thinking of?

[slurry]

I've been using a mental DJ for some time now, but not sure how effective it is really--had I continued with a physical DJ, I could be having two+ LDs per week rather than just 1. Who knows. I will say though, a mental DJ isn't a DJ at all. Even using something like a tape recorder to just record what you can remember about the dream isn't as effective as a pen and paper. It's much easier to skim through your dreams that are written down than trying to fast forward through recordings of you talking about it, as you're bound to miss something that way. It all comes down to how badly you want to become a proficient lucid dreamer. I'm not saying that you can't LD on a regular basis without a DJ--after all, I LD once a week most of the time without a DJ--but it definitely helps, especially at the early stages. If you can't afford to spend the time writing out the LD in detail, maybe you could just cut back to bullet-points of the key details and possible dream signs. Just throwing out random thoughts here, sorry if it isn't coherently organized.

[DeletePlease]

I stopped recording dreams in my DJ for a while and now I can hardly remember any of the dreams during that period. I have a vague idea of what happened but I can't recall the the details. A mental dream journal isn't exactly the best route to take. If a detailed summary takes too much time, why not just jot down a quick recap?

[dreamcatcher81]

If i was journaling non lucid dreams<--- "key phrase" I would try to summarize what happen in the dream, making sure i focused on the finer points of the dream. All this in under 5 sentences. Lol. Namaste. I dont journal really i take notes of what happen within the dream inside my i-phone.

[Robot_Butler]

I still think it is important to physically write your dreams down. When you write something, you are translating it into words. I believe this helps convert the dream to something logical, helping unite your illogical dreaming mind with your logical, lucid mind. I often find myself thinking, "This makes no sense on paper." I think that is an important part of bringing lucidity to your dreams. Similarly, designers do the same thing with drawing. You can think of a design in your mind, and believe you have it all figured out. As soon as you try to translate that idea into a drawing, it starts to change. You identify the illogical or impossible parts of the design, and the design responds. You recognize conflicts and resolve them. This is an important part of any problem solving or design process.

[crispizzle]

If my dream is really memorable and has had an effect on how I felt when I woke up - I'll write every detail. Otherwise, if it's just another dream and nothing special, I'll just summarize what happened. Usually if I look back at the summary I'll still remember all the details of that dream.

[Rilly]

I draw a mindmap showing the events and anything else that I think is important to record. I find that it's easier for me to record my dreams that way and it's quicker because I'm summerizing.

[Mirror]

I use a digital voice recorder. 1 Speaking is much faster than writing. 2 You don't have to move much so you can remember your dreams better. 3 While you talk the it's easier for details to arise, it's like following the flow 4 You can decide to delete useless dreams with a click and just write down the more relevant ones

[Spyguy]

You could also use keywords instead of writing a story. It's a lot faster, and when you read the keywords, you can usually recall the dream, even months after you wrote it down.

[Oneironaut Zero]

The simplest solution is just to take notes. It only takes a fraction of the time as it does to type out your dream as detailed as possible. It also helps you remember more, because you just kind of zip through your recollection of the dreams as you're jotting down the notes. You end up retaining them better, because you recall the events faster, and over a shorter period of time - and then they're already there on the paper, so you don't have to worry about losing them later. Then you can just expand on them, whenever you feel like getting around to it. Example: Spoiler for Notes from the first dream of the other night...: 05/14/2011 New DBZ live-action movie. Fucking amazing. Beams of light travelling and then explosion. Movie started. Goku and other characters. King kai zipping along the terrain, running with fast feet. Goku trying to get part as action star. People would blast off. (expulsion, vapor trail), and would come in hot, slamming into the ground. Roshi was a mix between himself and Sifu from KFP. Quick-pan camera trick when he slurped up his noodles and the whole bowl was gone in an instant. Wiping his mouth daintily. Mr. Satan (looked awesome) was eating with someone and they fell, he did a one finger tweak to paralyze their body into a way that "caught" them. Very funny. Small trailer spots, at first. one showing Goku. One showing Vegeta. I think after that was when I got pulled into the movie. Not sure. Kept switching into the movie and into the theater. Trying to text that I was watching the movie. Woman beside me smoking a cigarette! Didn't notice. Vegeta showed his true colors. Huge scene. Explosion. Guy was like, is this some kind of trick? Thought he was talking about something the explosion. Said it couldn't have been a trick. He pointed to Vegeta and something like "so how is he doing that??" Looked at Vegeta, who was powering up. Screamed EVERYBODY RUN! Blast and explosion. Some people died. Another blast. I was Goku. Didn't know how the encounter was going to go but I rushed him. Kamehameha up at him. Missed. Kinda puny. Saw him take off through a rock formation. Left a burning ring in it. Detected him flying away, lit up with aura. Someone said "Well, go chase down your friend!" Said he wasn't my friend and took off after him. Deeper space. Landed on asteroid. More people, and Vegeta was causing more destruction. Huge blast sent me careening over asteroid (could breathe in space, btw). strange space physics where there was no up and down, but it was still dizzying, asteroid had some sort of industrial complex or something, on it. Hanging from edge. Moviing from space rock to space rock, trying to regroup myself. Dodging blasts. Vegeta then took off I think. Came across mechanical body in the debris. Didn't recognize it at first, and it looked kind of buried. Saw a red eye burn to life and heard an eerie, feminine voice. It was Frieza. Well. Half of him. I flew up and told the others we need to leave, now. Flying was now much harder. Easy to go up, but not sustain flight. Kind of long-jumped from rock to rock. Passed a pair of mechanical legs and pelvis, just floating in the air. It was Friezas. Knew he would have them back soon. Someone said Vegeta's attack must have broken some pod that had been holding him. Could hear Frieza's voice getting closer, but nonchalant, speaking some self praise. The sound of his voice sent shivers up my spine. It was honestly REALLY creepy. Passed an AMAZING looking space station, on the way. Huge grid of beams and compartments, etc. Very intricate. The last thing I remember is the group of us trying to fly away from him This took me maybe 5 minutes to do. And I'm in the middle of writing out all of the details, now. These notes help me remember so much of the dream that I'm already at about a full page worth of writing, but still only halfway through the dream. Problem solved!

[cousinsteve]

thanks for the help everyone, I've started to just take short notes now and this morning it seemed to work just fine!

[divinemission]

I completely agree with you, but don't give up dream journals all together. I started my dream journal a few months back and found myself remembering more about my dreams each day. Some days I found myself writing for 45 minutes and yes that is a long time but it really does help with your dream recall. If you find yourself in a position where you don't want to waste much time, just write down a brief summary of your dreams. This is what I have been doing lately except for writing down in detail about more interesting happenings. Stick with it... they do help.

[ClouD]

It can really only take "too much time" if you feel that it's arduous. Try doing it in a more exciting way, or at least one that holds your attention for a little longer. Keywords and short notes are easy (when I DJ I generally type quickly of what I see and feel when I'm recalling dream events). Drawing quick things of what you've seen can be very rewarding too. Just maybe a shape you saw, or a blocky sketch roughly showing what you could see in the environment. Maybe try verbal journals, anything really. Personal tip: do a backwards mental revision (from when you woke up to as far back as you can) to stabilise recall before starting to write anything; and when you mentally revise, do not skim! After you've revised in your mind what you can remember, then go through events from beginning to end. This will improve your recall a lot and ensure you don't accidentally fabricate memories as you write. It'll make writing a lot faster too, you can just skim with keywords once you have a mental hold of the memories.