Thread: Is it possible to have strong dream recall & frequent lucid dreams without writing your dreams down?

Basically I just want to discuss the importance of keeping a dream journal.

I know everyone says it is the #1 most important thing, which is true from my experience as well. If I don't write my dreams down I hardly remember them at all. I have friends who have decent dream recall without writing them down but I usually forget 90% of them.

When I am spending a lot of time lucid dreaming my dream journals end up getting rediculously long. This past summer I kept a dream journal in a word document for about two and a half weeks and it was 26 pages long.

If I really spend a lot of time lucid dreaming and get to the skill level I want to be at I am going to end up with hundereds of pages typed on my computer and written in notebooks. Is there an easier way to do this?

Do all the experts interviewed on this website still keep a dream journal even today? or is there a point where you can become so good at each technique that you do not need to write down your dreams every time you wake up?

I personally love being able to look back at a pile of scruffy scribbled in books full of dreams. It shows the effort I've put in and they make an interesting read too!

Dream Journals are definitely a necessity. Even if you could remember all your dreams perfectly without one, keeping a record makes the dream more solid in your mind and makes it last. It also makes it possible to notice things that can help when becoming lucid- like dream signs that might have gone unnoticed.

Writing down all your dreams not only helps recall but tells your brain 'Lucid dreaming is important'. If you stop journalling or put less effort into it, Lucids are probably going to become less common, no matter how skilled a person is.

I know some people hate writing down dreams (and I def know how much of a pain it is when I wake up late for work and immediately want to spend half an hour describing some crazy dream ) but I don't think there is an easier alternative and if there was it prob wouldn't do as much good as taking time and writing everything out.

In word-document lenght I have over 1.6k pages of dreams written down... but my recall is about the same as without a DJ (In fact, my recall went down after starting a DJ) but I have natural recall so yeah, thats why I tell people with natural recall a DJ isn't THAT important.

Originally Posted by Hukif

In word-document lenght I have over 1.6k pages of dreams written down... but my recall is about the same as without a DJ (In fact, my recall went down after starting a DJ) but I have natural recall so yeah, thats why I tell people with natural recall a DJ isn't THAT important.

This is true, for me it doesn't really effect the number of lucids I have... but still, it will give you better insight if you want to analyze your dreams.

eg: Generally after I write them down, I Image Stream on them, and it gives me a clearer picture of what my individual symbols mean when interpreting.

I've been doing this for over thirty years, and, though I might be a little more selective about what I record, I definitely still keep a dream journal. Writing down your dreams -- or any experience, for that matter -- is without equal the best way to make them "real," retaining them simultaneously in print and your long-term memory.

Strong recall or not, it is always a good idea to keep a dream journal -- and they're fun to read years later! Try to keep one, ADO123; it might be worth the effort...

I know for a fact that DJing does not affect my recall positively or negatively because I was a prolific lucid dreamer long before I started journaling.

That being said, I love to journal, it is great to read back over dreams, it's like looking at photos of good times. This gives me the luxury of only needing to record the dreams I want to revisit. Sure, they are the longest most time consuming ones, but I don't have to roll one out every day, or even once a week

I wouldn't suggest this way for anyone except the most successful recallers.

i have great recall and have never had a dream journal, although i may try one and see waht happens. sometimes something that happens during the day will make me remember a dream i had the night before. it is knid of neat, like a bonus

DJ is an absolute must for me, when I didn't write my dreams down I didn't even remember one dream a month sometimes!

A DJ can only help, and it can help a great deal, but it is not essential.

And if you learn to WILD it serves no purpose at all other than to log dreams you want to re-read in the future.

I think the act of translating your memories into text is a huge part of why journaling is so effective. I've tried just reviewing my dreams in my mind every morning. It definitely does not have the same impact as writing everything down. It is similar to writing an essay to form an argument. You may think you know what your argument is. It may sound good in your head, but once you start trying to write it down, you realize you need to think it through further.

Echoing all above, I think its pretty essential for concretising the experiences in your mind. And it certainly gives you a focus. If nothing else, the benefit is that in the morning you are actively reviewing the dream, rather than not at all or just doing so passively. In expressing it, you probably also trigger memories of seemingly inconsequential aspects, like a facial expression, or the colour of a DC's hair, and being aware of these little things probably train your critical mind to look for dreamsigns.
Myself, I haven't kept it up well for a few years, but before that I was writing 2-5 dreams, or what bits I could remember, every morning. I think you'd be surprised at what you wrote down, the details, even a day later. I often look back after a week, and halfway through the record am thinking 'I can't remember this dream, where is it going?' But I still remember the end of the dream vividly, and it all ties together nicely.
As a part-time writer, I have trained myself to be able to write more concisely, whereas when I started recording dreams, I was putting down excruciating detail. For those who feel their diaries are too long and detailed, experiment with putting less down, describe action less, and focus on dialogue, and on unusual details.
eg, I would often describe a house, its walls, the colour of the roof, the number of windows, and so on, whereas now I will just write "a house", and add unusual details if necessary, eg, no windows, or yellow roof.
It's amazing how well we can recall once we learn to use the right combination of details and action.
Hell, if nothing else, it makes you a better writer

I have used a tape recorder to record my dreams, and it works just as well. When I get to the end of the tape I start over and record over my old dreams. I don't really feel a need to keep them long term since I will never read over them again, I just do it for the process of helping me remember the dreams.

When I record my dreams, I usually only write down a few notes, or a couple of sentences at most. When I read back on it later, these few sentences are usually enough to jog my memory and make me remember the whole dream. My recall has been a little hazy of late though so I don't normally have more than a few sentences of recall to write down anyway. A few months ago I got out of the habit of dream journaling and it seems to have definitely had a negative impact on my recall. I've also been suffering from stress and depression though which probably affect recall as well.

A journal is created for the person to remember dreams and connect pattern beetween them.
It has nothing to do with frequency or how vivid the dreams are.

I had six lucid dreams the other night and the memories of them were very faint in the morning. I believe that they were N-REM lucids because they were all short and fuzzy. The first was a DILD and the rest were DEILD's. Keeping a diary is essential in my opinion for good recall of all dreams, lucid or not.

i used to but it became a chore so now i only record my lucid dreams.

I have never kept a dream journal, and regularly remember 3ish dreams a night. However I do go over and over these dreams in my head the day after, which is sort of like writing them down in my mind!! I started a journal last night after joining this site, I figured even if it doesn't help, it doesn't hurt to try it. If you don't want to write them down, maybe get a recorder that you speak into and record you talking about your dreams? Like a vocal notebook.

I have remarkably good dream recall and haven't really kept a Dream Journal for the life of me. On occasion I do jot a few key things down if I am worried I will forget them, but otherwise I do mull over them quite a bit; especially if they had been vivid since I tend to keep them as potential story or artwork fodder for myself later on. I find that helps with it at least.

Likewise, I also have the tendency to be more lucid while dreaming rather than not; though I don't have full control of when I am lucid in my dreams nor can I always control the dreams themselves on command. I don't really feel the need to do such things at this point in time though, so for me it's not a big deal. I am actually planning on keeping a Dream Journal on here though, simply to have a place where I can share dreams in general, and also to see if it helps with my recall further.

In any case, what I'm trying to get at here in my own roundabout way, is that I would guess the method of dream recall is different for everyone; but it doesn't hurt to keep a record of your dreams somewhere in my opinion. Sometimes its useful to look back on them, and as other users are saying, can even be fun!

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