A theory on the need of a dream journal and rememberance of dreams

[noxumbra]

Hi Is there a truly a need for a dream journal ? I believe that if the dream is as vivid as a lucid dream, you will remember it upon waking, as it makes a huge impact. Normal dreams don't have this impact. Thus, if you use DEILD or WILD, why write down your dreams. You can consider only writing down the ones that really matter ? The reason I ask this, is I can't seem to find the "strenght" in the morning to pick up a pen ..or let alone push the snooze button of my alarm clock. For other techniques like MILD and such, I can understand you need to recognise dream signs and such. But for WILD and DEILD you will enter directly into the dream from a "waking state" thus will having a dream journal truly help ? is it helpful for DEILD and WILD ? It will make the lucid dreaming effort so much easier ... any thought on this ? Thanks for clarifying.

[melanieb]

A dream journal helps in many ways, including your efforts for future dreams. Additionally it can help you recall that wonderful lucid, no matter what method you use. Details fade the farther we get from an experience so writing them down while fresh helps preserve them. But it's more than that... The very act of writing it down helps strengthen the idea in your mind that dreams are important, that dreams are something that matter to you and shouldn't be discarded as whimsy. Writing them down helps you have better luck with future efforts and increases the likelihood you will remember your dreams in great detail. Sometimes it's the basics that really count the most.

[gab]

Main reason for a dream journal is to help your dream recall and to let yur mind know, that dreams and remembering them matters to you. If you don't care about your dreams, why should your mind? If you don't appreciate your dreams, why should your mind try to give you nice, memorable, lucid dreams, or even regular ones? And you have a very good chance of forgetting your lucid dreams, same way as any other dream.

[noxumbra]

Thanks for the input, ..

[MasterMind]

Short answer: no .. Long answer: No it's not necessary for lucid dreaming, you can remember and lucid dream anyway, but it's sort of like learning to ride a bike without support wheels. And just as melanieb and gab showed you, it's a very effective tool. And not to forget, it's fun It's also a great meassurement for awareness within your dreams. The more you remember the more aware you were, so you can look at your progress by looking at how much you remember. The main thing in everything when it comes to lucid dreaming is awareness, but the dream journal is a great way to learn to understand awareness. Sweet dreams

[fennecgirl]

Hi I believe that if the dream is as vivid as a lucid dream, you will remember it upon waking, as it makes a huge impact. This is not necessarily true. Lucid dreams aren't automatically super-vivid; my LDs are usually about on par with my non-lucids in terms of vividness, if not slightly more vivid, and that "huge impact" is never there for me.