Dream journal structure

Hi all

I'm starting a new dream journal so thought I'd start thinking about how I want to journal this time. Last journal got a bit un-energized. Thought I'd see how others journal and see if I can start this next one in a more useful way. Any tips on how to make journaling effective, nourishing and time efficient?

Habits that have been good in the past include

writting titles on dreams (makes it so much more accessible to flick back through and the effort of titling forces one to think of the dream)
Writting dreams on right hand page and keeping left hand page for reflections on the night and non dream content related , tracking time's of sleep, and writting intentions.
writting brief pieces during many micro awakenings in night
underlining dream signs as they occur (when more giving energy to this, writting them on left as well as a category for these)
when creative -doing some drawings


bad habits have been
just writting content on both pages with no titles, so its an impenetrable mess of dream content that is off putting to look at later
only writting on final wake and so losing much connection that was there on micro awakenings..
not writting dreams

Those are all good ideas. I've found it's best to not try to come up with a title until after you've written up the dream and maybe your thoughts about it too, because often the title doesn't really occur to you until that point. I try to make my titles as descriptive as possible so I can recognize what dream it was just from the title. Also during the night or first thing in the morning I just scribble notes - they're almost illegible, and then some time after waking I'll sit down and write them up more legibly and sensibly, and with better descriptions, in my journal, which for me is on the computer. I use a program called Evernote which works beautifully for it. Then I dispose of my handwritten notes. Evernote automatically dates all your entries, and you can create different 'notebooks' - I have a dream journal plus a regular waking journal plus I create notebooks for anything else I need them for.

I keep a paper notebook beside the bed, as well as a lighted LED pen, which is made for a logbook on a ship, where the captain needs to keep his night vision sharp, so needs not to switch on lights and dazzle his eyes. This is something I learned about long ago from a big full-page ad by Stephen LaBerge in a magazine which is pretty much where I discovered what lucid dreaming was. He said it's best not to turn on room lights when you wake in the night because you wake too fully and then you lose the connection with the dream, plus it's hard to get back to sleep. My pen is made by Weems and Plath and just has a tiny green led beside the pen point - just enough so you can sort of make out what you're writing. I can't see it clearly - not really enough to read it, but enough to tell I'm making a definite mark (I can tell if the pen runs out of ink for instance). I find I can write well enough, though it's sloppy and I have to double-space, because I can't really clearly see the lines on the notebook. But I love it - the pen sort of feels like a magic wand that I use for dreams only, and gives the whole thing a magical, ritualistic feel that sets it apart from normal writing.

Oh, plus I wouldn't be able to just separate dream from commentary by using left and right pages - my descriptions of my dreams are often several pages long, as is my commentary of it. Sometimes I'll separate them with a thick line, or sometimes I'll just intersperse commentary with dream, depending. Because at times I feel I need to put something in relating directly to one part of the dream, and sometimes I'm commenting on the entire dream itself. Whatever works. I suppose if you're dong it on the computer you could use a different color for the commentary, or underline it if it's in a paper journal or something.

Sound like some good ideas! My dream journals have always been disorganized, but they have always had at the very least, a separation between the nights of sleep. I tried a lot of things on my second dream journal that I thought might help, including your idea on keeping commentary and dream separate. What I found is it only really worked half the time. Half of the time it felt like it hindered my writing/recall process because in a way i was censoring my thoughts to be used at a later time. I dunno, it just kinda put me off my mojo ya know? On my subsequent dream journals, I found that the best way is whatever the simplest and easiest way is for you. If any of the changes you make at all make the process arduous or obsequious in nature, just drop them and go back to whatever you were doing before.

V cool with the lighted pen. I spent ages looking into these online but couldn't get a clear sense that they were good pens, would the batterys or ink last long enough. How have you found its longevity and functionality as a pen? I often like a felt tip pen so the ink doesnt stop if the pen isn't perfectly facing downwards. I've often attached some kind of torch to my pen and covered the light with red plastic for similar effect. What you do with ever note is probably really useful in terms of being able to search dreams. Also useful in that you have to recall and reconnect to dreams later in day. However I imagine this could become another task to find time for...I'd really like to build a habit of being able to keep v brief notes so they don't take too long, but that sometimes requires more brainpower than seems to be there in the groggy state.

You have unerringly hit on the problem with the led pens. So far I haven't had any problem with batteries, but I did buy extras. Haven't had to replace them yet that I recall, and I've used some of my pens for what seem like years, though I do go through periods where I don't use them for various reasons. Obviously if the sun is up when I wake I don't need it, sometimes I just don't write my dreams, etc.

I should also mention that I have gone through several of the pens themselves now - I lost one and bought another, and once I broke one because I kept taking it apart at the front end. That's where you replace the led, and if you want you can also replace the ink cartridge from the front, but after a while if you keep opening it from the front you'll damage the little metal contacts on the led itself. So I've learned to only open it from the back when replacing the ink cartridges. And when I was experimenting trying to find cartridges that would work, I did open and close it a lot!

So now I've got the newer model of pen - I suppose I could have got a new led if I wanted, but I decided to just get a new pen - the led is included with it. I think I was also curious about how it was different from the older ones. So the one I have now is probably the same model you'd end up with if you get one, unless you buy it from somewhere that has old ones still in stock. Either one is fine though.

As for the ink refills - I bought 2 packs of replacements, and was expecting them to each have at least 5 in them, maybe 10 by the price, but it turned out each only had 1!! And I think I paid like $10.00 for each! Ridiculous - I guess that's where they get you.

So I've experimented and found some cheap normal ballpoint replacements that will work, though I do have to modify them slightly. Here's a pic to clarify what I'm talking about:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4612/...2d30e8d0_z.jpg
Refill by Darkmatters, on Flickr

This is for a click-style Bic ballpoint - they seem to be perfect in most regards (the kind of tip is important, as well as the diameter and length of the plastic barrel) - except one. See the little pinch-points made to hold a spring? Those need to be shaved off with an X-Acto knife or a razor blade. A bit of fiddly work, and if you cut in slightly too far ink will leak out through the hole, but once you get the knack for it it isn't too hard. And a refill will last a good long time - just as long as it would in a regular pen.

I believe these are the refills I'm using.

They're regular medium-point Bic refills for a click-style pen (not the kind where you put a cap on the end, they're made differently and I don't think they'll fit). In case it helps, there's a number on the front of the packaging - 90807. Not sure if that's a model number or not. But it says on the back these will fit most refillable Bic retractable ballpoint pens. Best of course if you can buy them in a nearby store, you save shipping costs. Alas, I couldn't find any near me and had to get them from Amazon. But to me it's worth the extra effort and expense.

some good tips from Sensei
https://www.dreamviews.com/dream-sig...j-v-1-5-a.html

V cool ideas from Sensei. V different structure. Going to try something like that. He doenst mention anything in that video about what he does the dream content or cataloging dream signs. Still v interesting

With the penlight, I've gotten a nice light rechargeable torch which I've rubber banded to my pen...does the job nicely

Tnks for suggestions

That's a good idea, but hopefully it isn't too bright. The reason for using a tiny green LED is that it's very dim, just bright enough to write by without waking you up too much. Even a mini-flashlight can be way too bright and completely wake you up. You might be able to filter it with some plastic or something? Some torches come with filters so you can color them or dim them down. Also apparently green light doesn't shock the eyes - I forget the actual terminology, but it's been scientifically found that green light has a restful effect on the eyes, which is why it's used in a ship's cabin at night when the captain needs to keep his night vision sharp. You know how, once you've been exposed to bright light your eyes adjust to it, and then if you go in a dark room they take a long time to re-adjust before you can see well? The pen works on the same principle.

Interesting with green light. I've used red before using a bit of plastic over the light. I can imagine green being restful somehow. I'll get myself some green plastic. have a blue piece at the moment just by randomness...kinda fine but charged light the other day so its a bit too bright. I'll be on the lookout for green now...tnks

I thought I had read a similar thing about red light, at least in terms of preserving night vision. Not sure about the “restful” effect, though; I haven't heard about that. One thing I do know is that the eye is generally more sensitive to green light than red light, so (especially when dark-adapted) you can see better with an equal amount of green light compared to red light (green and blue light look much brighter to the dark-adapted eye).