Dream journal coherency?

This is a problem I have. When I'm waking up in the night and writing in my dream journal, my head really isn't clear to actually write out this long coherent text, so I just jot down a few notes. But often, this means I don't remember anything when I wake up again, and the notes don't really help. Sometimes, they don't make sense at all. Like today, I found this gem in my journal - "bestike-mean. saskesauce". Now, that tells me nothing whatsoever and I can't help but wonder what the heck I was trying to say to myself.

Does anyone else have this problem? Is the only solution to actually write a full text in my journal instead of just quick notes?

I use the note idea like you do, it works fine for me.
But I probobly write a few sentances, because I usually have soo much to remember in my dreams.
Just try writing a little more.




Edit: If you're waking up in the middle of the night, I really recomend you look into the WILD or MILD methods.

Voice recording is your friend.

I'll try that, soad. But I think I should develop a dream recall that approaches some sort of decent level before beginning to think about LDing techniques. xP

And Dizko, that doesn't work - I live in a house full of people who would certainly wake up if I started talking to myself in the middle of the night. Plus I have no idea where to get one of those recorder thingies.

My phone has a voice record option, and i just whisper queitly xD

meh.....i've always had a really good memory so i wait 'til morning to write down my dreams.

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Originally Posted by Dizko

My phone has a voice record option, and i just whisper queitly xD

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Woudn't that be scary? Listening to it afterwords? :lol:

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Jdeadevil
Woudn't that be scary? Listening to it afterwords?

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lol i agree. i havent started a DJ but i am soon.

I agree with the voice recorder suggestion. This is the method I use, and it suits my inherent laziness perfectly. You don't need to speak very loudly to be able to hear it and write it out the next day (or many months later, for the truly lazy, like me). I have one that I can turn on in the dark. I press one button, and if I'm doing it right, the red light will be on, and when I press the end button, a green light flashes. I like this because it doesn't wake me up so much as turning on a light.

As long as someone isn't trying to sleep in the same room, I don't think anyone will know you're speaking to yourself in the middle of the night. Or just tell them you must have been talking in your sleep!

There are some fairly inexpensive voice recorders out there. They can be found at office supply places like Staples, probably at Walmart type places, definitely tons of them on Amazon.com type websites.

You can still have some incoherence problems, just like scrawled writing. Sometimes, you just are not intelligible at 3 in the morning. Good luck!

Personally, I have no faith in my hand writing in the dark so I use a laptop to write my notes- no messy handwriting, and I can get out a lot more information a lot faster than with writing (depends on how good your typing is too. Auto-spelling and grammar checks help). I keep my laptop plugged in, next to my head, in sleep mode with my dream journal open. Then, when I wake up, I just reach over to open the laptop and start typing. Works like a charm. ;)

Perhaps I'll try that. I've been wanting to get a recorder anyway.

I'd be afraid to have my laptop next to my head, though, since I sleep in the top bunk of a bunk bed (with a desk underneath instead of another bed) and I use the top of my bookshelf plus the top step of the ladder as a bedside "table". If the laptop fell down, I would be screwed.

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Originally Posted by Jdeadevil

Woudn't that be scary? Listening to it afterwords? :lol:

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It is actually. And most of the time i have no recollection of the dream and its like listening to someone else tell me a story i havent heard before.

i tried recording and it doesn't work for me my brain isn't cut out for talking in the morning... when i wake up i grab my DJ which is at a conveniantly close distance, along with a pen and i write it all down (with the lights off) and then when i really wake up i read it all and try to recall more details to write it all down again this time in a more readable way :D

I am a very visual person, and I say, pictures pictures pictures! Draw a rough sketch (you don't even have to be good at drawing, just some stick figures and basic outlines) of whatever you experienced, and write some notes down next to it. Try to use strong descriptive adjectives, maybe that will help bring out the emotion or sense that you experienced during the dream.

Often after I've forgotten a dream, the entire thing will come rushing back because only one simple word or image or thought cued it. Try to think up about 10 for each dream, they should logically progress through it so that you start at the beginning and recall the entire dream by the time you're done reading.

Oh yeah, another thing I do is jot down a few notes about the overall mood or mood progression of the dream such as: "guilty," "inquisitive," "happy," "scared," etc. Your brain will remember emotional content more clearly, and it seems to help me get in the frame of mind to recall the details better.

Shift - I'm more of a verbal person than a visual one, so I'm not quite sure that would work so well for me. What I remember from dreams is mostly what actually happened - I usually only have a vague idea of how things looked. I also have great trouble visualizing things. ._.

That might work, though, envisionary. I'll be sure to try both suggestions, just in case.

It really annoying for me when My pen is missing or under the bed and by the time i've found it most of the dream is forgotten, sometimes my DJ text looks more like arabic than english anyway :P

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Originally Posted by Thatperson

It really annoying for me when My pen is missing or under the bed and by the time i've found it most of the dream is forgotten, sometimes my DJ text looks more like arabic than english anyway :P

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hahaha
I clip mine to the cover of my DJ, that way the two are always together. My writing is always clear, but my dj is really small so my hand always cramps if the dream is too long :tongue:

Take the time to write out more detailed notes.

Yes, this happens to me all the time. Sometimes I have no recollection of something in a dream that I wrote down. Other times I can't read what I wrote at all. It really aggravates me.

I still use a paper dream journal and it took me until recently to find a happy medium between quick notes and full written out stories.

I used to write out notes in a column, like 1 or 2 word thoughts. But if I waited too long to write out the story I would loose the detail. So I started making my notes more detailed. They became so detailed I realized I was writing out almost the whole story. Then I would go back and rewrite but feel like I'd written out a lot of the details twice and it was time consuming.

I just recently decided to write out halfway detailed notes (more like 4 or 5 words but not a whole sentence) and leave space between each line for another line of text. Then I go back in the morning and fill in the details. It seems to work for me.

My biggest problem is when I wake up in the middle of the night I have a hard time staying awake while I'm writing. It is definitely hard to write while falling asleep. Is it the same for typing and voice recording?