Thread: Dream Journal method - could be working?

i have to admit, i find that when i'm not worrying too much about the lucid dreaming, and just concentrate on recall, i am more likely to have them.
although i haven't had one since the 1st of feb, which was a while ago, there's been a couple of false awakenings, but i've had too much going on to worry about lucidity, i've been more concerned with sleep!!

I dunno...

Ive been entering dream journal stuff 3 or 4 times a week, pretty detailed stuff, and my LDing rate has pretty much stayed the same...

I'm studying LD since the beginning of january and since them I'm writing every dream I recall in my dream journal.

I think the dream journal is a very good tool, for lots of reason:

1) - You get historical data

When you read a dream that you had a couple of months ago you can remember that dream and revive it with every detail. It's like be there again.

You can start to recognize things that it's not possible just recalling the dreams in your brain. The human brain cannot store so many data (40, 50 dreams) and compare it. I, for example, started to see that I had two kinds of dreams: very day ones and very night ones. The night ones are not dark, but a very dusk/dawn/fuzzy light.

I can say that at least 30% of my dream signs I just recognize after started to write my dream journal.


2) - You get statistics, so YOU can see the trends.

I had a total of 126 dream entries: 49 in january, 60 in february and 17 in march. From that 12 of the dreams were lucids (5 in january, 6 in february and 1 in march).

I also have the dreams per week:
February
--------
week 4 - 18 (1 lucid)
week 3 - 12
week 2 - 16 (3 lucids)
week 1 - 10

January
-------
week 4 - 11 (2 lucids)
week 3 - 16 (2 lucids)
week 2 - 12 (1 lucid)
week 1 - 07

3) - You can have your goals in your journal

As suggested in EWLD book, I put my short and long term goals in my journal. I think it helps me get motivated to achieve lucidity.


4) - You can see if you are improving

Recording every dream/LD I had I can see if I'm improving from month to month.

5) - You can see trends

When the situation is relevant I write, just before the dream, what happenned in the night, if something different occurs, etc. This helps me see trends and I could repeat something and see if it works again.

6) - You can have everything LD related in your journal

I tried to put everything that I think can improve my LDs in my dream journal. As I said previously I write my dreams/LD, put my goals (short/long term), statistics, what I have achieved (like the lucid tasks from Seeker), my dream signs, and so on.

Well, I do not know if it's the dream journal, but I'm having consistency and regularity in my lucid dreams. As the numbers says, ~10% of my dreams (recalled) are lucidy. I think it's a good number to 2 months of study.

Well, if you read all the post, congratulations, you'll have a lucid dream tonight or your money back!

Hmmm, Recently I started keeping a dream journal and making the effort to actually roll over after every time I wake from a dream and write down as much as I can remember. For me it worked well, before I would have Lucid dreams on my own but thanks to this site and methods i've been introduced to my LD frequency has increased 10 fold. Its a pain in the ass I know. But on my off days (3/week) I have the time so I make the effort.

Also after getting a few dreams on paper you can review them for common trends, which for me has been a HUGE help. I found common trends in my dreams and made myself a list: "If I experience or see this _____ I am dreaming" This method has worked great for me. Also not trying so hard helps, instead of focusing in a general way of LD'ing, focus on recoginizing dream signs/questioning logic/dream recall and try to keep and open analytical mind... Just my two cc's

Originally posted by cerebusdreamer

Amen to everything posted above

I think dream journals are a must for anyone interested in their dreams. I'm not sure if mine's helping me to become lucid at all, but at least I can see my dream history and when I was lucid dreaming on a regular basis, I was able to tell at a glance how far apart my LD's were. I use a spiral notebook, as well as writing mine down into an online jouranal, which keeps track of my dream symbols for me and lists my top dream symbols.

Plus I like looking back and reading my old dreams from years before. It's interesting to be able to do that and read through the dreams knowing what I was going through at that point in my life and being able to see how it related to my dreams at the time.

sicerely I used the dj only maybe the first week and ever touched again i dont know whats the big hype with it. my advice would be to practice all the techniques that you can and eventually one or two of them will suit you really well.. its been almost 2month that I knew about lding and I can have a ld pretty much every night or should I say morning
if I want. they arent that long and some of tehm are not so vivid but I guess its prety good for a start.

Another advice is to not take every advice (we have a paradox here) come to your own conclusion ld's are in your mind its not exact science so test