Zentry's Workbook

I'm a german student, currently 18 years old and I'm basically in what you'd call my senior year right now. School's tough and so is getting sufficient amounts of sleep, so my main goals here will not only include lucid dreaming but also regaining control of my sleep schedule.
I've been interested in lucid dreaming for about 6 years, first tried WILD when I was 12 or something, but I've only managed to have 1 or 2 LDs in my entire life, I guess I'm just unlucky.. :d
My daily awareness and dream memory is already very good, when I manage to get enough sleep to have a lot of dreams I usually remember 2-3, and I remember some of them so vividly that after I wake up, the dream and reality sort of blend together for a couple of minutes.. very strange but anyways, enough of that stuff..

One more thing I need to mention: it is *very* difficult for me to keep a dream journal, because my morning routine is very tight already and I usually remember so many things I could write at least 30 minutes every morning (I used to keep a dream journal when I was younger, and my entries would be 2 or 3 pages long). I'm wondering if there's another way to achieve what is supposed to be achieved with the journal, and if I even need to work on my dream memory at all.

Reality Checks:
- flying
- poking through my hand with my fingers
- breathing with my hand in front of my nose

Dream Signs:
haven't really observed any yet, I'll be on the lookout for the next weeks

Short-Term Goals:
- regaining all the lucid dream knowledge I used to have
- updating this thread regularly
- improving my daily awareness further and performing RCs

Long-Term Goals:
- having another DILD
- mastering WILD, something I was never even close to managing lol
- getting 8 hours of sleep regularly by adjusting my studying habits

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
see above

Current Technique:
- WILD + WBTB
- not explicitely trying, but hoping for the occasional DILD

Welcome to the class and DV!

Regarding journalling with tight timing constraints, there are two things you can try. The first method would be to keep a normal pad/digital device nearby and simply jot down key elements of your dreams. This will help you recall what you were dreaming about later on. Ideally, if you have the opportnity, you can later during the day expand on the notes in more detail.

The other method you could use is to mentally tell the dream to yourself as if you were actually journalling. This will solidify the dream in your memory. Again, you may then make some notes and go into greater detail later.

Journalling the entire dream later will probably result in some details being forgotten, but with more practice, especially with mental journalling, you will be able to retain more of the dreams and for longer.