Thread: Problem starting a dream journal.

I've been interested in lucid dreaming and just basic dream recall for the past maybe week or two? Anyways, I have a notepad and pencil right near my bed for whenever I wake up and remember a dream. Unfortunately, whenever I do have a dream, when I wake up I just say forget it and I just lie in bed 'till I fall asleep again. When I wake up in the morning I want to kick myself. How do I beat the urge to just fall asleep again instead of writing the dream down?

Set yourself little goals. I used to have the same problem, so I'd do things like "I can have chocolate today if I write down the dreams when I wake up".

Just replace chocolate with something you like/enjoy.

(Oh and welcome to Dream Views )

Little problem with that. I'm trying to lose some weight this summer, and well, everything I like is against that, whether it's eating chocolate/ice cream or whatever or playing games.

Maybe you could employ an everything in moderation tactic? You're much more likely to succeed with losing weight if you don't lock yourself away from the things you like.

Maybe you could treat yourself to just a little bit of something good if you write down your dreams?

If not you could go down the other route, some sort of self punishment if you don't. But that's not as fun.

Ok, well when you wake just keep that pencil or pen by the bed and just write down the tiniest detail which is bound to trigger you to remember the rest of the dream when you look at it when waking. I think that rewarding like Alex said could work but at the end of the day its up to you is it not, if your serious enough about lucid dreaming you will remember to write something down, just tell yourself before bed that when you next wake you will write down what you remember.

Originally Posted by Drakonak

Little problem with that. I'm trying to lose some weight this summer, and well, everything I like is against that, whether it's eating chocolate/ice cream or whatever or playing games.

"If I do not write my dreams, then I will eat chocolates, ice cream and play videogames today"


But as Alex said, don't lock yourself, you should have a little of those things you like, or it will be hard to do what you need. And do what Lucid Seeker said, write the most important words, combined with Astral__Explorer's technique.

Originally Posted by Drakonak

I've been interested in lucid dreaming and just basic dream recall for the past maybe week or two? Anyways, I have a notepad and pencil right near my bed for whenever I wake up and remember a dream. Unfortunately, whenever I do have a dream, when I wake up I just say forget it and I just lie in bed 'till I fall asleep again. When I wake up in the morning I want to kick myself. How do I beat the urge to just fall asleep again instead of writing the dream down?

I used to have to same problem too, what I do is I usually take my arm and get the pencil and just write my dream with my eyes close. (I have the book opened already and I write)

My advice, from personal decisions: relax.

When I wake up in the morning and start recalling, I lie down with eyes closed and think back in a very relaxed state to what I was dreaming of. This is, also, basically the way to recall dreams in general. Don't jump up and awake. Keep your eyes closed, relax and recall. Then, when you have the dreams in conscious memory clearly enough, reach over for the notepad, sit up or turn to your side (leaning on one arm) and start writing.

By the time you're done, you should be sufficiently awake and at peace with it.