Thread: Why keep a journal?

I find it dramatically increases how many dreams you remember a night. I went from one to 4 or 5. When i read back through them the memories come flooding back and it is like i just came out of them.

Simply put, it trains you to consider your dreams to be important. Whenever I slack off (e..g. - choose to only document my lucids) my frequency of lucids goes down.

I suggest keeping a notepad by your bed and taking summary notes when you wake. When you get home from work, fill out the entries in more detail. Without those summary notes, you'll never remember all the detais, and in fact - probably get many of the details wrong.

thanks. but i still don't understand, it helps you recall your dreams but how does this increase lucidicy!

Lucid dreams are as easily forgotten as non-lucid. If you don't keep a journal, you may have lucids and not even know it.

Several times I've been recording my dreams, and as I do a whole lucid dream that I had will come back to me, which I never would have remembered if I wasn't journalling.

Also, journals help you recognize your dream-signs.

Another thing that happens to me a lot--I often have false awakenings in which I'm recording my dreams; this has occasionally helped me to become lucid.

Really, the thing is that becoming lucid is so difficult (for some people) that every little thing that you can do to help, you should do, if you really want to have them.

Originally Posted by liverred

thanks. but i still don't understand, it helps you recall your dreams but how does this increase lucidicy!

The value of keeping a dream journal became clear to me within 24 hours of starting one here on DV. These are my comments from Jan 30th:

"I've read in so many lucid dream books about the importance of keeping a journal, yet have always been sceptical (or lazy). I guess I should have listened though, because starting one here on DV led directly to a dream which SHOULD have given me full lucidity. It's certainly the closest I've come in a while."

Of course, it's also necessary to keep a journal if you're experimenting with supplements or any kind of lucid dream aid.

Keeping dream journal is important to have a successful lucid career. Keeping a dream journal helps you finding the dream signs and do a lot of RCs during the day. Doing a lot of RC is the easiest way of having lucid dreams.

I used to keep a dream journal. I noticed that I could recall far greater details than I can now. However, you won't instantly lose all recall. I find I can remember one dream a night every night now. Also, I remember any lucids I have.

Journal is like a friend. The more time you invest the more is returned. Becouse you decide the form of journal, its something like your mirror.

Journal often helped me to come out of bad mood, just and only while reading it. Its your decision to have it or not. Try it and you will find out why. There is no general why. Your results are more important for you.

^^^That's a good point, adraw.

It's fun to go back and read dreams that you had a long time ago. The whole dream and all the feelings will often come back to me just by reading what I managed to put down in my journal. It's like expanding your life, because you have all these extra memories of things that you've done that otherwise you would have forgotten.