Help With Dream Journals!?

Hey Guys,

I've been keeping a Dream Journal for about a week. During break, it was totally fine, as soon as I woke up, I would write in it about a paragraph.

Lately, because of early morning classes, I wake up extremely tired, and way too sleepy to write more than a sentence or two before passing out. I know DJ is supposed to help a person with better dream recall, but I find it hard to make much use out of it, when I barely end up anything in there, and my sleepy ass handwriting is so bad it's hard to make out what the hell I wrote down.

Here's a couple excerpts that made me laugh, as I don't remember what the hell this was all about.

"5/22/09

Drove on the highway where kids on motorcycles crossed over to do tricks.

and..

"5/23/09

Ran into friend early in morning who needed help. She needed a ride home and she makes me head back up and down the road and fucks up on directions and acts a bitch!"

See what I'm working with here? This is hilarious but probably not very helpful :D

Any advice?

Well sometimes for me writing down a few main ideas or key words works fine. Later on when I look back at what I wrote, the words will remind me of a certain event, and then the rest of the dream will come back to me.

If this doesn't work for you (which I'm assuming does not), then I would suggest getting a tape recorder so you can talk into it right after you wake up, that might be easier than trying to write when you are tired.

You could always write a few key points and come back later and right in the whole thing. Those keypoints are crucial for you to remember the rest of your dream later on.

Try drawing pictures.

Either way, keep it up. It'll eventually make sense to you.

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Originally Posted by S.I.L.O.X.

If this doesn't work for you (which I'm assuming does not), then I would suggest getting a tape recorder so you can talk into it right after you wake up, that might be easier than trying to write when you are tired.

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Great idea, I actually got a digital recorder lying around! :lol:

When you wake up in the morning, just lie there without moving and wait for the dream details to come back to you.

If you wake up and rush to write down your dreams you can end up losing most of it. Wait for the story to unfold in your memory and think about it before you get up and write it down.

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Originally Posted by Bethany

When you wake up in the morning, just lie there without moving and wait for the dream details to come back to you.

If you wake up and rush to write down your dreams you can end up losing most of it. Wait for the story to unfold in your memory and think about it before you get up and write it down.

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The problem is not with remembering the dream as much as that I'm too tired to write it all down. I try to hit only the main idea(s) before passing back out again.

I'll try the voice recorder as it should be much easier than trying to write eligibly and more than a couple lines.

Being to tired is a problem you can easily overcome :? Go to bed earlier it will also increase your chance of having a dream induced lucid dream as your REM-periods will increase and come faster between later in your sleep.

I have the same problem as you, I'm in a habit of only getting around 6 hours sleep and that just makes both recall and lucid dreaming much harder.

After you have managed to scribble down a few crucial points in your book, carry it around with you (except in the shower!). Keep looking back on it and when you feel a bit more sober, try expanding on those points.

But yeah, a tape recorder should work fine as long as people don't thing you have gone crazy and have taken up talking to yourself about crazy adventures ;)

what I do is maybe write down the main idea, jump in the shower and on my way to school I write in all of the details. I think you should also try to write more that a paragraph if a paragraph means 5-6 complete sentences. I know, it might be hard. Or you might be having a dry spell, i get those too. write as much as you can I guess would be the best way to put it.

I have been keeping a dream journal for about a week as well and I find that when I wake up after a good night's sleep (7+ hours) I remember a lot of detail to one of the dreams I had that night. At first I wrote down the dreams but they ended up taking up to a whole page, front and back, and then some (and I write relatively small). This has me a little annoyed at writing the dreams down now just because of the amount of time it takes. So I guess my question is, do I have to record the dream with all the details or will a general outline do the trick just as well?

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Originally Posted by tapanojum

The problem is not with remembering the dream as much as that I'm too tired to write it all down. I try to hit only the main idea(s) before passing back out again.

I'll try the voice recorder as it should be much easier than trying to write eligibly and more than a couple lines.

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I know your pain, not being able to write the stuff down, i have to up and moving by 6:45 so i dont get any time to. What i do is during school, i sit in my classes when i have nothing to do of if the teacher that hates me is trying to teach French, i sit there and mull over my dream, figureing out all that happened and trying to remember it all. By the time i get home i have most of it remembered. Then id pull out my handy dandy notebook and write what i remembered. I did that for about 2 months, so i got a good chunk of a 1 subject notebook filled out.

Try this, or you could try the tape recorder.:banana:

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Originally Posted by l000needles

I have been keeping a dream journal for about a week as well and I find that when I wake up after a good night's sleep (7+ hours) I remember a lot of detail to one of the dreams I had that night. At first I wrote down the dreams but they ended up taking up to a whole page, front and back, and then some (and I write relatively small). This has me a little annoyed at writing the dreams down now just because of the amount of time it takes. So I guess my question is, do I have to record the dream with all the details or will a general outline do the trick just as well?

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I don't think it is neccessary to write everything down. When you are "paving" the way to your "shadow-memory" it gradually becomes easier to remember dreams. But it is still great to have some information about people, places, strange things (or dreamsigns) or even strong feelings to analyze later on. Problem is in the beginning of your "LD-carreer" you won't really know what your dreamsigns are, so there is a bit of work involved. But then again 2 pages is 2 much if you think it is a chore. (?)