i know keeping a dream journal is for dream recall. but say you’ve recorded a decent amount of dreams would you’re dream recall begin to drop if you stopped recording them. i mean since you’ve already exercised it to reliable recall wouldn’t whatever part of you’re brain associated with recall be sufficient enough to remember dreams without the journal, i mean in the way of remembering them when you wake up and not necessarily to look back on and isn’t the form of recall thats needed is simply remembering them when you wake up?
i had a break, when i didnt write my dreams down, and i could remember them still in the same way. the journal helped me first recalling my dreams, but now i actually don’t need it… but i keep it anyway, cos it’s nice to read the notes i’ve written 
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Personally yes I did have poor dream recall when I didn’t write my dreams, but I can’t authentically say this because other things (MILD attempts, poor sleep, too many WBTBs) also affected this.
Shouldn’t there be another purpose for DJ beside dream recall? I know that you can look for dreamsigns and use this to induce LD, but its overwhelming to dig up through so much, and to keep it up to date!
When I first started keeping a dream journal it was merely for fun. I used to share write my dreams down in notes and share them with this girl when I was in high school. I eventually just started keeping them in a notebook and I’ve been keeping a dream journal ever since.
Its not really about recall for me because I haven’t really ever had too much trouble remembering my dreams. I just do it because its fun and when I read through them I can still see the whole thing playing out in my head. So its really for my own enjoyment.
Origanly my dream recall was atrocious. my DD helped that but once i stoped recording dreams my recall droped to zero. though recently for no reason its picked up again. wonder why?
any way, if you are still wondering experiment!
NIX
I’m sad to say that my dream journal keeping has suffered lately. 
Along with it is my average dream recall, it also seems to suffer. I ususally remember a few dreams a night anyways so I’m not as dedicated to my DJ as I’d like to be. When I do record my dreams regularly, I see a noticeable gain in dream recall after a few days.
Writing in my DJ is a good stimulate for remembering my dreams. As soon as I start to collect my thoughts to write, dream memories start flowing through. As I get half way through recording a dream I start to remember even more. Once I’m finished recording a dream, I’m usually surprised by the gain in dream recall by just forcing myself to put them into words. It really stimulates your brain in retrieving this informatioin for recall. The whole process of converting your dreams into words is a great memory exercise.
It also helps stop “dream memory fade.” Once you force your brain to replay the dream enough times to find words to write, this creates a new waking memory that makes it easier to remember the dream without reading the DJ.
The most fun thing about a DJ is for future reference. It’s really fun to pick up a DJ from 2 years ago and re-read dreams you may have forgotten about. It’s also amazing to read a dream you recorded a few years ago and be amazed how it “predicted” something you may have recently lived through. It can be a bit nostalgic, and it can be a marker of your progress towards lucidity.
I have a bad habit of only recording my lucid dreams. I’d advise not to do this. I hope to start my journal again and record every dream I can remember. 
I still have periods where I don’t recall my dreams very well. Whether this is due to not waking at the right time or not sleeping well I can’t tell but it happens… whether I consistently write my dreams down or not.
What I hate is when the setting for a dream is really abstract and the events equally so… so that I have trouble trying to describe what was going on when I was dreaming. Sometimes I will be in a house but the side of it is gone but not like the wall has been ripped off… just like the room BECOMES the outside… hard to explain in words.
to tell you the truth, and maybe im just lazy, but i find keeping a dream journal a painstaking and tedious practice. especially due to the fact that it should be done when you first wake up when you’re all drowsy and writing being something that requires a bit of concentration. hey even though i complain i have written tons of dreams but recently i took a break.
Hmmm… I like writing in mine. Of course, as I’ve said before, I don’t do it right when I wake up. When I wake up I scribble, and I mean scribble, a bunch of notes about my dreams into a random notebook and that allows me to retain the memory throughout the day. I then write it out in full later on.
I usually notice a large decline in my recall when I stop writing down my dreams in my journal. Another one of my problems is that I usually procrastinate and wind up never writing my dreams into the journal. That is something I need to fix.