Often lately when I wake up I find that I can remember (or it feels like I remember) two or three dreams, but the clearest one/the one I write down never feels like a dream… it always feels like I woke up and imagined the dream.
Is this common? I can’t remember a time that I’ve given myself to actually imagine it, but I don’t know if I’m slightly waking up early and imagining this.
I don’t think I am - because I don’t REMEMBER imagining it, but it feels alot like the dream is just something I imagine.
(sorry if this is a bit hard to understand. I could’nt think of a better word than “imagine” to describe it)
Hmm I think this will get better when you practice dream recall more and for a longer period. It might be something of a beginners-“problem”, or something that is merely temporally. If you get better at dream recall, all dreams should look like actual memories of events you participated in during the night. and not like you just imagined it (at least that’s how it looks to me).
Even though I usually remember my dreams in very much detail, I sometimes feel that I am making parts of a dream up when I’m writing it down. Since dreams contain so many details with some digression, I think you won’t be able to simply write a fully comprehensible, exact description of your dream. Can this be close to your problem squakMix?
Anyway, you have to leave unnecessary parts out when writing down your dreams to maintain a red thread. The only problem I see with this is that a greater audience might not interpret your dream close to what you experienced it since you are leaving out details. I don’t think that modifying dreams this way will be bad for your own Dream Journal, since reading the written version of your dream will make you remember it as you experienced it.
Then do so. Even though you fill in the holes, reading the written version of your dream later on will help you recalling the dream as you experienced it. It will help you get back to your original dream much more than if you don’t write it down at all.
I don’t think it matters a great deal, for most purposes anyways.
If you’re unintentionally “ellaborating” your dream, your unconscious will be supplying ellaborations that are congruant to what you could dream anyways.
In fact, I know of people (and, for that matter, have seen it suggested as advice in dreamwork books for people having trouble getting started recalling their dreams) who because of initial poor recall, try writing down what they imagine that they might have dreamed.
It seems to somehow help them to get in touch with those unconscious processes, themes and concerns that produce dreams in the first place, and these “imaginary” dream recollections not only give way to actual recall, but also tend in hindsight to greatly resemble their regular dreams when they have finally learned to recall them.
squakMix you’re not the only one to have one of those.
Lately i’ve been having those “Imagined dreams”. They seem like not imagined dreams but at the same time is like one is creating them, is hard to explain as you say…
I guess that when you’re close to dreams you can think easier?