What is the actual purpose of a dream journal?

Quest for Lucidity
1

Upon starting my journey into lucid dreaming several months ago, I noticed that almost all advice, all articles, books, and the like argued that any aspire lucid dreamer should always keep a dream journal. While I agree proper dream recall is the bedrock for all lucid dreaming practices, I can’t help but feel the topic hasn’t been fully explained. Thus I ask to the lucid dreaming community what real purpose does a dream journal holds? While the basic premise says “If you can’t remember your dreams, then why bother to lucid dream?”, I can’t help but notice many fellow newcomers write and record their dreams for what seems like a whole year, only to see their efforts result in an ability not much improved. Not much progress is made.

On the other hand, there are successful lucid dreamers whom I believe, hold an outstanding recall skill, and are able to remember many dreams throughout the night, or at the least one a day. I know the level of commitment put by the practitioner should be taken into account as an influential factor but still, in the end, I think the problem does not lie only in being able to recall our dreams, but in how we do it.

Up until I read about Rathez’ tutorial did it made me take dream journaling into a whole new different level. Does journaling our dreams serve no more than being able to recall our dreams for the night, or does it also require proper dream analysis of the dream? What does being familiar with the dream world actually mean? To what extent? What should be our main focus: the events that took place inside the dream, the amount of dreams we have each night, a detailed observation of the dream world, a critical analysis of such events? I believe that approaching dream journaling with this mindset allows for a much richer practice, and in the end a much better progress in strengthening dream recall.

Likewise, do experienced lucid dreamers journal their dreams with such level of observational analysis and detail? I think the reason behind a dreamer’s progress in recall depends in the actual perception a dreamer has to a dream journal. To a novice like myself, when first reading upon dream journaling, I thought it meant only to record the whole events of the night, depending on how long the dream was, and the number of dreams I had for the night. But to an experienced lucid dreamer, detail and analysis may be even more important than just telling a story. That way, they are better able to spot the inconsistencies within the dream world, and use that to trigger lucidity. However, I can’t know for sure whether my thoughts have any bit of veracity, which is why I have to ask you guys. :smile:

At the end of the day it all comes down to proper observational skills I guess. Still however, there are people who are great observers by nature, people who trained themselves to be great observers, and people who lack such a skill (like myself.) So maybe the focus should be first in developing a proper observational skill coupled with a proper tackle at dream journaling and recall.

I guess what I’m trying to ask is: How do experienced lucid dreamers, or any dreamer with an excellent recall ability, approach their dream journal? By the way, do any of you dreamers out there know how to develop a solid observational skill?

I’m by no means an expert in this, just a novice dreamer sharing his thoughts on a subject. I am not discovering anything groundbreaking either, in fact, Rathez’ tutorial explains perfectly what I believe should be the best approach to using a dream journal. I’m just trying to find out how many of you dreamers out there approach your dream journals. Anyway, I’m eager to see what you guys think about this.

2

I used to keep a diary of my dreams only because my mother thought it was healthy, like, psychologically healthy to do so. I didn’t see the big fuss about lucidity. Eventually, I got out of the habit.

When I spontaneously had a lucid dream, that’s when I started writing dreams out again, just so that I could read them over later and remember better.

I don’t think it’s necessary for getting a lucid dream, though, obviously.

3

That is true, the main reason people use a dream journal is to be able to recall their dreams. There are people like me who can recall dreams quite well without the use of a dream journal, but even when I first started to practice lucid dreaming I had to write my dreams down to improve my recall or just to be able remember one detail from a dream. The reason people will continue to write their dreams even if they aren’t lucid dreaming could be for a number of reasons including:
-the fact they are still attempting to lucid dream, just not having success for whatever reason
-to maintain their level of recall
-to identify dream signs to aid with lucid dreaming
-to read back on dreams for a LD method such as VILD, MILD or even WILD

It is good practice to recall detail as it helps you to ‘better’ notice what is odd or strange, and it is helpful with the recall itself. You will notice more happening in the dream and it’ll also help in identifying dream signs.

I’m not quite sure what you mean when you ask ‘how we approach our dream journal’. The only reasons I go to my dream journal anymore are to read a previous dream or write down a LD so I can identify my mistakes and improve myself for the next one. Depending on what method I’m practicing I may need to write in the journal, but currently I don’t.
As for observational skills, I think it’s a matter of taking note of your surroundings and your actions. I’m not sure how other people go about this.

4

In my opinion everything you wrote is true Husky, but the most important thing in your post is this part of the first sentence:

There are a countless combinations with DJs. Should you have one, how to have one, what to write, how to write, bla bla bla.

And that’s the part about personalization, no one can actually tell you about that other then yourself. But whether to keep a DJ or not well I think that DJ is the best indicator whether are you aspired enough or not about lucid dreaming. Although I like word “motivated” more. The moment your motivation drops almost every time dreamers stop keeping their DJs. It’s a first indicator of lack of motivation.

There are dreamers that can have the same quality of dreams with or without DJs but I will still argue that the DJ is the most important tool. Why? Well there is tone of things you can write in the DJ. You can write about your day, about everything you saw that reminded you about dreams, deja vu’s, sudden memories of dreams, feelings. Yes, feelings. I’ve noticed that the dream is a lot about feelings. How you feel, what you feel, why you feel it all gets manifest in the dream in many different ways. And if you keep a DJ you can make a link/connection between dream feelings and WL feelings and then small pieces will start to form a bigger picture.

When you keep all that on the paper, if you analyze that, you will discover much more about yourself then without it. Well at least you have a chance, means to do that.

DJ also pushes you to spend more time on your dreams, it’s cool to read them later, you will always remember more and more, it might be a false memory but doesn’t matter. I hope this helps somewhat.

Good luck! :content:

5

When I used a dream journal, I used to be able to get 6 lucid dreams a day with WILD.

Ever since I stopped using one, I get max 1 per week. I think it might be because I straight up don’t remember any of the dreams.

Dream journals are important.

6

I thought Wild is a technique where dream journals has the least of effect on. With WILD you try to enter a dream straight from waking state, so there should be no connection between being able to remembering dreams and getting lucid with his technique. Because you just learn to stay conscious while falling asleep, so if you succeed in this, you are just conscious while the dream is forming, no need to remember anything, off course your lucid dream, but while being lucid you store your dream memory in the same storage as your waking memory, so you remember it better anyway, cause you are conscious.

Tibetans use a sort of WILD, but they never record their dreams, they even think their normal dreams are of no interest, still they can learn to enter dreams straight from the waking state, so I believe it is not so much related.

Anyhow, I won’t say that DJ isn’t important, it is vital, and especially useful with any other technique of LD, and it is always wise to combine WILD with other techniques, to have more chance to get lucid, if you fall asleep anyhow, so there is a better chance you get triggered to lucidity anyhow. But I just want to state that if you can develop a good WILD technique, probably a dream journal isn’t that important anymore, but until then, it is really vital.

7

@EllyEve

Well, doesn’t dream journaling helps one become familiar with the dream world, thus teaching the mind to pay attention to the dream, and in turn, increasing the awareness necessary for triggering lucidity? You also mention you read over your dreams. Does the act of rereading one’s dreams improves the ability to recall many more?

@almighty catfish

Well, what I’m trying to ask is: What do you focus on, when going about writing your dreams in your dream journal? That is, do you write only what happened in the dream, by merely listing the events that took place, or do you describe in as much detail as you can (perhaps, trying to include as much senses as you can) the whole dream experience? Also, do you reserve some space in your dream journal for critical analysis of such experience? That is: thoughts, ideas, dream signs, reasoning out why the experience you were having was a dream and not real life, etc. Like you said, dream journaling allowed you to improve your recall. Perhaps, there’s something you do or focus more when writing your dreams that people who don’t have good recall don’t do when recording theirs.

What I’m looking for is the process you go to when recalling and writing your dreams. Now you also mention you are able to recall dreams quite well without the use of a dream journal. If so, how were you able to acquire such skill? Did you always had the ability to remember dreams easily, even before you knew about lucid dreaming? What do you think caused you to have much proficiency in dream recall?

@dB_FTS

While it’s true there are countless of combinations one could have with dream journals, you would agree some combinations can favor and facilitate one’s improvement of dream recall and lucidity more than others. And while any dreamer can choose to personalize the way they record their nightly dreams, I believe people with good recall faculties and experienced lucid dreamers alike might show a sustainable pattern that allows them to improve much more efficiently than people who generally have a hard time remembering their dreams or show a small amount of improvement, even after months and months of dream recording.

But, like you said, there are a myriad of ways one could approach their own dream journals, countless of which might allow proper improvement in ones’ lucid dreaming journey. I just think the progress could be much easier when knowing what to focus on, at least initially. Then, whenever the dreamer reaches a fairly amount of consistency in their recall abilities, such dreamer can choose to go from there and walk their own path in a creative/personal use of their dream journal.

@Kache_

That’s amazing! Recently I’ve started practice with WILD, and while I’ve come close to having a successful lucid dream, I still require much more practice. But, I guess then some people have an easier time with some techniques than others.

@dreamystivi

True, once you acquire the basic skills, it’s up to you then how you want to take it from there. Still, the WILD technique seem like a pretty tough technique from what I’ve practiced, although I still haven’t given it much practice time.

8

Ah ok. Well it depends. If you are starting out trying to recall dreams and trying to get better at it, then simply writing dot points of main events of the dream would be sufficient and is a good starting point. Eventually as the recall becomes better then recording detailed dreams will help to further improve it.
However, you don’t always need to write detailed dreams, it just helps. Obviously not everyone has the time in the morning to do this, so writing dot points to remember later is good enough.

I actually had terrible recall before I kept a dream journal. I would remember the occasional dream or really vivid ones, but not much more. I still have my first dream journal; the very first dream I attempted to write was only 3 dot points which made so little sense I can’t imagine what the dream was lol
I guess over a few years of writing in a journal recalling dreams comes pretty easy. To maintain it, some mornings I’ll just lie in bed and think about the dream and recall it in my head.

Some people find it easy to do or are naturals (damn them!). I find it terribly difficult to not fall asleep when attempting :neutral:

9

Some people just end up scaring you about that, since lucid dreams are usually very vivid, if you were going to remember one dream in a week, it would probably be the lucid dream. I think if you have a decent recall you don’t really need to record your dreams, but they’re still nice to have. Especially really good ones, because even the vivid ones you start to forget after a while I find.

10

It is terribly difficult, I agree, but anything you practise on, you can learn. Have been practising for some weeks now on WILD and finally I am getting result, the two last nights I succeeded in two WILD’s per night, I hope I can keep this up :smile:
But I loose one to two hours sleep while attempting to WILD, there is a price you,have to pay for it. I always focus strongly in the beginning, so I get in a situation where I almost can’t fall asleep anymore, then I relax, while staying vaguely aware, then I succeed in WILD. I always combine it with WBTB, but very short wake, only 5 minutes.

I have no dream recall of any dreams, beside my LD’s, I have very, very poor dreamrecall (although give a lot of attention to it) , but this doesn’t prevent me to succeed in wild. Training, training, training, never give up!

11

In my opinion, a dream journal is reaaally essential. Yes, choice and combination does come into finding the right LD technique combination for everyone, but at the same time not everyone has a perfect eidetic memory. Dream journalling can help with… remembering dreams, remembering lucid dreams that you’d otherwise forget, and prospective memory so that all of your reality checks filter through into your dreams and you don’t forget the stabilise the dream. It’s basically the rock on which rests one of the pillars of LDing, memory.

I haven’t journalled for a while, and my dream recall has suffered accordingly. I’ve resolved to get back into a good sleep routine and hopefully journalling will come naturally from then on.

12

Can you post a link to the Rathez tutorial you talk of , please?

13

Yeah, I ask the same questions about recall as you, Husky. If the how makes a difference. The following is all speculation:

Everyone brings a kind of default approach to the table when they start dream journaling. Maybe sometimes they know about it, sometimes they don’t. Can their personality and experiences make it more likely that their dream journaling style will lead to more lucid dreams? A tailor would be more likely to notice clothes in dreams – maybe that would make a difference. A swimmer would be more likely to notice bodily sensations and that might make them more likely to have lucid dreams.

If DJing makes dreams more eventful then that could lead to lucidity. The more eventful a dream is, the more likely you are to stay in the dream. The dream will last longer, and the longer the dreams is, the more opportunities you will have to notice it’s a dream. The increase in events will make it more likely that something will feature that shows you you’re dreaming – maybe a dreamsign or something that’s just out of the ordinary.

If the eventful/longer dream is more likely to lead to lucidity then there may be a dream journaling approach that makes dreams more eventful and longer. When you are in a lucid dream and the dream seems to be ending, everyone knows you can help yourself to stay in the dream by getting more involved sensually – you can rub your hands, spin, observe the details in an object, etc. It may be possible when DJing to kind of treat any non-lucid dream – even an uneventful one – as though it IS action packed when it isn’t. Instead of focusing on an object and thinking of it as an individual entity with one label/name, you could perceive as many details in that object as you possible can. You could even perceive an object as being made up of many smaller objects perhaps. You could make sure that any reported dream event definitely states your involvement in some way. Instead of listing an action with one verb (somebody punched me) you could break it down into actions: Somebody looked at me in an aggressive way, they clenched their fist, they lifted their arm, their arm came toward me etc. Over time this conditions dreams to be more action packed, eventful and longer, and this leads to an increased chance of becoming lucid.

But could the opposite be true?

Could the fact that you condition yourself to have action packed dreams mean that the amount of action distracts you from entertaining the possibility that you are dreaming? The events kind of “rob you of introspection”. The introspection needed for the “aha” moment when you realise it’s a dream.

Sometimes you can remember dream content because you know you saw it, and sometimes you know that something was present in a dream without actually seeing it with your eyes. For example, last night in a non-lucid dream I had to move some drinking glasses from a table into a side room. I can remember seeing the glasses with my eyes, but although I know the side room existed and know I actually entered it at some point, I can’t remember any visual memories of the room.

The overall goal is to make your dreams as “boring” as possible. Here’s how you may be able to use your DJ to condition dreams to be boring:

1)List visual memories only (memories where you know you definitely saw something with your eyes) of inanimate, non-moving objects. This means you are less likely to get “sucked into” the dream’s events. If you are looking at a dull object you are much more likely to become introspective and realise you’re dreaming. (So with my dream where I carried drinking glasses into a side room I’d only list the fact that I saw the glasses).

2)Ignore people and interaction with people as much as possible. In fact, don’t list individuals at all. Just list “people” in a DJ entry with one overall adjective to describe their general demeanour throughout the dream: eg, friendly, aggressive, seductive etc.

3)Try to ignore dream plot. (or story, whatever you want to call it).

4)Try not to list action. Or maybe just list a sequence of actions events with one label. Eg “Fight”.

5)Ignore conversation - it sucks you into a dream plot too much.

6)List any thoughts or introspection.

So, three possibilities:

1)Conditioning dreams to be more eventful is more likely to make you lucid.

2)Conditioning dreams to be boring is more likely to make you lucid.

  1. The above two are nonsense because conditioning dreams by DJ isn’t possible.
14

@Snakebelt: Rathez’s tutorial.

15

Thank you.

16

@SnakeBelt

True, if your focus is on conditioning dreams. Although not strictly impossible, the ability to condition dreams by dream journaling alone is still pretty difficult, even exhausting. Probably because most of the dream content or plot we experience every night is a by-product of the experiences we mostly have when we’re awake, and the amount of time we find ourselves in them. If we were to condition dreams by using only a dream journal, then we would have to read, write and basically spend much of our precious wake time thinking about a specific dream outcome in order to successfully condition our dreams to our liking.

However, the focus should not be on conditioning dreams but in conditioning ourselves, and that’s exactly the point. Sure, I would love to find each and every one of my dreams to be presented with some huge arrows pointing at a large text pasted in a wall, literally spelling out in big flashy letters: "Hey, this is a dream, you’re dreaming this!” But, it’s much easier to direct and train the mind to carefully examine the dream’s surroundings, no matter what they are, and consciously find out whether one’s dreaming. Even better, I believe such a feat can be accomplished through a proper take at dream journaling.

Now, allow me to speculate based on this idea:

An analytical/observational approach to dream journaling actually works (in my opinion) on three essential levels. At the tip of the iceberg lie the simple actions of remembering and recording our dreams. The very act of doing this teaches the mind to direct its attention towards the dream and mark it as something relevant to it. With practice we, in a way, let our mind know that we want to remember our dreams, for we consider them important and because they aid us in our lucid dreaming quest. As a result, our mind slowly provides, little by little, greater attention to our subsequent dreams, making it easier for us to remember them. In addition, WRITING our dreams helps imprint this general idea and sense of importance deep inside the mind (though you can still type them in, should you chose to do so.).

Unfortunately, many aspirant lucid dreamers stop at this stage, perhaps failing to recognize there’s still much more to recording dreams than just remembering them and listing mere dream plot. There are those still, that even with such a simple task, can already remember many dreams and with great detail, though I believe the majority fall on the other side of the line.

At the mid-section of the iceberg lies even a far more meaningful level to dream journaling: observation; more specifically, a detailed observation of the dream world and the dream experience. That is, we break down and observe the little pieces that make up the dream (through senses, feelings, etc.), then describe them in as much detail as we can. Through this practice we become thoroughly familiarized with the dream world itself. Moreover, because detailed observation requires conscious effort, we stress the mind to expand its awareness of the dream’s surroundings and on the actual content of the dream. Likewise, we continue to emphasize the mind about the importance of the dream and what’s in it.

Now, as you have written before, all the amount of observational effort we have put into practice could very possibly work against us. We may become too involved in the dream’s happenings, and thus hinder our attempts at lucid dreaming altogether. Fortunately, that’s why there’s a third and final level to dream journaling, perhaps the most important one and that which provides balance to the other two: Critical Analysis. To keep ourselves sufficiently detached from the dream role, once we have all the pieces of information lay out, we analyze and notice the inconsistencies (dream signs, odd situations, etc.) within the dream. To finish, we connect the dots behind the experience and finally reason out HOW is it that the experience we just had is a dream and not waking life.

With our attention on the “how”, we prevent ourselves from mindlessly responding to our questions with unconscious yes or no answers. The “how” further allows for awareness and introspection, so as to finally become aware of the true nature of our experience, and thus ultimately culminating in our ability to lucid dream next time we’re dreaming. With critical analysis we finally train the mind not only on the importance of the experience, but, more importantly, that we should take a step back so as to see the bigger picture and realize this is all a dream.

While all this seems like a very complicated and detailed process, it’s actually very simple and easy to follow. In other words, we just recall in great detail (senses, plot, feelings) the dream we just had for the night, write it down (or type it, whichever your prefer), then analyze its parts (looking for dream signs and inconsistencies), connect the dots and reason out how we know this is a dream. Taking all this into account, such practice will probably take about +/-30 min. daily, depending on the amount of dreams you remember and the length each have.

***

All in all, I am sure such a simple but effective dream journal practice, like the one explained above, can provide the means necessary to steadily progress in dream recall and even train the mind to become aware and notice when one’s dreaming while dreaming. From the time I have practiced with this method (16 days), my recall has improved accordingly (at least 1 dream recorded each night), I have successfully induced two lucid dreams (for a novice I consider this feat to be a great success, at least for me :happy: ), and overall my dreams have gotten much more quality wise as well. That is not to say however, that a healthy sleep habit is necessary and should be greatly taken into consideration in all dreaming practices related.