Thread: Recall and the Limits of Language

I first began recording my dreams with pen and paper. Whenever I'd wake up with images fresh in my mind, I'd jot down a few words and phrases and roll back over to sleep. At least half of the time this was sufficient enough to help me remember the dreams later on. Rarely though did I bother to expand my notes into full coherent stories.

I've recently begun audio recording my dreams as it's quicker than writing. I've found though that I will often lie silent for moments at a time just thinking of what exactly I mean to say, regardless of how vivid the dream felt when I first awoke. When I do eventually complete a particularly complex thought, I wonder how much it's been subconsciously reduced just so that it may be said. These statements feel so lacking.

I try to remedy this later when I'm typing my dreams out, not half asleep. I can't help but spend an inordinate amount of time doing this, but any poet knows the satisfaction of expressing the essence of a thing. Still, the dream itself has long since passed and I'm working within the confines of a logical brain. How true is the story format to the nature of a dream? The formats of space and time? I feel like I'm cheating the experience of my dreams when I reduce them to words, but I know if I didn't they would quickly dissolve in my all-too-holistic memory.

It's frustrating to come to terms with the limits of comprehension. Some of my dreams feel so enlightening, and within seconds of waking I can lose my grasp on what I beheld. Everything becomes reduced to concepts--unspeakable, only felt. Part of the reason I continue to recall and record is the yearning to hold these impressions closer.

Do you ever struggle to write out your dreams?