How important is a dream journal?

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05-20-2007, 09:28 PM
Astral Traveler

How important is a dream journal?

I used to keep a dream journal and during the time i recorded my dreams (three or more a night,sometimes as many as 6 or 7) i managed to have three low quality lucid dreams. One of them was really fun and i managed to get airborn but i didn't stay lucid for long and i kinda got lost in the dream. The other two were more vague, i was only dimly aware that i was dreaming and i didn't have time to do anything interesting.

Anyway, i'm working now and i have to get up by 7:00 AM which usually means i have little or no time to write down my dreams and i was just wondering how this will affect my lucid dreaming. Is it imperative that you keep a dream journal or is that just another thing (i think for me it helped quite a bit but i can't be sure) to speed you along the path to lucidity?

I suppose i could get up a bit earlier and record my dreams then but i'm not sure i want to sacrafice half an hour of sleep if it's not going to be worth it in the long run.
05-20-2007, 09:35 PM
rose_red

I'm not sure whether it helps your lucid dreaming directly or not, but it definitely helps your dream recall, which is nessacary for most (if not all) dream work. If you can't remember it then how will you know if it worked? Aside from that, it can help various techniques along, like i read my dream journal whenever i WBTB and it seems to help it.

Well, I hope that helped.
05-20-2007, 10:15 PM
Astral Traveler

Quote:

Originally Posted by rose_red

I'm not sure whether it helps your lucid dreaming directly or not, but it definitely helps your dream recall, which is nessacary for most (if not all) dream work. If you can't remember it then how will you know if it worked? Aside from that, it can help various techniques along, like i read my dream journal whenever i WBTB and it seems to help it.

Well, I hope that helped.

Hmm, i suppose that makes sense.

I also heard that it can help you identify when you are dreaming because you have familiarized yourself with the dreamstate by writing so many of them down.

Maybe i'll just get up earlier and write them down, i get up so early already that another half hour won't make much of a difference.
05-20-2007, 10:23 PM
rose_red

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astral Traveler

Hmm, i suppose that makes sense.

I also heard that it can help you identify when you are dreaming because you have familiarized yourself with the dreamstate by writing so many of them down.

Well, that may be true for some people, but i still don't know any different when I dream i'm in my old highschool even though (in the dream) i know I'm in colledge. Guess it takes a bit of training, like RCs and stuff.

Quote:

Maybe i'll just get up earlier and write them down, i get up so early already that another half hour won't make much of a difference.

That's the spirit :goodjob:
05-20-2007, 11:02 PM
iadr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astral Traveler

Anyway, i'm working now and i have to get up by 7:00 AM which usually means i have little or no time to write down my dreams and i was just wondering how this will affect my lucid dreaming. Is it imperative that you keep a dream journal or is that just another thing (i think for me it helped quite a bit but i can't be sure) to speed you along the path to lucidity?

Not sure how much keeping a dream journal affects the ability to become lucid, but it would definitely help in remember any lucid dreams you have as it greatly helps with dream recall.

I get up at 3:00 am to go to work but still manage to keep a dream journal and average from 5 to 8 dreams a night, mainly because I wake up all during the night and record my dreams.

Sure it takes time. A lot of time. Because I also go back over my dreams again from the previous night before going to bed the next night and write out the main points, which practice has increased my dream recall from about 80 to 85 dreams to over 200 dreams almost every month.

But I would have to say it is worth it because my night life has become almost as real as my waking life, and a whole lot more exciting.

One thing that has really helped in remembering dreams is using a digit voice recorder by Olympus that I bought for $40.00 because by using this I I am able to speak my dreams into the digital recorder while they are still fresh in my mind without getting up, which makes it much easier to remember both the current dream, plus earlier dreams, that I would have forgotten if I had gotten up to record the dream immediately.
05-20-2007, 11:58 PM
Drk Pwnr

It is definitely worth it, and then you get to look through your past dreams for laughs every few months ;)
05-21-2007, 01:21 AM
Beksinski

I too don't keep a dream journal, just a digital voice recorder. I can speak a lot faster than I can write, and don't have to turn a light on or get out of bed to do so. Then later in the day I listen to last night's recordings (a lot of times I don't even remember recording them if I did so in the middle of the night), and transcribe the outline and important points into text documents on my computer. When I make the recordings, I just rant about every small detail I can remember, even if they aren't cohesive.
05-21-2007, 01:41 AM
Harrycombs

I got lazy about keeping a dream journal. Now I can barely remember my dreams, so I don't even know if I have gotten lucid. I think keeping a dream journal is one of the most important things to do.
05-21-2007, 11:12 AM
iadr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beksinski

I too don't keep a dream journal, just a digital voice recorder. Then later in the day I listen to last night's recordings (a lot of times I don't even remember recording them if I did so in the middle of the night)

Isn't that the truth. If I record several dreams on my digital recorder without getting up right away its amazing how many dreams I don't remember having had when I finally get up to record them on my computer, which are dreams I would have completely missed if I hadn't used the digital recorder to record them right when they occurred.

If anyway is considering getting a digital recorder to record your dreams on during the night, make sure you get one that sounds good like an Olympus, because it is already hard enough to sometimes understand what you are mumbling about while you are half asleep during the night even with a good recorder.
05-21-2007, 01:29 PM
Astral Traveler

Quote:

Originally Posted by iadr

Not sure how much keeping a dream journal affects the ability to become lucid, but it would definitely help in remember any lucid dreams you have as it greatly helps with dream recall.

I get up at 3:00 am to go to work but still manage to keep a dream journal and average from 5 to 8 dreams a night, mainly because I wake up all during the night and record my dreams.

Sure it takes time. A lot of time. Because I also go back over my dreams again from the previous night before going to bed the next night and write out the main points, which practice has increased my dream recall from about 80 to 85 dreams to over 200 dreams almost every month.

But I would have to say it is worth it because my night life has become almost as real as my waking life, and a whole lot more exciting.

One thing that has really helped in remembering dreams is using a digit voice recorder by Olympus that I bought for $40.00 because by using this I I am able to speak my dreams into the digital recorder while they are still fresh in my mind without getting up, which makes it much easier to remember both the current dream, plus earlier dreams, that I would have forgotten if I had gotten up to record the dream immediately.

I thought about getting one of those voice recorders, but when i went to the store to get one they all seemed so expensive (i live in canada and electronics are generally much more expensive up here)

I'll shop around some more though, i haven't been to future shop yet, maybe they have them a bit cheaper over there.
05-21-2007, 06:54 PM
Mes Tarrant

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beksinski

I too don't keep a dream journal, just a digital voice recorder. I can speak a lot faster than I can write, and don't have to turn a light on or get out of bed to do so. Then later in the day I listen to last night's recordings (a lot of times I don't even remember recording them if I did so in the middle of the night), and transcribe the outline and important points into text documents on my computer. When I make the recordings, I just rant about every small detail I can remember, even if they aren't cohesive.

Omg I have to do that... that sounds awesome, listening to yourself babble half awake. I bet you can talk about more aspects of your dream than you can write down.
05-22-2007, 11:35 AM
iadr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astral Traveler

I thought about getting one of those voice recorders, but when i went to the store to get one they all seemed so expensive (i live in canada and electronics are generally much more expensive up here)

I'll shop around some more though, i haven't been to future shop yet, maybe they have them a bit cheaper over there.

Here's the one that I bought, only I found it in a local Target store for $40.00: http://www.microphones.com/microphone.cfm?URLID=VN4100

Just make sure you find one where the voice quality is good, because some of the other companies that make these have horrible voice quality on them. If unsure about a product you can always look up some reviews that other people have put in on the product on the internet, which is how I found this one.