Thread: Dream journal, paper or electronic?

Hello! I have pretty poor recall, so I decided to start journaling a couple of months ago. So far I have used both a notebook (paper form), my phone, the shopping Centre technique and the journal here at dreamviews. Is it better some way or does the importance lie only in the action? How do you journal, and why? Is writing in your phone bad, or is it same as 'paper'?

I've tried both, and I can say that I definitely prefer paper. I think the action of writing it down helps. It might only be like this for me though. The only bad thing is that it does take a bit longer, and you can't easily edit it.

For me personally I prefer to write it down on paper. I leave a note pad and a pen on my bed side table so that as soon as I wake I have something to write my dreams down on. Later on in the day when I feel like it I will then type it up on to the dream journal found on Dreamviews. However I believe that only the action of recording your dreams in any format should do the trick.

Hope that helps

Personally, I use my cell phone to write down cliff notes when I wake up in the middle of he night and want to go back to sleep. Once I get up, I go to my computer and type the dream up with a lot more detail. It would probably be better to do a physical journal but my handwritting is terrible, and It is easier for me to do my method.

As of right now I use my cell phone, although the glare and the light from the cell phone probably makes it harder for me to go back to sleep and WILD.

Originally Posted by CloudlessSky

As of right now I use my cell phone, although the glare and the light from the cell phone probably makes it harder for me to go back to sleep and WILD.

I suggest, if you use android, an app called screen filter. It's a handy app that lets you lower the brightness setting even more :-)

i personally prefer logging my dreams into a physical paper dream journal. i keep it right beside my bed and give myself sufficient time when waking up to recall as much of the dream instantly and then jotting it down into my dream journal. however a phone should probably work fine if you keep reading over it and keep it frequently updated

I originally used a text file as a dream journal. About a week or two ago I decided to try using a paper one instead because my recall was terrible and I felt the action of writing it down would help. I've noticed my recall since then has improved and I remember more characters and plot details, plus they've become more vivid. It seems similar to revision where you try remember the answer and write it down without looking at the book.

Hehe, since I started this thread, I found out the outstanding way of keeping dream journal. Yes, believe it or not, a couple of days ago I wrote dream journal ... in a dream Has anyone else experiencedYdone this? It was also my longest and most vivid "dream journal" or just most vivid dream so far (nonlucid but anyway). I think it might "activate" the memory center in the brain when you do it in the dream.

Originally Posted by binnen

... does the importance lie only in the action?

That is correct. It's the act of you thinking about your dreams that tells your mind you like dreaming and remembering them.

paper/word vs. phone

I like to be able to flip pages through my dreams in paper DJ and see at the first glance things I highlighted and stuff. For the same reason I like WORD records of my dreams, plus they are searchable.

My least favorite would be phone app - small screen, can see only small part of dream, let alone journal at a time. And voice recorder - I would use it only as a last resort, and I would transfer them to paper/WORD later.

DJ helps you not only with getting better recall, but allows you to find dream signs and different patterns. Like how bed time, length of sleep, WBTB, supplements and everything else influences your recall and lucid dreaming.

Well, i use the DJ on this site, though i don't use it all the time. When i first registered, it was in its own forum, which I used. And i was gone for two years, so there would be more entires.

I guess it's just how tech savvy you are and what kind of electronic devices you have. I type all the time on my ipad, its by my bedside. But if i only had a smart phone or laptop, i may write them down on paper. Plus, you can lose paper, but when its on the web, its there forever.

95% on here.

I write keywords down in an app on my phone and then write everything in detail in a dreamjournal program I downloaded when I got into lucid dreaming a few years ago. If I didn't have the program I'd probably go for a paper journal, but this has much more handy functions.

I have my tablet (BlackBerry Playbook) laying right beside me when I sleep. I type my dreams on it every morning, and I use it for my alarm, too. I use a program a bit like Microsoft Word and it works fine.

Typing out > writing down for me, i am used to have everything on my PC and stuff plus i am horrible at writing anyways. I do write notes on paper when i wake up after REM cycles in the middle of sleep though, because i wont turn on my PC only for a few seconds to type stuff. Most of my dreams are in DV DJ nowadays, though i do copy all of my lucid dreams into specific file saved somewhere else as well. Either way use whatever works best for you and whatever you are comfortable with.

I nowadays am so used to typing on my phone or iPad that I am no longer as comfortable using pen and paper. Another downside to pen and paper is that then I would need a flash light for those in the middle of the night awakenings to write a dream down.

Right now I am using the DJ part of this site for all my dream journaling, but I may try a different app in the future, will see.

A funny incident recently, one time I barely woke up, I was still groggy, and had a dream fragment to write down. I remember I was so sleepy that I really struggled with dreamviews. I had made the mistake of opening dreamviews on the dream journals main page before going to sleep, but not clicking on the create new entry page yet (something that I now always do before going to sleep), and I remember being very frustrated when I was groggy and mostly asleep, struggling with the interface and it took a lot of effort to create that entry. The next day, I remembered that I had made an entry, but I for the life of me could not remember what I wrote, and so reading that dream journal entry was a surprise for me: I knew I had written it, but it was news to me what it was about. if I had not made that effort of writing, I know I would have forgotten that dream fragment, and probably even forgotten that I woke up at all.

Mine typed on my nexus 7, quick and easy I think even for very long dreamz