Dream Journaling Tips
The Benefits of Recording Your Dreams
Dreams allow our conscious and unconscious minds to connect and communicate with each other. Some believe our dreams also connect us to the collective unconscious and the spiritual realm. Looking into our dreams allows us to look into our true selves and to understand ourselves on a far deeper level. There is a vast range of information that is gained through recording and interpreting our dreams. In general, this practice allows us to see how we truly feel about a situation or a person, what past experiences are still affecting our waking lives that might need healing or still have relevant information for us to learn from, inspiration and ideas, solutions to problems and so much more!
Can’t Remember Your Dreams?
If you struggle to remember your dreams, it has been found one of the most effective ways to change this is to start believing that you do remember your dreams by telling yourself throughout the day and before going to bed “I remember my dreams”.
Once you do remember a dream, no matter how small, write it down! It’s the practice of journaling your dreams that will continuously improve your dream recall.
General Dream Journaling Tips
Write down your dream within 5 minutes of waking up
Write the dream in present tense as if you are reliving the dream. This greatly assists in recalling more details you may otherwise forget
Have your dream journal with a pen ready to go next to your bed
If you find you can’t quite get down all the dream details before you forget your dream, or if you too regularly find you can’t decipher your own writing from writing in the dark and or trying to write the dream down quickly; try recording your voice with a voice recorder or voice recording app. Have the device/app ready to go next to your bed, then write it in your journal once you wake up for the day.
Suggested Details to Include
Before any other details, the most important thing to do first is to write down everything you can remember about your dream.
Feelings and Emotions
It’s important to note down your feelings and emotions as this can change the meaning of the dream. For example, if you dream about being chased, the meaning of the dream can differ greatly if you were feeling scared or playful.
Colours
Colours have significant meanings in dreams. To see a door in your dream can have one meaning, but if you remember the door was a certain colour like purple or black, this can reveal a lot more about what the door is representing.
Life Associations
Note down what you initially think the dream might mean and/or be related to.
Date
I suggested using the date of the night you went to sleep as this makes it easier look back through your dream journal and matching it up with your calendar or daily journal to see what happened during the day before you had the dream to identify any events that could have influenced the dream.
Time
We can’t really be sure exactly what time we had a dream and I wouldn’t encourage making the effort to check the time if it means looking at your phone in case it wakes you up; but sometimes you might know if it was before midnight which I call ‘night’, 11pm-1am ‘midnight’, or ‘early morning’.
A general idea of when you had the dream during the night might reveal a pattern of when you have your most vivid dreams.