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Dream Journal Tips

By Darien Simon, M.S.

Use your dream journal for recording dreams only. Start each entry the night before, as you are getting ready for sleep. Record the date (and place, if you're not at home) and a word or two about how you feel as you settle in for sleep. As soon as you begin to wake up from a dream, make a note of everything you feel, every image you recall, any sounds, or other sensations from your dream. Sometimes it can help to rehearse the dream mentally with your eyes closed before trying to record it. Or, make brief notes or draw pictures initially, then write a fuller, storyline version later. Try answering questions like: - What were you dreaming about doing? - Where were you? Were you in a familiar place (familiar in either the waking world or the dream world)? - Were you alone, or were others present? Did you know any of them? - Were there any images that have special or symbolic meaning for you? - Were there vivid colors, smells, sounds, tastes, or feelings? Were you having fun, confused, scared, on an adventure, getting into mischief, or ??? - Does anything in your dream trigger an association with something in your waking world, either something routine, or something unusual that has just happened? Once you have recorded a number of dreams, you may begin to see patterns in your dream experiences—places you go repeatedly; people you spend time with; images, themes, landscapes, or other items that repeat. Keep a list of them and what they mean to you personally as these things will assist you in learning to dream lucidly (see Tips for Lucid Dreaming) and to understand your internal dream symbology. Also, compare your dream content with the emotions you were experiencing before sleep, and see if any patterns emerge.