Chase Your Dreams: How To Start A Dream Journal

Juliana Alexandra

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Dreaming provides a better plot than some action movies. There can be a whole new universe waiting to be discovered in your sleep.

A dream journal can serve as a connection between our conscious and unconscious minds. This allows us to explore the dark corners of our psyche. Through a routine of recording, reflecting and interpreting our dreams, we can discover unique insights and learn more about ourselves.

If you’re intrigued by your dreams and their meanings, keeping a dream journal can capture the essential details so they aren’t forgotten.

What are the best methods and benefits of dream journaling, and how can you interpret the information revealed in your sleep?

The Benefits of Dream Journaling

According to bettersleep, dream journaling can have a positive impact on our health: it helps us reduce stress, recognise our emotions, improve sleep and enhance our creativity.

Dream journaling allows you to get in touch with your raw emotions. It can help with processing difficult or stressful situations, instead of repressing your problems. The Jungian method, which involves psychoanalysis and interpretation, theorises that our dreams are driven by an instinct to reach closure. Subconsciously, we seek answers for our unfinished problems of the day.

It also encourages us to ask questions and be curious about our dreams, which can lead us to many different answers. You can gain a greater understanding of who you are, your relationships and your values. Asking these questions can open you up to new learning opportunities and habits.

Another benefit of dream journaling is the possibility of lucid dreaming: when you are aware that you are dreaming and can even control your dreams. Lucid dreaming constitutes a hybrid state of consciousness and takes place approximately 90 minutes after you fall asleep.

Starting Your Dream Journal

Starting a dream journal may feel difficult at first, but establishing a routine can make it easier to keep journalling consistently. If you want to start your own dream journal, follow these tips:

1. Pick your medium: You don’t need to settle for pen and paper. You can keep notes on your phone or use a voice-to-text app. If you love to draw, you can sketch out your dreams. No matter what medium you choose, it’s important to keep it close to your bedside so you can grab it as soon as you wake up.
2. Set your intention: You might not remember all of your dreams. Setting your intentions before bed can boost your recall. Tell yourself you want to dream and remember that dream.
3. Wake up, journal, repeat: It’s important to make journaling a part of your morning routine to increase your dream recall. If you immediately get distracted by social media, you’ll forget how you felt when you woke up and the dream associated with your feelings.
4. Facts and Feelings: Don’t just write down people, places, and events from your dream. Remember the emotions and how you felt during these subconscious events. Positive or negative, it’s important to figure out where they came from.
5. Analyse: After you’ve collected a few entries, take a look at them and try to identify a common pattern. Make a list of what you want to find: Are there any recurring themes or images? How many dreams are relatable to a situation in your waking life? Even emotions are important: How often do you feel sad in your dreams?

Writing Down Your Dreams

Write down your dreams in a way that makes them easier to recall using these techniques:

1. As soon as you wake up, lay down and recall as much of your dream as possible: By remaining still after you wake up, you trigger your mind to drift back to dream world. Take a few extra minutes to mentally visualise your dream and gather more information.
2. Pay attention to emotions, colours, people, places and events: Emotions are important and often more intense during dreams. Any details can also provide context and help for interpretation later on.
3. Be messy: Don’t try to organise everything perfectly. Instead, think about the main storyline. Focus on writing down phrases or bullet points that summarise the whole context of the dream. When you try to organise everything, it can ruin your flow of memory.
4. Stream-of-consciousness style: Let your mind wander and explore each corner of your dream without holding back. Use descriptive language to paint a more visual picture. Think about the five senses: touch, smell, taste, hear, and see. Jot down any other random thoughts that come up during this process, even if they seem irrelevant.

Interpreting Your Dreams

Once you have a few entries, you can start interpreting them. You can explore different aspects of yourself and find out what may be triggering your dreams:

1. Connections: Search for similarities between dreams, such as repetitive symbols and themes. Ask yourself how they may be related to any experiences or challenges in your waking life.
2. Stay open-minded: Never close yourself off to a possibility. When approaching dreams and trying to analyse them, don’t settle for one interpretation or reason. Instead, consider different perspectives and stay open to hidden meanings.
3. Set aside time to review: Apart from your morning routine of dream journaling, choose a dedicated time once a week to revisit and reflect on your dreams. Some dream apps have a remind feature for reviewing your dreams. If you’re using a different method to journal, you can set a phone reminder.

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Featured image courtesy of Zohre Nemati on Unsplash. No changes made to this image. Image license found here.