Everytime I have a vivid dream I’m lucky enough to remember, I’m left in wonderment. There’s so much that can’t be explained regarding dreams. Why do we dream? What do dreams symbolize? Is my mind trying to tell me something subconsciously? Why are dreams so easily wiped from our memories after we wake up?
This semester, I made the decision to take a class called “While You Were Sleeping,” to feed my curiosity about sleep and more particularly, dreaming. This is how I discovered the art of dream journaling.
A dream journal or log is pretty self explanatory. In essence, you’d ideally write down all you remember about your dream “episodes” the previous night and analyze them to uncover hidden, deeper meanings or messages about your life and mind.
My Dream Logs
I started my dream journal in February this year and found it to be really useful in helping me prioritize my mental health in stressful situations. Not only do I find the whole ‘recall and write’ process fun, but I found it particularly interesting that, in times of heavy workload, I found myself dreaming specifically about the things that were subconsciously stressing me out.
After journaling for a few more weeks and finding even more parallels of dreams relating to my life experiences, I fell in love with journaling/ Discovering subconscious things that I didn’t realize were bothering me and being able to find solutions was a game changer for me. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I recommend journaling to everyone now because you never know what you’re carrying around in that mind of yours and how it is affecting you mentally.
Since I’ve been journaling for about a month now, I figured I’d share some tips and advice I’ve gotten and learned in the process for both dream logging and analysis. Although, personally, I’ve always been a person who remembers something about a dream I had the previous night, even if it was just bits and pieces of my dream, I know that’s not the case for many people. I figured I’d share some tips I learned from class and my own experience that might induce memories of your dreams.
How to Log Your Dreams
Hand write your dreams
Sometimes hand writing something makes it feel more personal to you than typing, which might be helpful in recalling a personal experience like a dream.
Write in the present tense as opposed to the past
Trick your brain into thinking you’re still in that moment! Thinking and writing in the present tense often makes it easier to recall moment’s you may have forgotten otherwise!
Close your eyes when recalling your dream
Visualizing really helped me with my dream recall. Something about feeling like you’re still in a dream brings the memories rushing in!
Write down the emotions you feel throughout the dream
Sometimes remembering how you felt in a moment is key to recalling why or what was going on that made you feel that way!
Draw a picture of what you can remember
If you’re more the artsy, or not, type this might even be more successful in helping you recall a dream than writing it down! Again, visualization is key!
Give your dream a title, like a book or movie!
I especially recommend this if you know you don’t have time to write down a whole dream when you’re waking up in the morning. The title can serve as a trigger that helps you remember it when you find the time to write it down.
Analyze what you’ve seen
In addition to writing out what you remember about a dream, write out all the impactful things that you experienced the previous day up until you fell asleep! This includes what you were doing right until you fell asleep.
Identify any parallels (literal or symbolic) to things occurring in your real life, including the setting, characters, or actions.
Sometimes activities, people, or moments from our day can stick with us and pop up in our dreams! Consider why that specific“thing” was so important to you even if you didn’t think it was initially and why it might be occurring in that specific dream.
Ask yourself what you are literally doing, and try to think of what that could mean metaphorically
Sometimes an action we’re performing might not actually be what our brain is trying to tell us.
Most importantly, think about what an action or object symbolizes to you! If you’re feeling stuck, look up common dream symbols and universal meanings.
You know yourself best, if something has a certain meaning to you that doesn’t match what it usually means, trust yourself! Use generalized meanings to help you.
I hope this inspires you to start a dream log! Happy dreaming! :)