How to Keep a Dream Journal
How often have you had a dream, and as soon as you try to explain it, the memory of it slips away? By keeping a dream journal, you’ll not only tap into your ability to recall your dreams by jotting them down while they’re still fresh in your mind, you’ll also be able to connect potential dream patterns, get to know yourself better, and decode what your subconscious is trying to tell you.
What’s a Dream Journal?
A dream journal is a notebook that you keep near your bed to jot down your dreams right as you wake up. There’s no one correct way to keep a dream journal. You can free-write your dreams, record audio, draw or paint pictures, or use a dream journal with included prompts to keep your memory flowing.
Benefits of Keeping a
Dream Journal
Aside from research showing that keeping a dream journal can help improve your dream recall, there are several other benefits:
Increases self-understanding and self-awareness
Helps you process your emotions
Fuels your creativity
Helps you detect dream patterns
How to Start a Dream Journal
To start a dream journal of your own, you’ll first want to make sure you have the right supplies. Grab yourself a notebook you’ll enjoy writing in, splurge on a nice leather-bound journal, or go for a dream journal that’s set up with prompts if you think you’d prefer to have a bit more direction in recording things down. Don’t forget to keep a few pens handy — go for the ones you enjoy writing with so this is a positive self-care experience rather than another obligation. Once you’ve got the supplies, you’re ready to begin.
Set an intention to remember and write down
your dreams.
Incorporate this new practice into your daily routine by first setting the intention of not just remembering your dreams upon waking, but also committing to writing them down. By setting an intention, you’re mentally committing to focusing on this new goal.Make it a daily habit to do right after waking.
The more you practice keeping your dream journal, the more material you’ll have to work with when it comes to self-reflection and the better you'll get at dream interpretation. Keep the journal and pen next to your bed to remind yourself to record them in the morning.Try to interpret your dreams and look for patterns.
Since dreams are so personal, the best person to interpret them and assign meaning to them is you, not an online dream dictionary. In fact, ditch the dream dictionary altogether, they’re more likely to give you a “Barnum statement” that is broad enough to apply to many people rather than provide any actual useful insight.
Dream Journal Template
While you can choose to write down your dreams in the way that best suits you, having a template ready may help you spend less time focusing on the data and more time on the specifics of your dream. Use this dream journal template to help you organize your thoughts.
Date:
Type of dream: ( ) Recurring ( ) Nightmare ( ) Lucid
Bedtime:
Wake time:
Sleep quality:
Description of the dream:
How did the dream make you feel?
Dream symbols or signs?
What’s your interpretation of the dream?
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