I recently started dream journaling about a week ago because my dream recall is bad. I read that when you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night, you should write it down immediately. I’ve done this the past three nights, but after I couldn’t go to sleep for about an hour. This affects my sleep schedule badly, and I also can’t attempt the FILD method I’ve been practicing.
Have you tried writing down just a few keywords? That is usually enough, and then you can write down the full dream later in the day. Do you turn the lights on?
It also takes me a long time to fall asleep if I wake up in the middle of the night. Writing down keywords on my phone, with the brightness on the lowest setting, is the most effective way for me. I sometimes even type the keywords into the LD4all chat.