Do I really need the dream diary?

I started the practice of LDing about 10 months ago. I made significant process. I think I was LDing within the first 3 weeks. I got to the point where I was having 2 LDs a month, then because of time issues, I had to quit. The last time I picked up my dream diary was about 5 months ago. Just last week I was telling my friends about lucid dreaming and talking about my wonderful experiences with it, gave me the motivation to start LDing again. I forgot to write in my dream diary the first two nights but I was able to regain all my recall through just sitting in bed and trying to remember my dreams the morning after. Within 4 days I had a lucid dream. I started to think stuff like, “Aren’t dream journals just for recognizing dream signs?” and “Recalling the dream is the hard part, not writting it down.” Anyways so I intentionally just sat in bed remembering my dreams and then going about my every day life for the next few days. Then, just last night, I had 2 LDs!! This is big for me because I have never had 2 LDs in one night. Plus… these LDs were very powerful. So I was wondering this morning, do i really need the dream diary?

Lucid dreams cant occur at random alot of times. I suggest if you want to have lucid dreams regularly you should keep a dream journal.
I use my journal every night for lucid dreams and regular ones and I have 2 lucid dreams a week.

I know, keeping a dream journal can be a pain in the a$$ but if you can make it fun then it will continue to motivate you to have lucid dreams. A dream journal is for more than recognizing dream signs too. It can give you something to read if you do MILD and it helps you build better dream recall.

You don’t need a dream journal. I don’t use one and I’ve become lucid in my dreams a few times. It might help, but then again I see many people who keep dream journals and have been trying to LD for a long time with no success. I also see people who DO keep a dream journal and have LDs. It varies, but I think it will most likely not work. You will still have to put some work into it, though.

You just have to see what works best for you. Personally I’ve never used one and had many LDs.

In my case, dream diary/journal helps a LOT! :cool_laugh:
But for some reason this morning I didn´t remember any dream. I guess I waked during so called non-REM…?

I definitaly believe that a dream journal is requierd to lucid dream.

I don’t think you NEED a dream diary, but I think It really helps if you’re trying to find patterns in dreams (ex. You always travil in dreams, so every time you’re in a car/truck you do a RC) for helping to find ways to help you personally LD. I like randomly flipping open my Diary and reading a dream that I had completely forgotten about, but that’s just me :alien:

Even if you remember all your dreams without a dream diary, I think it’s still a good idea because it makes you focused on your dreams, and some kind of focus is really required. If you don’t do this, you may find yourself having less LDs or no LDs at all because you just don’t care so much about dreams anymore. In my case this is exactly the main problem during dry periods: still having decent dream recall but no LDs at all because my mind is not focused on it.

I agree that having a journal helps keep you focused on your dreams.

Also, i find reading about my past dreams really fascinating.

Well IMO, keeping it wouldn’t hurt and it could only help. If your just that lazy, then only put in keywords. I can usually pick up from there and get the story just from putting down keys words.
example:
antique store, old friends, erick, new car, left house for vacation, punched a nun and ran.

Plus it’s fun to read and if you get a dream dictionary you can interpet dreams you remember vidvily and feel were important. Also good for record keeping. I foudn out that my first O.B.E. and second weren’t lucid dreams as I previously thought and looked back at the dream journal to review the situation. Don’t just quit cuz your lazy :cookiemon:

i believe that is the most rewarding part of a dream journal, it’s amazing to see the connections it has to waking life.

i don’t keep one because i can mentally rmeember all my dreams.

If i have a particularly good one, or there is detail i feel is important then i will record it on the Word processor. But other wise i don’t bother. I could recall several dreams over the past 5yrs right now - that’s how good my recall is.

So i would say you don’t really need one, BUT i will say that if my memory was poor then i would deffinately keep one. It’s fun going over your dreams sometimes.

For all of you who dont like to write down stuff when you wake up.
Analyze why you dont like it.
Is it because you are not comfortable with sitting and writing?
Is it because you dont have time to sit a write.
Is it because you dont want to like to write stuff about yourself(publish your inner self).
Is it because you are not comfortable to think about dreams when you wake up, because they are silly?
Do you only want to write the lucid once and not the other dreams?

Really think about why you dont want to.

In most cases its your Ego who are not comfortable with a change in its pattern.
It dont want to change, and really fight to not change, if the ego is comfortable it will fight to be have the same pattern.

Try to get yourself some notifyprogram at your computer at home and set a timer for every 5min while you do regular stuff (mailing,surfing,gaming).
Have a specialsound.
This program should be used for Reality checks.
Try to do this for some time.
Make it more than just one RC, have like more than 3 RCs.
When you feel the felling “This is silly, its booring, ah shit this isnt worth it”
Analyze your thinking.
If you get these thoughts, analyze them and think about them.
Know that this is your egostructure.

If you soo much want a Lucid Dream, why do you think like that, why do you think “ahh shit this is booring, stupid, strange”

You really have to CHANGE your ego-pattern.
You really dont need to write stuff down, but you need to snap yourself back when you wakeup and think “Hey what did i just dream”.
And you should really analyze, be curious about what has happened to yourself 10min ago.
What wher you doing in your dreams, you could have been doing a project in your dream that had a very nice result… like how to make a flying car or something.
Or the cure for cancer.
You must understand that dreams is 1/3 of your experience through life.
(Physical time).

Dont just try to get Lucid Dreams like a drug, that wont work.
You need to change your ego-structure.
If you want Lucid Dreams, think about it… do you just want it like a partydrug or do you want to have it for the rest of your life.
If you want it for the rest of your life, then you need to work on your Ego.
You need to change those automatic structures in the brain to something more vivid and more joyful.

Woah, deep (and long) post, LogoRat. And, unlike most deep stuff, I find myself agreeing with most of it. Hmmm, I seem to have forgotten the actual point of this topic. Oh yeah, the dream journal. Well, for me ever since I stoppped being bothered about a week ago my dream recall has gone downhill tons, and so has my lucid dreaming, so I’m going to start trying to find time again as soon as possible. But if you can recall your dreams without a diary, then yeah, that’s good. No problem.

I would just like to say that maybe there is no connection between keeping a dream journal and being focused inside dreams, not for everyone at least. In my case, I have kept a dream journal for the past 13 months, sometimes I get to write 3-4 dreams per night, other times I can’t remember a thing… The thing is, even when I DO write my dreams down every night, I am not at all focused in my dream, and my dream recall is very low. I keep reading the forums, I write in my journal, and still , my mind ISN’T quite there, so it’s like I’m half asleep inside the dream…

I’m sure that if I stopped keeping a journal and started thinking about dreams more intensely every day (do RCs etc) , I would have a much better dream recall AND I would LD more often …
keeping a journal is fun , though. It’s the only way IMO to decipher one’s dreams (through patterns) …

Today i was dreaming nonlucid.

And when i wokeup i felt like someone just put a vacuum cleaner inside my brain and flushed out my memory.
I Could really feel the flush. :eek:

I got annoyed because i knew that i had been walking around somewhere in a city and suddenly i got shot into a bed and my memory got wiped. :blush:

Tho i didnt know at first what just happend, but i knew that my memory got flushed, i knew that i had done something just a few seconds ago.
:bored:
Soo if you get more aware of this shift, i guess you will automaticly know that something is wrong when you suddenly dont know what you did 10sec ago. :alien:
And you will directly feel for the memory. :cool:
So if you do not make your brain used to remember it will happily move back to its “original” pattern.