Dream Journal

Rossiyskaya_Federats · October 29, 2002, 6:53pm

I’m into my fourth day of writing (I just wrote my fourth entry) and I’ve noticed that all of them are just fragments…heres my latest entyr:

Alright, I remember having a book…It was fat and leathery and black. Anyway, in the epilogue of the book I remember a character having to go through a series of tests. Most of the tests I do not recall, however I do recall one of them:

A man took out ten cards and showed them to the charactere. Then he turned them face down and mixed them up. Then he asked the character “i have ten cards. one of them says Jihad. Which one is it?”. Then I remember saying that it was confusing because I wasnt looking for Jihad. But suddenly I found it and said:
“It looked too neat” The card had the number ten, and then what looked like a joker…and the word “Jihad” in fancy lettering. I wish to clarify that the person who was taking the test was not me…I remember the voice and looks of a guy in Hunt for Red October. He was the one who believed that the Red October was defecting.

Then I remember looking up from the book to see my mother and Anup. My mother began complaining about how I wasn’t doing my homework. I told her that I was doing my homework, and made some sarcastic remark. Anup made a sarcastic remark back. I remember thinking about math suddenly, and then the dream ended…

also, the image of a tall skyline is something i can remember. Skyscrapers…and I think I wa sflying inbetween the buildlings?

See…I only remember small fragments of dreams, I’ve never been able to get at least 1 complete dream down. So…

What are some dream recall techniques?

LostBoy · October 29, 2002, 9:24pm

Hmmm… not sure if thats a bad thing. Who can tell where a dream begins and where the ending is but by how long we remember it… or when we wake up. Most of the time in my dreams, there isn’t a real ending. Its not, usually, like a set storyline. Its more like switching to another life and then back when I wake up.

A fragment for me would be like… “I am driving down a road. Someone is sitting next to me but I don’t know who it is. We’re going somewhere but I don’t remember where.” In that dream I would be remembering just a small part of what was happening in the dream making it a fragment. The part about you flying somewhere seems like a fragment of another dream. The other part, with the cards and test… that all seems like a good recollection of what was going on.

A-Jay · October 29, 2002, 9:28pm

The first thing is to make thinking what you just dreamt of, into a habit every time you wake up. Then sooner you think of it, then better. Then you should try going backwards through your dreams. First think of the last thing that happend in the dream, then think about what happend before that etc…
Try not to think only of concrete things, think of colors, sounds, moods etc. Hope that helps

A-Jay · October 29, 2002, 9:30pm

And another thing, your dream recall improve then more you practise it. So keep going

Rossiyskaya_Federats · October 29, 2002, 10:05pm

Ty. I have a computer in my room which I type my dream log into, but it takes forever to start up…Should I buy a tape recroder instead so I can just say my dream and type it up alter?

Jack · October 29, 2002, 10:19pm

Good idea:)I do it this way…have a small voice recorder next to my bed so i can mumble to it even awaken in the middle of the night without even getting up.Later on when i have my cofee ready and cigarette shot therefore clear mind i start putting it down to my diary.
good luck.

Ps.pust wsiegda budiet sonce:)!!!

Atheist · October 29, 2002, 11:33pm

I have a laptop next to my bed which I turn on before I go to sleep. I usually leave it with my dream diary open and ready to type into.

Then, each time I wake up during the night, I can just lean over and type it in without having to wait for anything. It’s quiet, so I can still sleep next to it.

The only problem is, since I don’t even need to be fully awake when I start typing, I usually end up putting some barely comprehensible jibbrish in there

Rossiyskaya_Federats · October 29, 2002, 11:42pm

hehe…I can usually type very clearly even when I’m very sleepy. For example, I’ve almost collapsed on the floor, and after I post this I will go take a 2 hour nap.

Pilot · October 30, 2002, 4:13am

I just do it the ghetto way, pen and paper, and then I have to update my DJ on computer and that is time consuming. The only problem is I have no light at night and I’m too lazy to start writing if I happen to wake up after a dream. I say to myself I’ll write it down later because its so clear, but unless you write it down immediately you will surely forget most if not all of it.

LostBoy · October 30, 2002, 4:33am

I have a little notebook next to my bed in which I write some quick notes when I first recall my dreams. Thats enough to keep the dream pretty fresh in my mind. Then, later on, I write the full dream out in one of my larger dream journals.

I think I like having the physical book filled with dreams written by hand. It seems more… romantic to me? I guess romantic is the right word… like… doing things the old way. Like cooking over an open fire instead of the microwave. However, I have been thinking about doubling up and transfering all the journals I have onto my computer. Just to have a digital, easy to reference version.

Atheist · October 30, 2002, 5:03am

Romantic?

Seriously though, I get your point, and I agree. It’s like using a wax seal on the back of an envelope. Some old-fashioned things seem to give the impression of importance, and this is a good way to think of your dream journal.

Now to contradict all of that: I write more horriably than you could possible imagine. Since I was about 10, I threw away pens and paper in favour of computers, and I always knew I would never look back. Now, holding a pen is like wielding a sword for me.

Plus, compared to writing I can type so proficiently that I can practically lean over and add to my dream journal while I’m STILL in the dream!

LostBoy · October 30, 2002, 7:38am

Well, I don’t know how old fashioned my spiral notebooks are but thats exactly how I meant it. Sort of a nostalgia or reverence for the process. I’m thinking that it would be good to have both analog and digital though.

My computer’s below me in the downstairs study though so I can’t really get to it in time to type my dreams down promptly.

Pilot · October 30, 2002, 5:47pm

I’ve never tried this, but you say it works? Can you actually recall the dream from point form notes just as well later on? I’m interested in this because I could use the time to type it out directly, instead of writing the whole thing, then typing it again.

LostBoy · October 30, 2002, 8:07pm

Indeed. In example I would wake up and write something like: “Trying to get to class. Elevator broken. Spend time searching for stairs. Prof makes me dance naked in front of class.” (Its JUST an example!!! ).

Just from those notes I would be able to hold the memory of the dream in mind enough to write it in full detail later. I think the process of thinking about it and then writing the salient points in my notes solidifies the memory of the dream.

Atheist · October 30, 2002, 10:32pm

I agree with that. As long as you write down just a few details about location, characters, events and so on, you can usually recall quite a lot more of it later. The problem comes when you forget absolutely everything about it, and have nothing to use as a pointer to the rest of it.

I usually write down about as much as LostBoy demonstrated for one of his recent dreams ( ), and find that I can recall pages of it later that day.

Pilot · October 31, 2002, 2:58am

Nice! This saves me so much time, plus my computer DJ will always stay up to date -unlike now. I’ll give this a try tonight.

LostBoy · October 31, 2002, 9:06pm

Hey… glad we could help out. I thought more people would be doing it this way anyhow. I am usually getting up because I have to be somewhere pretty soon so I don’t have time to write my full dreams down. That can usually take a while.