What Is A Dream Journal And How To Use One

In order to achieve a perfect dream recall, the first and most important step is to start a dream journal or diary.

Every morning when you wake up you need to record something about your dreams - even if it is that you can't recall anything! This tells your subconscious mind that remembering dreams is important to you and trains your mind to start paying more attention to your dreams. When your subconscious mind understands that you value your dreams, you will be able to remember far more.

Remember that most dreams fade within 90 seconds of waking so you need to think about your dreams as soon as you wake up. Just lie very still with your eyes shut and think about what you were doing, then make a note of whatever comes to mind. After a few minutes you can switch to a different position, which may trigger more memories of the dream. The most important thing is to not allow yourself to get distracted by thinking about issues not related to your dreams.

Try to make a note of as many details as possible. You should include all details including colours, smells, feelings, location, people, sounds... everything and anything! You can even add sketches of any strong images from the dream to help you remember it later.

At first it may be difficult to recall much of your dreams but try to at least describe an emotion, feeling or some kind of fragment of a dream memory.

 With practice you will be able to recall more and more and you will be well on your way to achieving perfect dream recall. You will then be able to record entire dreams or even multiple dreams in the same night. 

Once you have achieved perfect dream recall you will be able to recall 1-5 dreams every night (far above the average of 1-2 a week). 

How you record our dream/s is up to you; you can keep a pen and notebook by your bed, use a voice recorder or you can use an app. There are pros and cons for each which you can read more about here, but what matters most is that you consistently do it every morning before getting up out of bed.

After a few weeks of keeping a diary you will start to notice things that regularly keep popping up in your dreams. It could be certain people, places, objects, themes, etc. These are what we will refer to as your dream signs. Make a note of these in the front of your dream diary and simply ask yourself upon waking if you saw any of these signs in your recent dreams. This can sometimes prompt you into remembering entire dreams! 

Secondly, your dream signs can be used to help you achieve a lucid dream by acting as a trigger to remind you to perform a reality check.

On mornings where you have written more than usual in your dream journal or achieved lucidity, make sure you add notes about anything you did differently before falling asleep e.g. any food/drink/supplements you took, or techniques you used. This way you can look back and see what works best for you and what doesn't.