If there’s one thing we recommend to all lucid dreamers, and anyone who’s just starting to learn the art of lucid dreaming, it’s a dream journal! A dream journal is massively important for lucid dreamers, because it’s the first step in learning how to have a lucid dream.
In order to control your dreams and interact with them, you must be able to remember them. It simply won’t work if you’re not able to master this first.
We only get a short period of time in which to record our dreams when we wake usually, and that’s because humans are very likely to forget anything they’ve dreamt about within five minutes of waking. So, time is of the essence if you want to start remembering your dreams and perfecting the art of lucid dreaming.
The DreamCatcher Project App
This iOS app has the simple aim to enable its users to record their dreams, in the easiest way possible. The app helps you to wake, using its own alarm system, and then will use your phone’s notifications to remind you immediately that it’s time to record your dreams.
We know it’s not always practical to keep a notebook and pen beside the bed. It means getting up, turning on the lights, possibly looking around for your glasses and then sitting up to note down your dreams. In that time you’ve probably forgotten all about them! Not to mention those who are tempted by the snooze button… press that once and your dream memories are gone!
The DreamCatcher app could prove very useful, though, because instead of using a pen to note down your dreams the old-fashioned way, it encourages its users to click the microphone icon and just speak into their phone.
Tell it all about your dreams – don’t miss out a single detail! The app will then transcribe your dreams for you, so you’ll have a full record of everything you dreamt about, with minimal effort involved. You can even press the snooze button then and catch up on few more zzz’s.
We think this unique way of recording dreams could prove incredibly useful for lucid dreamers worldwide. Making keeping dream records such as these as easy as possible can only improve the amount of records people keep, and the amount of detail too.
And more data about dreams means an increased likelihood of being able to interact with those dreams and master the art of lucid dreaming! Forget your pen and paper dream journal, download the DreamCatcher app and start recording your dreams just using your voice. It’s so much easier, and so much more effective too!
We also love the reminders that you get as soon as you wake up, perfect if you’re feeling a little forgetful in the morning. Well, you’ve just woken up, so we can’t blame you if you are!
Why keep a dream journal?
Did you know that the average person experiences no less than five sleep cycles, every single night?
So, it goes without saying that we’re dreaming a lot more than we probably realise! Research has shown that the average person will experience 100 minutes of dreams each night, while they’re in the sleep state called REM (rapid eye movement).
The longest period of REM we’ll experience happens just before we wake up. The closer you get to morning, the greater the length of your REM sleep, and the more likely you are to be deep in dream world. That’s why we usually remember our dreams when we first wake up in the morning, but we’re likely to forget them within minutes!
If you’re thinking about recording your dreams in a dream journal, it’s essential that you make a note of them immediately when you wake up. Even if you don’t feel that you’ll forget what you’ve dreamt about, you might find that you actually do. And fast! No matter how weird it was…
A simple tip to help you remember your dreams
You can use this simple tip if you have trouble remembering your dreams long enough to enter them into a dream journal. Choose something in your bedroom, for example an ornament or a picture hanging beside your bed. You can call this your lucid anchor.
Then, when you go to sleep, focus your attention on that anchor. Say to yourself, “I will remember my dreams.” Make sure you repeat this process when you first fall asleep, at any point during the night when you wake up and again once you wake fully in the morning.
Before long you’ll find that you’re able to use this as a trigger, and your subconscious mind will recognise it even if you’re not fully awake and alert yet. The subconscious will start to associate your lucid anchor with a cue to remember your dreams, which will prove invaluable to you as you start to record dreams every time you wake up. Repetition is key, so if at first you struggle, just keep doing it and the association will grow stronger with time and practice.
Analysing your dream data
Once you’ve got an established dream journal running the fun can really begin, because you can then start to analyse your dreams and learn more about your subconscious mind. This definitely makes the effort of recording all those dreams early in the morning worthwhile!
Once you start to look at your dream records you can begin to analyse dream themes and symbols. Look at things like location, characters, objects, emotions, sounds and sensations to start to build an overall picture of your themes. It will make it easier to see themes emerging if you begin to underline key points of your dreams, for example any people or animals involved, weather, feelings and emotions.
Emotions are particularly important in the records of your dreams because they’re easily associated with your own neural patterns. For that reason, a dream theme relating to emotion can be easily analysed and might just correspond to a problem or experience you’re having in the real world. Such a theme gains even great power if it pops up recurrently – so pay attention to anything which you often feel when dreaming, or any characters or situations which arise regularly.
One last tip
So, you’re almost ready to start recording those all-important dreams now! But, we’ll leave you with one last tip before you go. Our team absolutely loves to sketch out scenarios from their dreams. In fact we’ve found this is immeasurably helpful when we come to analyse our dream data.
That’s because sometimes it can be difficult to imagine a dream fully when it’s written down. But when it becomes an image, things might be different. Sketches help you visualise how you were feeling at any one time. Give it a try! Remember, you don’t have to be Picasso or anything, just a simple sketch that sums up how you were feeling in your dream will do!
Have we inspired you? We hope you’re feeling inspired and ready to start that dream journal tonight! Download the DreamCatcher App and start recording your dreams. You’ll be amazed at the themes which begin to emerge, and the things you’ll learn about yourself just from this simple exercise. You’ll soon be on the road to mastering lucid dreaming. Enjoy!
