Last Update: February 12, 2023, 15:38 IST
The key to dream journaling is speed and urgency. Keep your dream journal and a pen nearby. (Image: shutterstock)
A major benefit of keeping a dream journal is that it can provide anecdotal but useful health information.
Dream journaling is the practice of writing down pieces of your dreams first thing in the morning while they are still fresh in your mind. Good dreams can be just as informative as bad dreams. Over time, dream journaling can reveal patterns, such as recurring dreams or the repeated appearance of important details. The more your mind is familiar with these patterns, the more useful it can be in decoding them. However, if you are a first timer, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
What to keep in mind
The key to dream journaling is speed and urgency. Keep your dream journal and a pen nearby. That way, when you first wake up, you’ll be able to write down everything you remember, whether it’s in the middle of the night or the next day.
- Describe your dream in the present tense, as if it were happening now. This can help you revive the details and follow the action more clearly.
- Also, try to record your feelings and not just what you saw in your dream. Feelings are the only thing that helps you to understand the root cause of the problem.
Tips for Getting Started Journaling
- While the idea of keeping a dream journal can attract ideas to write down on paper. Go ahead and use a notebook if that’s what you’re most comfortable with. It’s also possible to use your phone’s note-taking app. You can also use a recording app to just talk about your dreams. Some people also like to remove it.
- You can start analyzing your dreams right away or wait until you’ve collected a few more entries based on the content of your dreams. The advantage of waiting for more entries is that patterns emerge slowly.
- Dreams and feelings don’t always appear in a linear pattern. So, don’t panic if you can’t make sense of your dreams. Just note down whatever comes to your mind and don’t get stuck thinking about it all day.
If you track these metrics, comparing your dreams to your mood, sleep or fitness levels can provide introspective insight into self-care management.
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