The Notebook
There are many
ways of keeping track of dreams. The easiest is to get a notepad and
pen and keep it by the bedside. A simple notebook will do, although
there is a logic behind making some sort of an investment or sacrifice.
This can be a sacrifice of your time by constructing your own, or giving
up a little cash for a nicer style notebook that is shiny, fancy, or
whatever gives you the dreamy feeling. Whenever something is given up
the desire becomes stronger. This increases your chance of being successful
remembering your dreams or doing what it takes to have healthy sleep
cycles. You are also more likely to take neater notes thus making it
possible to read your dreams later if you wanted to.
If you are the
type of person that will wait until you find the "perfect"
notebook then it is better to get a spiral notebook and start taking
dream notes now. It could take months or even years before you find
the perfect talismanic notebook for your dreams. Within that period
you could be loosing the opportunity to record valuable information
about yourself. You can always transfer the notes to the dream diary
of your choice later.
The Audio
Method
As you begin taking
your dream notes you will notice several changes taking place. One is
that the very act of writing your dreams can cause you to remember more
dreams. If you are working with some of the dream inducers I have listed,
the combined effect can be a little overwhelming. There will be many
dreams to look at and observe. You will need to start to learn some
form of shorthand or abbreviations in order to get everything written
down that you can remember in a decent time frame.
At this point,
it may be worth it to consider getting a small tape recorder to keep
a record of your dreams by voice. Depending on the person, this can
make things a whole lot easier. Some people can articulate the spoken
word faster than they can write. The whole idea is to make it easy to
work with so that it is not just another daily task. If you find that
keeping a laptop by your bed so that you can type out your dreams would
work then give it a try. There are many ways to keep track of dreams
in this day and age; it is to our benefit as people to utilize the best
of what we have available.
Early Night
Dreams
Once you have found
your groove of recording or writing dreams and you are experiencing
a lot more dreams than ever before, you will also notice that some of
the dreams you are remembering are no longer happening right before
you wake up. You will have the capability of recalling dreams from earlier
in the night. This gets a little more tricky but it is a very good sign.
At this point, you are making tremendous progress. Take little notes
of the early dreams from the moment you notice that a dream occurred.
Watch for the hypnagogic dreams discussed in the dream information page.
If you need to get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water
anyway it only takes an extra minute to write down some key words. If
you have no recollection of that in the morning you will at least have
some triggers that will help you put the picture together.
The Dark
When waking up
to record dreams it will not always be light. Most of the time there
will be darkness all around. Getting your dreams recorded before falling
asleep again will be more challenging. There are several things that
can be done. One is to always have a little pen light near the bed.
This is the simplest and safest. Just be sure to replace it or the battery
when needed so the tendency to drift and not take notes will be less.
Another is to use a whole blank page for it and just write it in the
dark. This is a whole other fun exercise all by itself and is pretty
fun if you ever tried it, especially when you look at what you wrote
in the morning! You may even want to try drawing out something. Keeping
a candle by the bed is how lots of people have done it at one time or
another. The fire dangers of this are obvious and it is good to use
the highest caution to be sure and put out the flame before going to
sleep again. Written dreams are no good if they are all burnt to ashes.
Self Interpretation
This is something
that can be done at your own pace whether or not you have anyone look
more deeply into your dreams for you. Divide the page into two columns.
On one side write your dream, right after completing the dream before
going on to the next dream write down the first words that come to mind
in relation to that dream and what it means to you. This can shed some
very interesting light on the way you view things and personal perception.
If you are diligent about this, it can eventually grow into some highly
useful insights. It is important to keep doing it every day even when
the dream is what you would consider bland. Think of the image of oil
being poured from one container to another without a break in stream.
That continuous practice of writing and looking into the meaning of
your dream daily is what will yield the best results.
Too many
dreams to record
After practicing
your dream recording skills, you may notice that the amount of dreams
being recalled are enourmous and each morning you are remembering more
dreams than the last. When this happens it can seem like a bit much
to deal with but it is usually a good thing. It is sort of like receiving
a number of gifts, too many to open all at once and the ones that are
not opened will be taken back temporarily. The ones that are not opened
can be opened later because there is a chance that they will be re-given
at another point in time. Some of these gifts you can see through and
will want to open them right away. Some you know are important because
of the size and weight or shape. It will be advantageous to open those
too, most of the time. It is a skill that will need to be learned, the
skill of how to prioritize what dreams or gifts are most relevant, valuable,
and useful to you at this time in your life.
Timing
Training the mind
to do the same thing at the same time every day is very beneficial when
looking for specific results. This is particularly evident with events
involving or revolving around sleep. The natural cyclic ryhthms of the
body are partially responsible for this. If you write your dreams at
approximately the same time each morning you will slowly train yourself
to remember more pieces of the picture each day.
Another trick that
is very well known in dreaming circles is to write the dreams the moment
you wake up. The more time that passes before one begins to write dreams
after waking, the more likely it is to twist what the dream was with
conscious thoughts and morning events. Try finding your notebook before
you even open your eyes.
Writing
Down the Day’s Events
This exercise will
help you become more familiar with memory and recording events that
happen. Try doing it for five-minute periods at a time. Take a segment
of the day, a small segment, and write down as many details as you can
possibly remember about that part of the day. Write down where you were,
what you were doing, what was all around you, what people or animals
were there, what color and style of clothing they were wearing or what
color the animals were, the scents, the thoughts you were having, and
especially the emotions and feelings you had about that moment. This
exercise can not only be an excellent dream recalling tool but it also
can help you remember some basics of daily life. You can refer to this
later at any point and examine it sort of the way you would examine
the tracks of the most interesting new animal discovery of the century.
Make it fun, or make a game out of it or both.
