How to Start a Dream Journal

A dream journal can be an important tool for helping you understand and track your dreams, either to understand what your mind is working on while you’re asleep, or just for fun or creative inspiration.  However, it can be tricky to try and write down your dream before it’s forgotten.  Here are a few tips to make keeping a dream journal easy.

Keep Your Journal By the Bed

Make sure that you keep your dream journal by your bed, with a pen or pencil nearby.  If you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night, you’ll be groggy and exhausted.  If you have to spend 10 minutes rummaging for your journal and a pen, you’ll have forgotten your dream and possibly have trouble getting back to sleep.

Consider a Dream Scrapbook

Also, ensure that you’ve chosen the right dream journal for the job.  While there are companies that manufacture a standard dream journal, which you can buy at any greeting cards store or bookstore, you can make your own.  If you tend to remember flashes of your dreams later in the day, getting a scrapbook to keep scraps of paper or doodles with your dream written down or drawn would be very useful.

Get Uber-Organized

Give some thought to the most useful way to organize your journal: are you looking for recurring themes in each dream, or just a chronological account of each night’s dream content?  If you’re looking for themes and you’re the OCD type, getting a journal with tabs to make it easier to flip to the appropriate theme would be best.  A pre-dated journal is best for chronological dream reports and will help you stay organized.