YOUR PERSONAL BOOK OF WISDOM

You will find that keeping a dream journal is the most useful single step you can take towards understanding your dreams and, in turn, yourself.  Interpreting and understanding a single dream is rarely enough - substantially better results will be had by analyzing a series of dreams over weeks, months, even years.  A single dream is only one tiny piece of the gigantic puzzle that you are trying to solve.  Since dream images begin to fade immediately upon awakening, and are all but forgotten after only ten minutes, it is critical that your dream journal be kept at your bedside for immediate recording.  This along with other tips we will discuss later will aid in recalling your dreams.

No complicated equipment is needed. An ordinary notebook and pen will do. A pen that writes with a minimum of pressure, such as a fine-tip marker, is ideal. You may find a pen with a tiny flashlight attachment helpful, but it's not essential. With a little practice, you should have no trouble writing fairly legibly in the dark. Some prefer to tape record their dream recollections. This is an option that has one major drawback - it will have to be transcribed later, a time-consuming task that is easy to procrastinate over. The best solution is to write your dreams when you awaken on a blank sheet and then rewrite onto the dream journal sheets. This will take less time than transcribing from tape. If you cannot motivate only yourself to do even that much, it is still better to have your cryptic notes scrawled in your journal at 3:00 am than no journal at all.

You can use any notebook, or you can download and print out our Dream Journal Sheets to create a professional notebook.  Even if you use a blank sheet of paper, you may want to view ours to get an idea of the various sections needed.

Dream Journal Instructions

1. Prior to going to bed, fill in the Day/Date field with the day/date of the night you are going to sleep, not the morning you wake up.
2. Write the consecutive number of the dream about to happen in the Number field.
3. Fill in the Day Notes field with a short description of your day, including your mood and feelings about the day's events.
4. Fill in the Incubation Discussion field with what you would like answered in your dreams and why.
5. Fill in the Question field with your incubation question (as discussed later.)
6. Incubate your dream and go to sleep.
7. Immediately upon awaking, fill in the remaining fields even flit is the middle of the night. If you remember no dream, it can wait until morning. In the morning, fill in the remaining fields whether you remember a dream or not.
8. What was the mood and atmosphere of the dream, or of your feelings upon awakening if you don't remember the dream?
9. What title would you give the dream?
10. Describe the dream in as much detail as you can remember without getting too crazy about using just the right wording. Small details may count, however, so write what you can.
11. What objects and symbols were in your dream?
12. When you can, using one of the methods you will learn, interpret your dream and fill in the Interpretation field.
13. If a dream is associated to another dream, put its number in the Previous Assoc. field. 
14. Start of fill in your symbol dictionary.