A dream journal (or dream diary) is a journal in which dream experiences are recorded. A dream journal might include a record of nightly dreams, personal reflections and waking dream experiences. It is often used in the study of dreams and psychology. Dream journals are also used by people trying to lucid dream. They are also regarded as a useful catalyst for remembering dreams. The use of a dream diary was recommended by Ann Faraday in The Dream Game as an aid to memory and a way to preserve details, many of which are otherwise rapidly forgotten no matter how memorable the dream originally seemed.[1] The very act of recording a dream can have the effect of improving future dream recall. Keeping a dream journal conditions a person to view remembering dreams as important. Traditionally, dreams have been recorded in a paper journal (as text, drawings, paintings, etc.) or via an audio recording device (as narrative, music or imitations of other auditory experiences from the dream.) Now with the internet, many sites offer the ability to create a digital dream journal.
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Dream journals are often kept by lucid dreamers. Writing down dreams increases what is called "dream recall" or, the ability to remember dreams. When writing down dreams the dreamer often searches for dream signs. Dream signs are reoccurring themes that can be detected between dreams. Dream recall can vary from day to day but keeping a journal tends to regulate waking dream memory.
It is important to record the dreams in the journal immediately after waking up, as individuals forget the details of their dreams very quickly after waking up.[2] Writing the next day's date in the dream journal asserts a conscious thought to remember dreams which communicates intention to subconscious mind. Subconscious mind then responds by fulfilling that desire. This mental action causes the conscious and subconscious minds to work together toward the common goal of remembering the dream.[3]
The discipline of waking up to record a dream in a journal sometimes leads to a false awakening where the dreamer records the previous dream while still in a dream. Some dream journalists report writing down the same dream one or two times in a dream before actually waking up, and recording it in a physical dream journal.
Followers of Eckankar frequently keep dream journals, since they view dreams as important teaching tools and as a gateway to "Soul Travel".[4] According to followers of Eckankar, dream travel often serves as the gateway to soul travel or the shifting of one's consciousness to ever-higher states of being.
The School of Metaphysics (SOM) in the United States teaches students a daily discipline of keeping dream journals. They view dreams as messages from subconscious mind informing the dreamer of how the conscious waking state has been used to create. Recorded dreams over time and space are viewed as a spiritual autobiography.[5] In the Dreamer's Dictionary, SOM Gov. of International Education Barbara Condron explains that a sense of spirituality is necessary for a sound mind and a strong body as this is the quest for self knowledge and wholeness. During sleep, the dreamer's subconscious mind experiences the freedom to go into the past, present, and probable future, unimpeded by the conscious mind. It is during this activity that dreams are captured and remembered.[6]