Why Keep a Dream Journal? Here are Nine Reasons

Why keep a dream journal? By journal I mean some method of collecting papers, on which is recorded dream narrative and date. It doesn't have to be fancy - but it can be fancy if you want it to be. Be prepared for them to multiply, so you'll have plenty of chances to choose different journals.

For several years, my journals were black paper spiral bound notebooks (I liked the idea of writing silver on black - more "dreamish"), and now they are three-ring binders into which I file the narratives that I stuff into my work satchel.

So - Why keep a dream journal?
1. Starting to keeping a dream journal sets an intention that stimulates dreaming
2. Keeping something by your bed encourages dream recording and therefore recall
3. Making a practice of always writing in a dream journal, even "I don't remember my dream" enhances dream recall
4. A dream journal gives you a place to speak and honor dream incubation questions, along with the dream narrative that comes
5. A dream journal gives you a place to keep any work you choose to do with your dream narratives
6. Recording dreams in a dream journal allows you to create your very own custom dream dictionary
7. Recording dreams with dates in a dream journal allows you to track dreams across time - note what's consistent and what changes
8. Recording dreams with dates in a dream journal allows you to notice how your dreams sync with your life - how do your dreams align with big life events, cultural events, decisions you made, your growing wiser and more experienced
9. Collecting dreams in a dream journal enables you to go back through at any time and pull out images and plotlines that strike you - as writing prompts, or to inspire other creative work

Those of you who keep dream journals, what other benefits have you found?

Dream Team/Michael Scott Paper Company

Founder Michael Scott narrates: "I once had a dream that I was making a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich. Let me tell you something it was delicious. And the next day I decided to make that sandwich. And in real life it is disgusting." And the phone rings before he can share any more.

Making the sandwich is a straightforward way of bringing this dream into waking life. Maybe it can stop there. Maybe it should stop there.

I Could've Been a Happy Little Potato, but No-o-o-o-o-o

Two and a Half Men's Charlie Harper (sarcastically): Last night I dreamt I was a giant hot dog jumping through a donut that looked like my mother, whaddya think of that?

Therapist Dr. Linda Freeman: ... we'll get back to that donut dream. the fact that you chose that particular imagery is a little troubling.

Discussion ensues around the reply of "Thank you" to Charlie's offered "I love you," balance of power and "what's it like to give love to someone, maybe for the first time in your life?"

Dr. Freeman: Let's get back to that mom-shaped donut of yours.

Doesn't it all come down to that anyway?

When a dream makes you go EWWWW.

I am walking through a shabby house. I end up looking in the window of a car in the back. Both the car and house seem out of an earlier era, maybe the 70s? A man is in the driver's seat. The car is parked. His shirt's up so a fuzzy guy-stomach is exposed. This man is an amalgam of my husband and two exes. My mother is in the passenger seat and facing the man (it's as if I’m looking through the passenger side window). I notice her dyed, mother-curled hair. I've caught them in the middle of an affair. I think I actually saw them kiss.

EWWWWWWWww.

This is a train wreck type dream. It is so icky, but I can't stop peeking over at it.

What I'm doing in waking life seems relevant - I'm researching business schools because it feels like an immersive, stretching way to grow right now, and I've put some of my skin into the game, signing up to take the MCAT in May.

How that fits at first glance is that 1. Most B-schools tend to be masculine domains, 2. the whiff of MBA activity primes an old goal in my head, which my mother laid out plain for me when I was doing the college-choice thing: "You want a Masters in Business Administration, with Marketing and Finance."

I do want to point out that the energy around the B-school search is good. It feels right. It feels free of co-option and oughting. I'm using the search to identify what I want and what I don't want in career growth. I'm taking the process step by step, calling it "the chain of if's" and noting that I can bail at any time with no penalty (honestly, what would I do with another bunch of letters?). My secret hope is that the process will lead me to an outcome that fits my needs while being cheaper and less time-consuming than actually matriculating at a B-school program.

At this moment, I'm thinking I need to be careful not to let the mom of my childhood take over my process. She's in the car, but she's not driving. But she is making her moves.

Did anything pop out for anyone else?

Dogma has no place with dreams.

Tenet 5 in Jeremy Taylor's basic hints for dream work: "When talking to others about their dreams, it is both wise and polite to preface your remarks with words to the effect of "if it were my dream...," and to keep this commentary in the first person as much as possible."

First part - the classic IIWMD preface - It's truly helpful. An easy, safe way to start a sentence about dreams.

Last part - "keep this commentary in the first person as much as possible." Hunh. That makes for an AWFUL lot of "I".

I was in a group which used this approach exclusively and it was not to my liking.

First, I don't like saying "I" a lot. To excess, it feels arrogant and self-centered.

Second, I'd hoped to connect to people and dreaming, and instead, it felt like, as everyone spoke their "if it were my dream" piece, one after the other, each person threw up a plate of glass between him/herself and the dreamer.

It was sad to witness. It was isolating. There was a lot of talk but not a lot of unity or connection. There were 20 people arranged in a spiritually-appropriate circle, all behind plates of glass.

In truth, I'm spoiled with being in a small, tight, ongoing dream group. We think of dreams - even the teeniest fragment of a dream - as a gift. We face each other, we attend fully to each other's dreams without interrupting until the floor is open to thoughts and queries. We sometimes use the IIWMD approach, but loosely, making room to ask (gently, respectfully) how the dream might apply to her waking life.

Maybe the full-on "IIWMD, plus first person" approach is necessary for larger groups (<10-15), to which participants don't expect to maintain a long-term relationship, to keep people from going armchair-analyst and leveling their interpretations at innocent dreamers.