{"id":2605,"date":"2016-08-08T16:28:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T15:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2016-10-27T10:14:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T09:14:23","slug":"dream-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"How to keep a Dream Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:

Photo credit: Rido81<\/p><\/div>\n

If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your dreams, or would like to boost your waking creativity, then keeping a dream journal might be just the thing for you. Not only could it help with all of the aforementioned, but it\u2019s also rather\u00a0fun!<\/em>\u00a0The idea of it may sound like a chore, but in actual fact you will find yourself eager to jot down all you can remember.\u00a0Read through our tips below, and start your dream journal journey today.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Decide on a journal and pen<\/h2>\n

First things first, you need to choose a journal<\/a> and pen<\/a> for writing your dreams down. These could be plain and functional, or these could be decorative or meaningful \u2013 whichever you feel might make you more likely to commit to your journaling. Lined paper or plain paper? With dream journaling, just go with whatever feels right for you.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Consider a recording method<\/h2>\n

For many of us, the memory of our dreams fades quickly after waking, so you could consider a recording device, in order to have a record of all of the data, before it is gone from your mind. Then you can listen back to the recording, and jot down all the important points in your journal.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keep everything you need on your bedside table<\/h2>\n

You need to make the process as easy as possible for yourself, so make sure everything you need \u2013 your journal, your pen, and a recording device if you are using one \u2013 are next to your bed, in arms reach. You could also consider a book light or something similar in case you wake in the middle of the night and want to record your dream whilst it’s fresh in your mind.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Record dreams in the morning<\/h2>\n

It is easier to recall our dreams right after we have experienced them, so morning is the best time to make a note of\u00a0what you can remember. Also, as the day goes on, and we spend time thinking about our dreams from the night before, our brains try to make sense of them and make a full story out of them. For example in your dream you might have bumped into a friend but you can\u2019t remember where. As you think about it during the day, your brain might conclude that you must<\/em> have been in the local supermarket, because that\u2019s where you always<\/em> see that friend. This process is damaging for your dream journal, so recording your dream in the morning is the best option.<\/p>\n

Remember to include emotions you felt during the dream too, as these could be equally as important as people, objects, and occurrences.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Summarise your dream in a short sentence<\/h2>\n

As well as making notes on all the details of your dream, it is a good idea to add a ‘title’ to each dream in the form of a short, summarising sentence. Summarising your dream in one sentence has two important functions; it makes you consider what the most important aspects and the overall theme of your dream were, and it creates an easily digestible reference, to compare against future or past dreams. An example could be: \u201cGot lost in maze on sister’s birthday and\u00a0couldn\u2019t hand coursework in on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t judge yourself<\/h2>\n

Dreams aren\u2019t reality, and we all have dreams that surprise, upset, or even revolt us. This is because dreams are often based on symbolism, and therefore shouldn\u2019t be taken on their literal meaning. With that in mind, it is important not to judge yourself. Don\u2019t shy away from making notes on a dream because you\u2019re ashamed of events that happened in it. It is only a dream.<\/p>\n

Further notes<\/h3>\n

When you\u2019ve got the hang of dream journaling, and you\u2019re recording your dreams frequently, you could even start jotting down notes about your day too, to see if there\u2019s any correlation between that and the dream you have that night. The results could be fascinating, and very insightful.<\/p>\n

Good luck with your dream journaling. Sweet dreams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your dreams, or would like to boost your waking creativity, then keeping a dream journal might be just the thing for you. Not only could it help with all of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[113,109,108,119,120,249,254,255,256,92],"yoast_head":"\nHow to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Pen Company Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePenCompany\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-08T15:28:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-27T09:14:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Young-man-sleeping-in-his-bedr-122735396.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1063\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lucy Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thepencompany\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thepencompany\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lucy Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/\",\"name\":\"How to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-08T15:28:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-27T09:14:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376\"},\"description\":\"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"How to keep a Dream Journal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Pen Company Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376\",\"name\":\"Lucy Williams\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lucy Williams\"},\"description\":\"Lucy is our lead editor and has been passionate about stationery since childhood. She has a particular fondness for rollerball and calligraphy pens and is a keen advocate of snail mail.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/author\/lucy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog","description":"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog","og_description":"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/","og_site_name":"The Pen Company Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePenCompany","article_published_time":"2016-08-08T15:28:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-27T09:14:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1063,"url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Young-man-sleeping-in-his-bedr-122735396.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lucy Williams","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@thepencompany","twitter_site":"@thepencompany","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lucy Williams","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/","name":"How to keep a Dream Journal - The Pen Company Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-08T15:28:20+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-27T09:14:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376"},"description":"If you regularly experience vivid dreams, struggle to recall your dreams, would like to track your dream patterns, would like to attempt to interpret your","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/diaries-journals\/dream-journal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"How to keep a Dream Journal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/","name":"The Pen Company Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376","name":"Lucy Williams","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lucy Williams"},"description":"Lucy is our lead editor and has been passionate about stationery since childhood. She has a particular fondness for rollerball and calligraphy pens and is a keen advocate of snail mail.","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/author\/lucy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2745,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}