Most dream aficianados would agree that starting a dream journal is the most important first step at becoming a lucid dreamer.
The purpose of the journal is to develop your discipline at recalling your dreams, as well as to become familiar with the composition of your dream states. Knowing and recognizing “dreamsigns” will be of use when you begin working with lucid dream inducing techniques (elsewhere on this site).
Aside from the technical benefits, writing your dreams is like telling your subconscious mind that what it’s saying is important. The more seriously you take this task, the longer and more frequent your dreams will become. Transversely, those who pay little attention to their dreams over the years find their dreams literally fade into nothing.
Here are some helpful tips to get you started.
1. Establish a sleep schedule if you can, and stick to it. Reading about the sleep stages will help you understand why it is important to get sufficient sleep for lucid dreaming.
2. Keep your dream journal (pen and paper of some kind) next to your bed for easy access when you wake up.
3. Mentally intend to remember your dreams during the night. Say, “I remember my dreams when I wake up.” Believe it.
4. When you stir, whether in the middle of your sleep cycle or at the end, don’t move a muscle. Don’t even open your eyes. Body flow erases dreams! If you can help it, don’t use an alarm clock. Instead wake up naturally.
5. As you lie motionless with your eyes closed, think about what you were dreaming about. Gather fragments at first. Soon, detail will be added to your initial recall. Soon, like a rolling snowball gathers snow, you may end up having retrieved several dream sequences. If you are not having any success, focus on your emotions. How do you feel? Sometimes, this triggers memories. If you’re till having trouble, switch positions to trigger a possible dream.
6. Once you have sufficient data to work from, grab your journal and write. Don’t edit. Don’t think about grammar. Just get it on paper. Draw pictures when words won’t do!
7. If you really want to get serious about your dream world, it may help to start a blog. One cool feature of blogs is that you can categorize your dreams by type, dreamsigns, content, or whatever. This helps for reference purposes.
8. Relax. Don’t worry about lost or partial dreams. Just jot down anything you can. Soon you will begin to recognize certain dreamsigns, or oddities, within your dreams. These are aspects that would be incongruent or downright impossible in your waking life. These dreamsigns will occur in one of four categories: thoughts, actions, forms, or context. More about this here.
9. Begin to think about your dream content throughout the day and how it relates to your waking life. Pretend it is a portal to a secret therapy for improvement or knowledge (because it really is!). What is your subconscious self trying to show you about your waking life self?
10. Have fun, and happy dreaming!
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