You don’t have to title your dream when you write it in your dream journal.
It’s your journal. You don’t have to do anything. There’s no absolute penalty for not giving your dream a title.
Stories usually have titles. An entry in a dream journal is like a little story, so it too should have a title.
If you’ve made an entry already without a title, go back and go ahead and give each entry each title, if you want. Sometimes one word writing in our dream journal we go too fast and forget to put in a title. The best time to write in a dream journal is in the morning and sometimes we’ve got something else to do right when we get out of bed.
It’s not mandatory to put the title over the description of the dream; it’s just a good thing to do. Having a title on the entry helps you refer to it later. You can then find the entry later more easily.
In addition to a title, write a date by it. Whether you had the dream before midnight or after midnight doesn’t really matter. The date is there just as a reference so you can see roughly when you had the dream. If you can see when you had the dream you can see trends about areas of concerns in your life.
As far as what to title the dream, why not summarize what the dream was about in one or two words. Choose one of the major symbols or one of the main concerns expressed in the dream.
Titling a dream isn’t always done although instructions as far as how to keep a dream journal usually include that within the instructions. It’s more for keeping your dream journal somewhat organized and being able to benefit by contemplating and understanding your dreams than anything else.
If you’re at a loss what to title your dream just pick an object or a person that was featured in the dream and make that your as your title.
For further reading:
Old dream journals may have the answer to your “why?”
Writing down your dreams helps you grow and move on.
People in your dreams represent something—what?
Record your dreams in a secret code if you must.
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James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.