We’ve all had busy mornings. For whatever reason we wake up late, or we have to be somewhere early, and it doesn’t seem like there’s time to write anything in the dream journal.
But if you’re going to use your dreams to gain insight into your life and the people around you, you’re going to have to use the journal.
That means you’re going to need to journal the dreams that don’t seem to be important at the time you wake up. Dream journaling is going to compete with other things you’ve got to do.
This is especially true if you happen to have a long, detailed dream with a lot of twists and turns.
Who’s got time for that when the morning can be so busy?
Does dream journaling always lose?
There’s a danger of it. The dream might seem convoluted and crazy and impractical. Compared to the immediate need to go somewhere and do something, it can seem like only a fool would pay attention to the dream.
Make time to write the dream down so you can understand it. It could be a missing piece that ends up explaining a lot to you. It’s not unheard of that a dream can explain to you what needs to take priority, solve a problem, or help you find a shortcut to achieving something that’s important to you.
You simply need to chart your dream with maximum efficiency.
Put analyzing on hold until you have time to do it later.
1. Keep your journal and a pen handy
Looking for your journal and a pen just wastes precious time. Transferring your dreams from a card or piece of scratch paper also wastes time. Making the effort to keep your journal in a place where you can find it only makes sense. Then use the journal and pen quickly.
On the other hand, if it’s more common for you to wake up in the middle of the night from a dream, make a few quick notes at that time. You may find that it pays to keep a 3″x5″ memo notebook at your bedside along with a pen.
2. Write down the nouns from the dream
A noun is a word that’s a person, place, or thing.
That means if you have a dream where a lady you’re not sure you know is asking you about how your Florida health insurance is going while you both sit in a doctor’s office, you might write:
Doctor’s office
Lady
Florida health insurance
You don’t have to write down your response to her right then. Just those six words might be enough to recall it.
You can always translate the symbols and your response to the woman later.
If the dream had more than one scene then make a list of the nouns from the second or a subsequent scene.
Ideally, keep these memory prompts to less than ten words.
3. Make time to write the full dream down later
Ultimately, keeping a dream journal takes some time. You might be able to spend a little time during your day thinking about what your dream might mean by following the three-step process. For many people, yours truly included, interpretation doesn’t really happen until you write it down. The act of writing forces you to consider the dream and its components objectively.
Dream journaling saves time over meditation. You’re able to get all the benefits of meditation far more efficiently.
Like the electric company that charges more for electricity at certain times of the day than others, the moments in the morning are at a premium. Think about the dream, analyze it, and write it down later.
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.
We use some affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission. This has no effect on our opinions.