Dream Recording 30 Day Trial

[M13]

This is the end of my thirty day trial of recording my dreams. I first became interested when I heard about lucid dreams. I have been trying for months to go lucid without much luck. In late November 2006 I started keeping a dream journal to try and gain additional insight, capture some themes, go lucid (for fun), and to see if I could use my dreams to become wealthier.

This has been an interesting experience. I learned a lot. I can’t imagine how much someone could know if they have been recording and interpreting dreams for months or years. I still have not gone lucid but I have experienced one flying dream and at least one false awakening.

The first few days I started my hand and wrist hurt from handwriting. ( I chose to use paper and pen rather that the computer.) After the first week my hand no longer hurt but I did discover something important and that is I can’t read my own writing. That’s bit of an issue. I don’t anticipate my writing getting any better. I can switch my journal to the computer instead but recording my nightly dream notes are more difficult to resolve. I can’t talk into a voice recorder because it would wake up my wife. It’s hard enough just waking up and turning on a lamp. I don’t sleep well the rest of the night. Any suggestions here would be helpful.

There are some dreams that seem more important that others, no doubt. Some are just a reference to the days activities or anticipation of planned activities. Others however are more insightful, vivid in detail and taking multiple pages to describe. I see a lot of symbols in my dreams and find that it is important to interpret the symbols in context of the entire dream, previous dreams and day life. A symbol can mean many things so you have to put it into context.

One of the problems I have in recording and interpreting my dreams is that I cannot always tell when one dream ends and another begins. They sometimes get mixed together. Additionally, if I start interpreting in the middle of the night then by morning I’m not sure if I saw everything I thought I did or if some thoughts and images happened latter when I was think about the dream.

A couple of surprises that came up during my trial was how accurate my interpretation skills seem to be and how quickly they developed. I was also surprised by my wife’s support of my experience. I wasn’t expecting it. But the support went a little to far a few times. She started telling others I could interpret her dreams and I could also interpret theirs. This makes me uncomfortable, after all its only a few days experiment. I sometimes felt like the dream others shared were too personal and revealed something about their life or relationship they may not have wanted me to know.

Overall, I think this has been a great experience and I am going to continue recording and interpreting my dreams after a few days off. I feel that I gained some confidence that my life is headed in the right direction. I also feel a greater sense of freedom and a new feeling of openness to new experiences.

[Blueskied]

I am dream journaling for 2 weeks now. Can't say if it helped achieving lucid dreaming.
Have you ever tried the Wake Back to Bed - method?
You sleep 5 hours, get up and do stuff for 1 hour, then go to bed again. It works well for me. Never had a lucid dream during normal night sleep yet.
Explanation:
Wake Back to Bed (WBTB) - Dream Views Lucid Dreaming Forum