Keeping Afloat: How to Dream Journal + Longer Lucid Dreams

There have been lucky people who had experienced lucid dreams following their discovery of the concept. This is possible because the subconscious can grapple onto new concepts and pull them into dreams.

But most will not be as lucky. If you haven't had a lucid dream and want one, or have had them yet want tips to achieving LD goals, this post is for you!

Index

1. Dream Journals and Tips for Writing Entries

a. Making Journals
b. Gatekeep Dreams

2. How to Have Longer Lucid Dreams

a. Dreamself Actions
b. State of Mind

Dream Journals and Tips for Writing Entries

Dream Journals are meant to elongate how much one is able to remember from dreams. Like a muscle, dream recall will raise slowly but surely with consistent exercise. With stronger recall, you may experience multiple dreams per night with high clarity. Some LDers have been surprised at how fast it had raised. There's always a chance that it will go as smoothly for beginners.

Making Journals

Nothing special is required for starting a dream journal - they can be made out of anything one can write in. Physical paper, a mobile app, anything. Spicing up the appearance of the journal can be one way to keep the journal on your mind when it starts feeling like a chore - and it will start feeling like a chore, especially once dream recall goes up and there could be multiple entries to make per day.

If the goal is to merely lucid dream, there is nothing wrong with missing days in a dream journal, nor is it wrong to drop the journal altogether. Journals may be a recommended way of achieving lucidity faster, but it isn't the only way.

In addition, unless one's goal includes archiving their dreams, it doesn't matter whether the dreams are separated onto different mediums. If having different dream journals on a mobile app and on a physical journal works well for you, that's good.

However, it's recommended to have a physical journal, as physical writing can be more memorable. A study by The University of Tokyo and NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting, Inc. has found that "the use of a paper notebook promoted the acquisition of rich encoding information and/or spatial information of real papers and that this information could be utilized as effective retrieval clues, leading to higher activations in these specific regions."

This is only a suggestion. In the end, if one wants to write down dreams, having a dream on a digital device is better than having nothing written at all.

Gatekeep Dreams

Furthermore, a physical journal may be less distracting when waking up and beelining to writing a dream. Dreams slip away from the conscious when reality stimulates your senses away from your memory - phone notifications, eyes seared by morning light, bedsheets hugging your limbs, birdsongs, your own thoughts, etc. are all actively eroding your memory of the dream*. Even reading text can count. The more you become grounded in reality, the less you're likely to remember dreams.

This may seem dramatic. But if you've ever woken with an interesting dream that you resolved to write down and then promptly forgot it in a matter of minutes, you've experienced firsthand how fast these dreams can slip away. Distractions could be considered the #1 enemy to keeping a dream journal.

That's why, those who've shared this experience have cooked up methods to gatekeeping dreams, before your brain can chase them off. Here are some:

• Use as much detail as you're able. It's easier to do for beginners who don't have detailed dreams. As it gets more detailed, the more this feels like a chore. However, this is a powerful method to having vivid dream quicker.

• Write dreams in present tense. This has helped to put oneself in the shoes of their dreamself, which then makes it easier to recall the dream as it happened. While past tense would be accurate, it creates a barrier between you and the dream that could discourage your recall.
  

• Summarize the dream right away. It's recommended to state this before detailing the rest of the dream, since there's the chance of losing your recall while you're writing.
  

• (My tip) Specify if it's in 1st person or 3rd person. This can be helpful for organizing the dreams you're likely to have. If you want more 1st person dreams, such as for 1st person lucid dreams, then specifying that in the journals will keep your mind on it and increase the chance of your subconscious dragging that focus into the next dream. Possibly, a lucid dream!
  

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*On why paper notebooks would be more memorable if a physical copy would stimulate the sense of touch moreso than writing dreams on a phone: one reason would be that phones do stimulate the senses more.

Artificial lights, colours that clash with your surroundings, contrasting text, notifications, eyecatching lockscreens, passcode inputs, alarms, and other interesting apps are a few of the things you may encounter on your way to the app you use to write dreams.

That isn't to say a physical method will never have these traits (artificial lights from a doorway, loud noises from outside, etc.) but that a digital one is more likely to have more distractions than a physical journal.

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How to Have Longer Lucid Dreams

Often, beginners are discouraged when their first lucid dream lasts a few seconds. It's a common experience, since many aren't prepared to keep the dream. A burst of emotion is what usually kicks them out. This is likely due to the dream's plot being thrown off by the sudden lucidity, then further thrown off when the lucid dreamer acts out of character. It could be the same reason why dreams about falling usually stop before the impact, or why dreams about sex usually stop at climax - usually, dreams are known to stop when it detects strong sensations / emotions from the dreamer that it wasn't expecting. In a reverse, it's also why nightmares can abruptly stop the moment the dreamer stops feeling scared.

Panic, excitement, and other emotions can be hard to stuff down when their prevalence in a person varies. That's why this section is not about preventing emotions, but to have longer lucid dreams in spite of possible emotions.

Dreamself Actions

Dreams aren't used to being interrupted by lucidity. Becoming lucid is like breaching the containment of a story - of course the storyteller (your subconscious) will be scrambling. You've torn a hole into the fabric of a dream's existence! There are some ways to prolong the dream by playing along with it, without sacrificing your lucid abilities:

• Touching your hands. Focusing on any sensation in a dream can keep yourself inside for longer, due to grounding yourself into the dream. Hands are one easily accessible tool for such sensations. Try examining the lines along those palms, feeling the grooves along them and focusing on the sense of touch. Rubbing hands together is a common way to focus on touch.

• Incremental changes. Beginners who've stabilized their dream can get greedy and attempt to change it. While it's useful for training lucidity abilities, too big of a change can end the dream. Instead of brainstorming on what to change, a better mindset would be to check what can fit within the dream's setting. Incremental changes after observing what fits for the dream is less likely to end with a disappointing kick.
  

• Play the role that you were assigned in the dream. You're less likely to be kicked out if you convince your dream that you aren't going to cause any more interruptions. This could be a tricky method, since you run the risk of forgetting that you're in a dream. However, this can be a way to train yourself to be lucid for longer by always reminding yourself of the fact. Couple that with how this prolongs the dream and you have a good way to train lucidity length.

• Get a feel for how your dreams end. There are sensations that are common to the end of LDs, such as a vibrating feeling, unfocused sight, shaking surroundings, muted noise, and sudden incomprehension of the dream. Expert LDers have been prolonging their dreams to what feels like days just by using grounding techniques (such as the first bullet point) every time they feel the dream start to end.
  

State of Mind

Some ways to prolong dreams in the waking world as well, with the exception of dream journals:

• Keeping the concept of prolonged lucid dreams within your thoughts. Like all habits, keeping something in your conscious mind will make it easier to build a habit. There could be a few minutes within a day that's set aside for thinking about prolonged LDs.

• Reminding yourself of lucid dream goals. An extension of the first bullet. LD goals such as "I want to do [x] fantastical thing in a dream" would obviously not be achieved if the dream ended too soon. Longer LDs are important and deserve to be trained for if wanting to achieve those LD goals.
  

• Keeping track of dream signs. Depending on the person, there could be tell-tale signs within your dreams that you're dreaming. Dream characters and messages could reoccur. This is more easily spotted with a dream journal.

• Immerse yourself in interactive video game universes. Research has shown that "more time spent playing physically interactive games was related to more frequent lucid and control dreaming." It's due to the video games and dreams both being immersive fictional worlds, thus avid players of interactive games would have an easier time immersing themselves in lucid dreams. A better immersion means being more likely to play along with the dream properly, if wanting to prolong it.

• Sleep in ideal temperatures if able. Temperatures above 23 celsius (75 fahrenheit) or below 12 celsius (54 fahrenheit) can cause shorter hours of sleep. While it's possible to have days - or even years - of time seemingly pass in a short dream, having one's REM sleep interrupted is likely to end the dream.
  

• (My tip) Rereading some dream journal entries. Rereading entries can bring a surprising amount of memories, even with short descriptions. Are there dreams that you'd like to have gone on longer? Grab that wish and let it motivate your subconscious into putting you back into that dream, perhaps for longer this time.
  

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References

Keita Umejima, Takuya Ibaraki, Takahiro Yamazaki, Kuniyoshi L. Sakai. Paper Notebooks vs. Mobile Devices: Brain Activation Differences During Memory Retrieval. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2021; 15 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.634158

M Tai, DF Mastin, J Peszka, 0731 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO GAME USE, GAME GENRE, AND LUCID/CONTROL DREAMING, Sleep, Volume 40, Issue suppl_1, 28 April 2017, Page A271, DOI: 10.1093/sleepj/zsx050.730

Basic Definitions for Lucid Dream Terms

Cut from the intro post for organization purposes.

Basic Definitions:

Due to the varying nature of dream experiences, these definitions are not set in stone. It's encouraged to make your own definitions, such as if that helps to remember them better or if your experiences differ.

LD - Lucid Dreaming acronym. A lucid dream is not simply a realistic dream, although it can be. All that's needed to call dream a lucid dream is being aware that you were in a dream and that this awareness was not intentional from the dream's plot. If it's intentional then it could be the dream using a faux awareness as a smokescreen - making you ignore parts of the dream that you wouldn't if you were fully lucid yet convincing your dreamself that you hadn't ignored a thing.

DC - Dream Character acronym. Any character in a dream is a DC. Most do not count the dreamer as a DC, but some do in the scenarios where your dream counterpart is acting according to the dream's plot instead of how you would normally act, ranging from 'you dreamt as yourself in clothes you didn't have' to 'you dreamt you were Satan'.

Dreamself - Common term for the person you dream as.

Dream Guide - a DC that can act as the dreamer's subconscious trying to help the dreamer learn lucid dreaming tricks. They can take the form of anything, including nonsentient objects. The way they 'teach' the dreamer can be through conversation, actions, symbolism, anything that the dreamer can take meaning in. [Example: an aspiring lucid dreamer wants to learn how to fly in dreams. In a dream that night, a dragon comes up to a dreamer and its presence reminds them that they are dreaming. On another night, the same dragon appears then soars into the sky to remind the dreamer about their goal to fly.]

RC - Reality check acronym. It's anything on one's 5 senses that can be used as a way to question if one is in a dream. Not always a safe method because of the existential questioning, possibly troubling for psychosis. Common RCs include counting your fingers, trying to blow air through a pinched nose, and pushing a finger into your palm to see if it goes through. [Example: a habit of counting your fingers every time you see a clock, which leads to lucidity when you see a clock in a dream and find out your hands have 20 fingers.]

Mindfulness - A meditation technique that many lucid dreamers use in hand with reality checks. This has been found having connections to dream control (Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel; 2017). It's to focus on the 5 senses and try to amplify the sensations of real life. Practicing this leads to a lucid dreamer potentially having more realistic dreams and being quicker to spot inaccuracies in dream logic. Another part of mindfulness is to distance oneself from the thoughts that you have, in order to build priority on thoughts that matter and to better discard the ones that don't. However, that distancing technique can harm those with dissociative issues as it could induce dissociation. [Example: taking a song that you usually listen to without thinking about it and putting effort into absorbing each musical detail, extremely focused on the song, closing your eyes and keeping still to minimize distractions by other senses.]

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References

Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel. (2017). Mindfulness and Lucid Dream Frequency Predicts the Ability to Control Lucid Dreams. Imagination Cognition and Personality. 36. 229-239. 10.1177/0276236616683388