It was Wednesday morning, and I was hunched over my laptop, brainstorming about what I could possibly write about for the last blog post of the year. After a lot of staring at a blank Google Doc and thinking, I decided on “A History of Writer’s Block and How to Overcome It.” It seemed dramatic and fitting enough, except then I stumbled upon an article about Graham Greene, an English writer considered to be one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. He suffered a long period of writer’s block, until he started his dream journal. All that mental distress slowly morphed into creative productivity, in the free-flowing form of jotting down his dreams in writing.
The idea of dream journaling intrigued me, particularly because I have been recalling my dreams and nightmares especially well these past few weeks, and texting my friends about it seemed to be just another form of dream journaling. I went off on a tangent of articles and when I returned to trying to write about what writer’s block was, I, ironically, felt very uninspired. Then, I had the great realization that I could just write about dream journaling! Hopefully, you may even be inspired to start a dream journal of your own this summer.
On a surface level, dream journaling is exactly what it sounds like: you write down what happened in your dreams. Most people like to do it right after waking up, since your memory of dreams fades fast. It can be in a physical journal, typed out in the Notes app of a phone, or any other form you’d like. Dream journaling has been found to have many benefits, such as fueling creativity, processing emotions, practicing response to stressful situations, and can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and the deepest corners of our subconscious. Considering that humans spend ⅓ of their lives sleeping and roughly 2 hours of every night dreaming, dreaming is a bigger part of our lives than we give credit to.
Many cultures and religions around the world have beliefs about dream interpretation, or what a certain dream “means.” Although there is no scientific basis behind those definitive “dream dictionaries” online, spending time to reflect on your own dreams might lead to increased personal understanding and growth. Some dreams feel like nonsense, but they might be a mix of things that have been on your mind recently, such as major and minor stressors in your life. Digging into it could reveal some emotional logic behind the dreams.
Everyone can dream journal, even if you think you don’t remember anything. Starting off can be as simple as a few bullet points about a vivid image or fragment. Different people have different levels of dream recall, so how the dream journaling is done is unique to each person. Making a habit out of dream journaling can help inspire ideas for things in real life, or process emotions and be more rational to approaching them when you’re awake. A few months later, you’ll be able to go back and read through your dream journal to discover what you went through and where your life is headed.
The idea of dream journaling intrigued me, particularly because I have been recalling my dreams and nightmares especially well these past few weeks, and texting my friends about it seemed to be just another form of dream journaling. I went off on a tangent of articles and when I returned to trying to write about what writer’s block was, I, ironically, felt very uninspired. Then, I had the great realization that I could just write about dream journaling! Hopefully, you may even be inspired to start a dream journal of your own this summer.
On a surface level, dream journaling is exactly what it sounds like: you write down what happened in your dreams. Most people like to do it right after waking up, since your memory of dreams fades fast. It can be in a physical journal, typed out in the Notes app of a phone, or any other form you’d like. Dream journaling has been found to have many benefits, such as fueling creativity, processing emotions, practicing response to stressful situations, and can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and the deepest corners of our subconscious. Considering that humans spend ⅓ of their lives sleeping and roughly 2 hours of every night dreaming, dreaming is a bigger part of our lives than we give credit to.
Many cultures and religions around the world have beliefs about dream interpretation, or what a certain dream “means.” Although there is no scientific basis behind those definitive “dream dictionaries” online, spending time to reflect on your own dreams might lead to increased personal understanding and growth. Some dreams feel like nonsense, but they might be a mix of things that have been on your mind recently, such as major and minor stressors in your life. Digging into it could reveal some emotional logic behind the dreams.
Everyone can dream journal, even if you think you don’t remember anything. Starting off can be as simple as a few bullet points about a vivid image or fragment. Different people have different levels of dream recall, so how the dream journaling is done is unique to each person. Making a habit out of dream journaling can help inspire ideas for things in real life, or process emotions and be more rational to approaching them when you’re awake. A few months later, you’ll be able to go back and read through your dream journal to discover what you went through and where your life is headed.
I never thought about dream journaling before. I knew what it was, but it's interesting to see how many benefits it has. I think it would be cool to start dream journaling, and go back and reread your entries months later. This was a really interesting post!
ReplyDeleteI have heard of dream journaling before, but never really looked into it. However, after reading about it and thinking about it, I think that it would be really cool to see and remember all the strange things which happen in my dreams. I also find it really cool that it helped that writer get over writers block, and I think that dreams could especially make interesting inspirations for stories Finally, I love how you included the irony of not being able to think of anything to write about for writers block. Anyways, Great post!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I almost never dream, and when I do, I only remember a tiny fraction of what happened, so I'm not sure if dream journaling would work too well for me. However, I do remember doing a little bit of this in the past. I'm pretty sure I dreamed something about a school in the arctic yesterday, so I should probably write that down haha.
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting posts recently. I think this is an interesting thing to think about. I usually don't give my dreams much thought, although sometimes when I have a particularly interesting dream I think about it long after I have woken up. I recently had a nightmare the night before doing my history presentation, which must have happened because I was so stressed. I doubt I'll end up dream journaling (Not with that attitude past Gabe, keep an open mind). Dreams are certainly very important, I think its unlikely that we would have them every night if they weren't supposed to benefit us. This is a topic that could likely get very theoretical/philosophical.
ReplyDeleteDream journaling sounds really cool. I've never formally done it in a notebook before, but I've verbally told people about my dreams. I think I've forgotten most of them by now, though, so it wasn't a very permanent way of 'journaling.' Based on all of the strange dreams I've had and heard about, some really interesting and unique things could probably be inspired by them. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that dream journaling sounded so interesting. I have a lot of dreams but I find myself forgetting all of them because I lose memory of what they were about in a short span of time. It'd be so, so interesting to see what my dreams were and then look back on them months and years later, so I definitely would want to try this!! Thanks for a great recommendation and post :)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like something fun to do. It kind of sounds like the movie inceptions, where you construct dreams in your mind. It's a cool concept to have dreams and to make your own worlds in your head. Might try this over the summer!
ReplyDeleteI remember doing this when I was younger but then I just stopped. I already journal so I think i'll just start writing out my dreams in that, but I also dream of weird things that should never see the light of day. I guess I'll just write the cool ones down.
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