Dream diary

A dream diary or dream journal is a record of your dreams. Some people keep dream diary records in notebooks, often kept on a bedside table or somewhere else nearby for ease of access after sleep. Others prefer to type all their dreams up straight away on a computer. My preferred method is to use a voice recorder (I use my phone), and then type them up later. By speaking rather than writing the dream initially (which you can do lying in your bed, in the dark), I think you get a record of the dream that is closer to the dream itself than if you have to sit up, switch on the light, and put your brain in “writing” mode. When I first started recording my dreams I used diaries, and that means I now have about 8 years’ worth of dreams in barely legible handwriting scattered across several books, which makes it much harder to look back or search for patterns than it is now that I have them on my computer. However, everyone is different, and you should find the way that’s best for you. There are some dedicated dream journal notebooks out there, such as the Dream Atlas.