Dreams are like quiet messages from within. Sometimes they are clear, sometimes chaotic, and often we forget them before the day has even properly begun. A dream journal helps you capture these subtle impulses, train your intuition, and recognize recurring themes. Many people experience greater clarity, creativity, and a deeper connection to themselves through this practice.
Why Keep a Dream Journal?
Keeping a dream journal has many benefits. On the one hand, it establishes a routine that helps prioritize good sleep. Through the ritualized act of writing in the morning, you connect with yourself at your most sensitive and open state: right after waking up. You don’t just reconnect with yourself physically, your subconscious is also still very present in those brief moments after awakening. After all, it has been active in your dream world all night, even if you can’t remember anything or only a tiny fraction of it.
Remembering your dreams can offer psychological insights into the processes of your subconscious. For this reason, dream journals are a valuable component of various treatment methods, especially in psychology. But even in personal life, outside of therapy, keeping a dream journal can be highly meaningful. Many artists, writers, and well-known personalities, for example, have kept dream journals.
Melli’s Experience & Perspective
Dream journals have fascinated me for several years, although in the past I only kept one for a short period of time. To this day, some of the dreams I had and remembered back then remain a lasting part of my memory. A few weeks ago, I started again. The article I’ve written here explores different perspectives on dream journals. To begin, I would like to share my perspective as an artist.
Where do humanity’s greatest ideas and works come from? Why do a select few individuals seem able to create something new as if guided by a current flowing from outside themselves? And how can I enter that current myself? These questions have accompanied me throughout my entire life and my artistic process.
Everything around me is inspiration: the physical world, emotions, thoughts, conversations… In his book *The Creative Act*, Rick Rubin describes it as a constant contact and exchange with Source, which is the origin of all inspiration. He emphasizes how enriching it can be to keep one’s own receptivity as open as possible to the influences of our environment in order to enhance creativity.
In my dream journal, I focus less on interpreting my dreams and treat them more as an opportunity to access this (otherwise hidden) place of inspiration for my art. I see the attempt to remember in the morning as a kind of training and as a way to get to know all parts of myself, including the subconscious and uncontrollable ones.
Dream Research
Dream research is based on large-scale studies using targeted surveys about dream recall. One of the key findings is that dream recall increases the more frequently you test and reflect on your memories. It has been proven that consciously paying attention to dreams leads many people to experience a significant increase in dream recall.
It has also been observed that women remember dreams slightly more often than men. So far, the only explanatory factor identified for this gender difference is “engagement with dreams.”
There are many factors that can influence how well we remember our dreams, such as personality traits like openness to experience, creativity, sleep behavior, and interest in dreams.
Step-by-Step Guide for Your Dream Journal
In the evening, place a notebook right next to your bed, ideally with a pen ready to use. This way, you can start writing immediately after waking up without overthinking. In the morning, remain lying quietly for a moment and sense what is still there. Often, images, feelings, or single words appear first. Write down keywords even if you’re still sleepy 😉
If you have a little more time, you can elaborate on the dream: the storyline, people, places, colors, or moods. The emotions within the dream are especially valuable; they often offer more insight than the content itself. Adding a date or a short title can help you find the dream again later. If you notice symbols or themes that appear repeatedly, you can mark them.
Even small dream fragments count. A single image or feeling is welcome. If you enjoy drawing, you can add sketches or capture shapes. You can interpret your dreams, but you don’t have to. Simply observe what reveals itself over time and what feels meaningful to you.
Psychology and Dream Interpretation
Dreams, and remembering them, probably receive the most attention in psychology. In depth psychology in particular, dream recall is used to make subconscious processes visible. Depth psychology consists of three main approaches: psychoanalysis (Freud), analytical psychology (Jung), and individual psychology (Adler).
The following brief overview of the assumptions of Freud and Jung is intended to support you in reflecting on the purpose and meaning of dream journals. Whether you have personal experience with psychological treatment methods or not is irrelevant. They are simply possible ways of working with your dream journal.
Psychoanalysis (Freud)
From a psychoanalytic perspective, current problems arise from repressed childhood experiences and inner conflicts. The goal is to uncover these unconscious, often sexual or aggressive, components.
With the publication of *The Interpretation of Dreams* in 1900, Sigmund Freud laid the foundation for psychoanalysis.
Freud described dreams as disguised wish fulfillments. He emphasized that many dreams, even those that appear completely harmless or ordinary at first glance can, upon closer analysis, be traced back to repressed wishes and drives. According to Freud, this is because sexual drives are strongly suppressed by society and therefore express themselves indirectly in symbolic form within dreams. These symbols, he assumed, follow a kind of shared visual language and allow hidden meanings to be deciphered.
Freud’s approach to dream interpretation has often been criticized, particularly for its one-sided symbolic interpretations and strong focus on sexual symbolism, which tend to neglect other emotional, biographical, or cultural dimensions. From the perspective of empirical dream research, Freud’s dream symbolism is now considered outdated.
Analytical Psychology (Jung)
Following Freud’s theories, there was continuous debate about the meaning of dreams. Carl Jung made a major contribution with his concept of analytical psychology.
For Jung, dreams are less oriented toward the past and more like signposts, as the dreamer processes events from their current life situation during sleep. In analytical psychology, dreams are therefore mirrors of the present emotional landscape on the path toward meaning. This search expresses itself through universal archetypes in dreams, whose interpretation may also include collective societal processes, according to Jung.
Individual Dream Interpretation
You probably know this experience: someone tells you a story and it reminds you of situations from your own life. If you begin remembering your dreams more frequently, this will likely happen often.
Beyond established methods of dream interpretation, you may notice another very valuable process: your intuition. You know yourself best, or you will come to know yourself best through this inner dialogue. Trust that deep within, you already sense what your subconscious is trying to tell you. After all, it is a part of you.
Personally, I enjoy being guided by different theories and well-known dream symbols, but I don’t adopt everything as true or fitting for me. “Take what resonates and leave what doesn’t.”
For example, I’m fascinated by the symbol of trains in dreams and the idea that our dreams can act as signposts during different phases of life. Have you ever dreamed of a journey? Did you miss the train or flight? Were you carrying far too much luggage? Perhaps in real life you need to let go of some baggage. In my dreams, for instance, I often need several confusing days just to pack for a trip. I would interpret this as a sign that I should strive for more structure and clarity.
Practical Tips for Your Dream Journal
If you now feel inspired to start your own dream journal, here are a few small tips from me:
You won’t always remember everything, or sometimes anything at all. That’s normal. Many factors influence your ability to recall dreams. Prioritize good sleep of 8 to 9 hours and go to bed on time.
Maybe you won’t remember anything right after waking up, but something might return later during breakfast. Write it down anyway, or especially then! This trains your “memory muscle.”
There is no right or wrong. Design your journal in a way that feels right to you: bullet points, extremely detailed descriptions, just a sketch and a headline… and so on. I usually dedicate a page with the date and draw a small sketch of the most prominent motif from the dream. Then I add a headline and simply write down everything that feels clear in my mind.
Practice relaxation exercises before falling asleep and set the intention to remember your dreams.
That’s it! Feel free to leave a comment under this article to start a conversation.
Enjoy dreaming!
This text was written WITHOUT the use of AI.
Sources
1 Rubin, R. (2023). The creative act: A way of being. Penguin.
2 Schredl, M. 10.2 Traumerleben bei Männern und Frauen. Gehirn und Geschlecht, 190.
3 Psychoanalyse vs. Analytische Psychologie: Der Einsteiger-Leitfaden. – Mindful Praxis | Psychologie & Philosophie
4 Die Traumdeutung, Leipzig und Wien 1900
5 Freud, S. (1911). Über den Traum (Vol. 8). JF Bergmann.
6 Freud Traumdeutung Symbole: Die tiefere Bedeutung hinter unseren Träumen | Freiburger Bote
7 Riedel, I. (1997). Träume: Wegweiser in neue Lebensphasen. Kreuz Verlag.