Because learning about your brain and sleep can be fun . . .
In Charles Dickens’s The Christmas Carol, the old, miserly protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge confronts his nightmares and emerges a better man. Dickens describes him as greedy, ill-tempered, and grasping. Scrooge, at least, is good in that he becomes a better person by the end of the story. Dream journalers sometimes have nightmares so unsettling they don’t…
Make sure your dream journal is ready for writing every night. Your dream journaling hobby needs to be a habit. When it’s a habit, it’s at its most powerful. We spend one-third of the day sleeping or in bed. One-third of the day, every day, adds up to a long time. That’s a lot of…
What were you doing in the dream? Fighting, I don’t know. I don’t remember it well. Maybe there’s a puzzling line or two a character spoke in the dream. “Hopa, hopa!” What does that even mean? What makes a faded dream? A memory is formed in your brain by linking it to other memories. For…
What happens if you’re going to be away from home, and you don’t want to risk losing your journal or worry about leaving it behind? An index card can work as an alternate dream journal, ready to be inserted into your regular journal until you have time to write it down in your regular journal.…
Why did I do that? Why did it all turn out that way? Knowing what I know now, what would I tell my younger self? You look back at your decisions. Some you judge to have been good, others bad. It’s easier when a few years have passed. The emotions have dimmed, if only a…
Weaknesses in plans, single points of failure, can become evident in dreams. Have your heart set on going to a particular college? Maybe you want to apply to more than one anyway, just so you don’t miss a year of school if you’re not accepted at your main college. Settling in a romantic relationship for…
Much has been written about lucid dreams. More attention should be paid to guided dreams. Guided dreams don’t require you to be aware that you’re dreaming while you’re in the dream. They’re guided because there’s an interchange between your conscious and subconscious mind. When you get guidance from your guided dream, they’re an interesting addition…
An episodic dream is a dream that continues in episodes over two or more nights. On the first night, the crowd sat to eat at a long picnic table. On the second night, more guests arrived and sat around the same table, squeezing together. Someone placed a plate in front of each guest. The good…
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. — Aristotle In the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon compares the typical events of life to seasons. It’s a profound analogy that has stood the test of time. It’s been the basis for a hit song (Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds). It’s…
How a piece of tape can help you keep your dream journal at night with more eye comfort.