Oneironaut: A Guide to Lucid Dreaming

This idea sounds like a pointless one but believe it or not, it happens to be a major part of this journey you're anticipating to make. Most people who express some interest in lucid dreaming don't take this step seriously as they should. Only those who are serious about their lucid dreaming goals will do anything with a writing journal. It is a great first step because here, you get to see just how serious you are about this. Do you want to lucid dream because you'd think it would be a cool experience or do you feel the need to lucid dream? Is it a goal you absolutely have to attain?

There's absolutely no way around it. There are ways to make this step easier than it already is but there is no skipping this step. Anybody who does lucid dream often will tell you this and I cannot stress this enough. That's how important the step of a writing journal is.

Before I go into short cuts for the writing journal step, here are the reasons why you must start with it.

To begin, lucid dreaming has a lot to do with the ability to remember our dreams. There's no point in lucid dreaming if we can't even remember what we were (lucid) dreaming about! We have to at least be able to remember details and with a writing journal, we can keep track of them, notice patterns, and even learn to gain awareness of when we're dreaming.

Keeping track of what we're dreaming about can help us notice and find patterns that reoccur in our dreams. These patterns help us in realizing we're dreaming and they can be used as triggers. An example of this is one that a friend of mine has shared. He states that every time he dreams, he finds that there is always a baby elephant hanging around in the background. It's his sign each time that he's actually dreaming and that's usually how he goes about in becoming aware, thus begin lucid dreaming.

With that said, there are multiple ways to go about this step.

First way is by actually having a journal. A notebook, small notepad, a fancy diary, even something online such as a Google Drive or email to send yourself your entries and keeping them in a folder. When you write down details, it isn't necessary to write down everything you remember because most likely it is the case that you don't remember much at all. Maybe you remember the feeling of peace or fear, maybe all you saw was your best friend inviting you to the club and you showed up to an empty room. It helps the most to write down absolutely everything that your senses could reach. What you heard, saw, felt, touched, did... however, if that seems like too much to begin with, just write down even the littlest detail that stood out to you. It is completely up to you to decide how to write it out. In paragraphs, bullet list, or keywords. The length of the entry shouldn't matter so it doesn't matter if you only have two points down. That's great to start with and little by little, you will notice that you remember more.

Here's the important thing about this though: this all must be jotted down within the first 5-7 minutes of waking up. It is said that five minutes after the end of the dream and waking up, we have forgotten at least 50 percent of the dream's content. That is so much to forget! That is why it is important to start getting into the habit of remembering the contents and writing them down.

Sometimes I experience some triggers throughout the day that remind me of exactly what I dreamt the night before and this may or may not happen to you as you're going through the beginning stages, but I highly recommend writing those down too as you remember them and taking note of what was the trigger. It could have been a word, a person, a sudden feeling or location.

There is a short cut to this, and it just involves a little time off your morning routine, or some multitasking. When I couldn't keep up with a journal because of morning rush, I had the habit of either spending the first 5 minutes listing what I remember from my night before, dream or not, and this is what I do sometimes as I hit the snooze button and keep my eyes closed as if I was still sleeping. This state is the perfect state to recall dreams because you're relaxed but still conscious. It's almost meditative which is great for dreams. There is way to jump straight into a dream should you have more time to sleep in after hitting the snooze button, but that step is for later.

Once you're up and running, if you have any thinking time available while in the shower or having breakfast, you can think about what you've dreamt about the night before. Even on your commute to work or school would be wise. There's least likely a chance you'll remember right away when starting this but sometimes it works to give it some thinking time. Do not stress yourself over it though. It seems like the harder we try, the harder it is to remember. Don't fret should your first fews days are difficult. It is important not to give up.

These days, I know most young people keep a blog, a tumblr, or twitter account. Usually 140 characters is enough to put down little details about things and these things usually are dated alone so it would be another great short cut to have these useful, with or without anonymous handles. Most people with smart phones have notepad, memo features and these can definitely be used to keep track of dreams and details.

Dream interpreting is an optional addition to this step. It is up to you if you want to add dream interpretations and list the meanings of symbols that you can easily look up online. This gives your mind a chance to dig deeper into your dream patterns and this ultimately helps you develop a more dream-conscious mind.