Remembering & Recording Your Dreams

So you're ready to work with your dreams, but you need more material-- here's what to do.

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In the past few weeks, we’ve talked about why dreamwork is useful; some guidelines for understanding their “logic,” and we walked through a process to start to interpret a dream. But, as a friend said to me last week over brunch, “What if I’m just not dreaming enough?”

While the average person has 3-5 dreams a night, we’re not always aware of them, and they can seem to slip away quickly in the morning. Here are a few best practices to remember and record your dreams.

Set the stage:

“We know that the mask of the unconscious is not rigid— it reflects the face we turn towards it. Hostility lends it a threatening aspect, friendliness softens its features.” —CG Jung

You'll need some sort of strategy that will work for you to record your dreams. Some people use pen and paper at their bedside; others use their phone to record their dreams directly as a voice memo, or as a note. With practice, you’ll find what works best for you.

Now, before you go to bed, you’ll engage in some intention-setting. It’s simple, but it can be quite powerful. Before you fall asleep, say to yourself, “Tonight, I will dream, and I will remember my dreams.” If you like, you can also ask your unconscious directly to speak to you. Let it know you’re ready to hear what it has to say.

Basic sleep hygiene can be helpful here. Stimulants (including violent TV), heavy eating, blue light (from screens), and intoxicants (alcohol, other substances) can interfere with dreamtime.

When you do wake up:

As soon as you wake, instead of jumping right into your morning routine, pause. Bring your awareness back to the last dream, if it’s there. Hold the dream in your awareness as you get your recording instrument and begin to write it down. It can be easy to think , “Oh, I’ll remember,” but dreams can fade fast as soon as we move into our daily routines.

If all you have is a fragment or an image, write it down anyway. Often this will spur further remembering, and it encourages a habit of writing and remembering that will be helpful going forward. You may also remember more later and add to your notes.

Write the dream in the present tense as though it’s happening right now. “I’m in an enormous airplane with my brother and some other people.” This will help you to re-immerse yourself in the dream both as you record it and when you work with it.

Don’t edit out any details or try to correct anything in the dream. Remember that dreams have their own logic and what might feel like a mistake may actually be quite meaningful.

Be mindful of the voice that says, “that’s silly, don’t write that down” or, “that’s just about my anxiety about such and such.” The rational mind will often try to defend against information that emerges from the unconscious— and dreams are rarely telling you something you already know. All dreams are important dreams.

Date your dreams— this can be helpful in working with dreams later.

I’ll add here that one thing that works for me personally (although it certainly may not work for you) is that when I wake in the night, if I remember a dream at that point, I may write it down then so I don’t lose it. In doing this, I know I run the risk of not being able to easily fall back asleep, but there are times when I’ve felt it was worth it to do so.

Treat it like a practice.

“Giving attention to the unconscious pays it a compliment that guarantees its cooperation.” —CG Jung

Some days you may have a lot of dream material; other days, not so much. Like anything else, your ability to recall dreams will improve as you practice. And like any practice, there will be “good” days and less good days. Be patient with yourself, and work with what you have. The important thing is to just keep going. 🌀