Dreams

The brain is most active immediately following sleep. Writing in your journal within 10 minutes upon waking will reveal your unique subconscious thoughts flowing from your dream-state.  

Dream Journaling

We sleep for a third of our lives. However, we are never really “off line”. What is unique about our dream state is it’s the greater portion of our brain activity that is not dominated my our outer environment. Dreams and meditation may be the only real “me time” we actually ever get. The phrase “sleeping on a problem” correctly implies that the subconscious mind better processes thoughts without external interference to better arrive at a solution. The list of amazing creative and scientific discoveries attributed to vivid dreams is quite long including: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Paul McCartney’s Yesterday, Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the periodic table of elements, the structure of the atom, the infinity formula for pi, the theory of natural selection and the scientific formula itself….all from dreams. Me? I dream about realizing I’m naked at a spelling bee or my teeth are falling out. But who knows, one day maybe warp speed propulsion? I’m a tech nerd and I’m all about digital gadgetry. I used to life draw but when Keyshot came out I even went digital with sketching. I was having some detailed colorful dreams and I decided to try to log them by recording them on my phone when I first woke up. However, I work all day on the computer and felt the need to unplug. It just felt unnatural to grab the phone first thing in the morning. So, I bought myself a journal. If I don’t write down my dreams within 1-2 minutes upon waking they tend to fade fast. Even if I wake up early, I will jot them down, then go back to sleep, inviting yet another opportunity to wake up and write another dream down. By being more aware of my dreams they seemed to get more vivid. One night I have this dream; I’m with my mom and were driving and talking about some remodeling project. Then, I realize, “Wait you’re dead!”. We look at each other and I say, “Wait don’t go. I need to tell you something. Your grandson, Aidan is amazing!” She said, “I know, a truly kind and beautiful boy, I love when you share him with me.” My eyes burst opened and I just lay there in amazement thinking “I see dead people”. This seemed to be the first time I had a moment of awareness in an unconscious state. I’ve dreamed about my parents before. I just never connected the reality that they were dead in my dreams. So, I go online and discover all this information on cultivating “Lucid Dreams”. This concept that I could have some conscious effect on my dreams, decide who I would see and where I would go was mind blowing to say the least. Natural virtual reality? Does that even make sense? An article by Maria Cohut in Medical News Today describes lucid dreaming as “a dream during which dreamers, while dreaming, are aware they are dreaming," Evidently, this is not a new thing and was described by Aristotle in On Dreams circa 350 B.C, in which he describes an instance of self-awareness in a dream state. Oh it’s a thing. An “Oneironaut” is defined as a person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid dreaming. For more recent culture, here is a taste from ultraculture.com “A lot of people complain they don’t remember their dreams. That can be fixed. A lot of people claim their dreams are boring. That can be fixed, too. In fact, turns out that dreaming is a skill you can build just like any other with a little persistence and some simple techniques. With a little practice, you can activate Lucid Dream Mode and have conscious control while dreaming. So if you’re ready to throw out the TV and the YouTubes and get into some real deep inner territory, like balls deep, read on: 1. Write your dreams down every morning. This is the most important thing in this list. If you don’t do anything else, do this. Get a journal, stick it by the bed with a pen, and write down all the crazy shit you remember from your dreams the instant you wake up. Don’t stall; if you switch gears even a bit to check your email or take a shower, you’re going to lose most, if not all, of what you dreamt.” For the next 6 steps in the process from UltraCulture go here To jump start your first dream journal here is a handy WikiHow guide: How To Keep A Dream Journal 1. Find a suitable journal. There are some pre-made dream journals out there but they are not necessary and in many ways, it's a lot more fun and creative to make your own…. So, you can check Step 1 off the list because you’ve already found the most suitable, make your own, journal here at Journalz.com Sweet dreams! “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious” - Thomas Edison