I was just curious as to the differences in how people are dream-journaling. Do you have a digital journal, physical, or both? Do you write your dreams throughout the night, or only after waking up in the morning? What data besides the dreams themselves do you include in it? Do you have separate lists in other areas for dream goals / signs, or right in the journal? How do you study it, do you make notes or mark it up at all? Feel free to share anything about the process (even pictures of your journals!). Your response don't need to be limited by these questions. Looking forward to what you all have to say!
I personally use a digital app called "lucidity", as I record my dreams throughout the night upon natural awakenings. I type faster than I write, and if I don't immediately record the dream I just awoke from and instead wait until later when I finally wake up "for good" that morning, I'll have forgotten most of that dream. I just dim my phone brightness (with blue-light filter, color of the digital "page" set to grey for night mode). This works well and I am able to record a lot of details this way... I then transfer the digital dream to a physical notebook, handwriting it over again later in the day (when I have time at least, need to do that again soon).
This is my physical dream journal. Simple, but I love the golden trim of the pages, makes it seem magical or something haha. Funny enough, back in 2008 (I was 11!) I found a weeks worth of dreams! I didn't even know about lucid dreaming back then, guess I always was interested in dreams!
To the right is a screenshot of my digital dream journal on the "Lucidity" app (I am not promoting it by the way, just sharing what I have). I color code my lucid dreams in a blue color for quick reference (also highlight the dates blue in my physical journal!) It allows me to add titles, and I try to add notes such as attempted techniques, bed/wake-times, dream seeds and signs, etc. You can also have multiple dreams per night, use hashtags for personal statistics (for lucid dreams, vivid dreams, etc). There are "dream tools" but I don't really use them as I want to train my mind, not rely on an app. For example, notifications reminding you to reality check, or re-read your dreams. You can also generate a list of the most commonly typed words for dream signs, but I'd rather search myself, as they are often more complex than a reoccurring word. There are cool statistics like total number of dreams, line graphs for frequency of dreams (per day, week, month), total lucid dreams (if you label them as such) etc. I think physical journals may be slightly better as far as forming schemas and connections, and for deep analysis, but digital is much quicker during the night, or when life gets to busy to sit down and write for an hour or more. I like the combination!
I’ve nearly always used pen and paper...or pencil so I could write upside down in bed!
i used to use A5 pads but now I’ve moved to A4 since the lockdown so i can write in any details and multiple dreams to easily review them.
At the moment I put in time of bed, last meal and when, any supplements, any notes on mood or whatever plus what I’m going to try, technique wise. I also wrote a brief bulletpointed summary of the day to help with any dream seeds.
in the night/morning, I write down any dreams with a pencil and any special notes if there are any to make.
in the morning I re-write The dreams plus my awakenings, also my dream signs from the dreams and any dream seeds.
:)