Dream journal: [Month YYYY]

How to use this template

  1. Before you go to sleep, copy the entry below, from its date heading down to the divider, and paste it above the Index. It's waiting when you wake.

  2. On waking, lie still and replay the dream before you move or check your phone. Fill in Quick capture before you sit up: words and fragments, not sentences.

  3. Write The dream later that morning, in the present tense. Leave interpretation out, and mark gaps with (…) instead of filling them in.

  4. Fill in the rest when you have five minutes. Recall runs from 1, a single image, to 5, the whole dream. A night with nothing remembered still gets an entry: the date, how you slept and “no recall”. Recall improves with the habit itself.

  5. When something turns up a second time, add it to the Index. On the last day of the month, fill in Month in review.

See an example entry

2027-03-14 · The library with water for floors
Slept: 23:10 to 06:45 · Woke: on my own · Recall: 4 · Kind: vivid

Quick capture: library, warm water ankle deep, Grandma's green coat, a key that's too hot, “you're late for the exam”, stairs only going down

The dream: I'm in a library where the floor is water, ankle deep and warm. My grandmother walks ahead of me in her green coat; she died six years ago, and it doesn't seem strange. She hands me a key and says I'm late for the exam. (…) Then I'm on a staircase that only goes down, and the key is getting hot in my hand. I wake before I reach the bottom.

Waking life: I walked past the old library on Tuesday. Mum mentioned the coat on the phone on Sunday. My work review is on Friday.

Keep for later: the staircase that only goes down.

[YYYY-MM-DD] · [Title: the strangest image, in a few words]

Slept

Woke

Recall

Kind

[23:30] to [07:00]

[Alarm, or on my own]

[1–5]

[Vivid, lucid, nightmare…]

Quick capture · before you sit up

[Keywords and fragments: people, places, a word someone said, the last image before waking. Full sentences can wait.]

The dream · the same morning

[What happened, in order and in the present tense, as far as you remember it. Mark gaps with (…) instead of filling them in.]

Details

People

[Who was there: people you know, strangers, animals, yourself at another age]

Places

[Where it happened, and anything wrong with the place]

Objects

[Anything that stood out: a key, a car, a letter, a door]

Actions

[What you did, said or chose, and what others did to you]

Feelings

[During the dream and on waking, each with a strength from 1 to 5]

Senses and words

[Colors, sounds, smells, anything read or said aloud]

Odd details

[Anything impossible or out of place: the dream signs to watch for]

Waking life

[What the dream borrowed from the last few days: a place, a person, a conversation, a worry, something you read or watched. Facts only; interpretation can come later, if at all.]

Keep for later

  • [An image, line or situation worth using in a story, poem or drawing]

  • [A question the dream left open]

Index: what keeps coming back

Element

Type

Nights

What changes

[Seen twice or more]

[Place, person, feeling…]

[Entry dates]

[How it differs each night]

[Element]

[Type]

[Dates]

[What changes]

[Element]

[Type]

[Dates]

[What changes]

Month in review

  • Nights recorded: [N] of [N]

  • Most frequent feeling: [Feeling, and the nights it appeared]

  • New in the index: [Element]

  • Best material for later: [Entry title and date]

  • Next month I'll change: [e.g. the phone face down by the bed, a voice note instead of typing]