One notebook or two? For dreamers, that is the question.

When day meets night we call it dusk. But when day met night in my journals, I called it: “Time to go buy a new notebook.”

Q:

I know that keeping a dream journal is supposed to be the best way to help people remember and understand their dreams. But I already keep a journal. Do I need to have two separate notebooks? Do you keep your dreams in a separate journal? Or do you put them all together?

Signed,

Divided Dreamer

A:

Dear Divided,

I began keeping a diary at age 12, in a plaid cloth-covered book with a little brass lock. I don’t know when my diaries grew up and became journals. Nor do I know what percentage of those books are dream journals. Over the years, sometimes I kept separate dream journals, other times I wrote the dreams alongside, beneath or above entries about daytime events.

For several years, I even started journals from both ends (like burning a candle from both ends?). I would draw a moon on the front cover of the notebook and flip it over and make a sun on the “back” cover. Moving from the front of the notebook, each morning I would record my dreams. Then before bed, I’d flip the book over and, beginning from the “back” of the book, I’d write about the day. When day meets night we call it dusk. But when day met night in my journals, I called it: “Time to go buy a new notebook.”

But since dreams are such an important part of my overall experience, I now keep one continuous record of day and night. I write in my notebook, usually at night, starting each entry with my dreams from the night before. (Because of my detailed dream recall, writing dreams at night works well for me, but most people prefer to write their dreams in the morning.) I mark the dream entry with a crescent moon. Then I reflect on the day and mark that entry with a drawing of a sun.

Often, like the little boy in E.B. White’s Trumpet of the Swans, I end my entry with a question. Often, my dreams will pick up the conversation from there.

But what should you do, Dear Divided Dreamer? I think you should do exactly as I have done. That is, experiment with different methods and find what works best for you.

Wishing you sweet dreams and plenty of ink to write them all down with!

Tzivia 

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