The MeToo movement has been wonderful for women’s rights and furthering awareness of sexual harassment and abuse. I know very few women who haven’t experienced sexual harassment at some point in their life and there is now an ability for women to have a voice, be...
Dream Journaling
What’s Your Online Persona?
Who Do You Think You Are? How Do You Want To Come Across Online? We all know someone who exaggerates their life online – we see the ‘official’ glitzy positive image they put on social media. For example, posts of holiday snaps look amazing but, when we meet to hear...
Striking the Balance – Parenting Children on Social Media
Children and social media: It can be a thorny issue for many parents. There is a common conflict. On the one hand, if you let your child engage in social media they can feel part of their friendship group and won’t feel left out or left behind, whilst on the other...
Phone Addiction – Are We Losing the Art of Being Able to be With Ourselves?
At a comedy show recently I sat in my seat during the interval and studied the art deco theatre. I was admiring the intricate ceiling and the décor and looked across from where I was sitting to see three people engrossed in their phones. They seemed oblivious to the...
Social Media Anxiety and How To Manage It
Social media can be a fantastic way of keeping in touch with people and a source of inspiration, support, and connection to wider conversations online. It can also link us to people we would otherwise not have access to, for example, brides and grooms who’ve invited...
Social Media Anxiety
This is the first in a series I’m writing about social media. Over recent years, and especially since the pandemic social media has become more prevalent in our lives. Benefits of Social Media There are fantastic sides to social media like the ability to keep in touch...
Your First Therapy Session
This is the time of year when it’s common for people to think about starting therapy. You may have decided that you want to approach a therapist and may have contacted someone and made a date for an initial consultation. But then the reality of having the first...
Is Therapy For Me?
Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year can be difficult times for many people. We spend the holiday with family in a more intense way than normal and this can reveal strains, tensions and ruptures that we normally overlook or don’t like to admit in our daily lives....
2022 Another New Year Another New Normal
2022 looks set to be another unique year. Here in the UK, covidwise, we start the year arguably in a better place than 2021. As Omicron continues, it’s becoming the new normal to take a lateral flow test before meeting family and friends. But many of us are still...
How To Survive Christmas 2021
Christmas can be challenging for many people but this year especially it will be difficult for most of us one way or another. We may have to make do with phone and video calls to stay in touch with people who we would normally be with. We may be posting presents...
How To Remember Your Dreams
I often work with people who dream frequently and are interested in their dreams. Many suffer from nightmares and night terrors which they remember vividly. I will be exploring these in a later post. But a lot of people don’t remember their dreams. This is a shame because our unconscious dreaming world is a powerful tool, often throwing light on challenges we may be facing in the present. So how can we begin to remember?
We all dream during our sleep. Dreaming happens during the rapid eye movement (REM) phase. This usually occurs towards the end of a sleep cycle. A sleep cycle usually lasts about 90 minutes and we can have several of these throughout the night. Potentially there are several pockets of time to remember our dreams, although it is perhaps easiest and most convenient to record the ones right at the end of our sleep as we wake in the morning.
It is possible to train ourselves to remember our dreams to some extent. If we tell our unconscious that we want to remember our dreams and drift off to sleep with the intention of remembering, this may encourage it to happen. Like many people who record their dreams, I find the easiest time is just before waking, when I’m sleeping relatively lightly. As I stir, sometimes mid-dream, I reach for my dream journal and pen and hastily scribble a few words. This will often be enough to prompt me to remember my dream later when I am fully awake.
How To Keep A Dream Journal
It helps to value the process of recording your dreams. One way to do this is to treat yourself to a really nice journal and a pen you find comfortable to write with. That way it’s a pleasure to write, even if it’s just a few scribbled words when you are only semi compos mentis!
Obviously, it makes sense to keep the journal and pen by your bedside for easy access, so you’re not fumbling around in the dawn light. To begin with, it can be quite an effort to wake yourself up enough to make notes, but hopefully it will be worth it when you are able to fall back asleep with enough of an interesting dream to explore later in the day.
Dream Apps
An alternative to a journal is to record dream fragments on a phone or tablet if you keep these in the bedroom. There are several apps available to enable this:
How To Reflect On Your Dream
If you want to reflect on your dream either alone or with someone, it’s best to have as much detail as possible to work with. It’s always good to find some time in the day, the earlier the better, to give the dream your attention.
Here are some prompts to ask yourself:
What did you write down?
Can you remember the dream from your notes?
What can you remember about it?
Who was in the dream?
Where did the dream take place?
What happened in the dream?
What were the feelings you experienced in the dream?
How did you feel immediately on waking up?
How do you feel now remembering it?
It can take time and determination to foster this habit. But give it a try, it could lead to you getting to know your dreams and therefore yourself much better!
Photography by Claudia Mañas on Unsplash