Dreams and a dream journal

In this lesson: the history of dream reading from Artemidorus to today, how to keep a dream journal and how to reflect on dreams safely.

Every night you make up stories without trying. People have read dreams for as long as we have records, and a dream journal is one of the gentlest divination practices there is. You need nothing but a notebook by your bed.

Dream reading in history

Historical Ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all wrote about dreams as messages. The best surviving guide from the ancient world is the Oneirocritica by Artemidorus of Daldis, written in Greek in the second century CE. He collected dreams from many people and taught that the same image could mean different things for different dreamers, depending on their life and situation.

Modern Modern sleep science sees dreams as part of how the brain handles memory and emotion, and it does not support dreams as predictions. Many readers, me included, use them as a mirror: a dream can show what you are feeling before you have put it into words. Dream dictionaries can be fun, but your own associations matter more, which Artemidorus would have agreed with.

Dream books from Egypt to Freud

Historical One of the oldest dream books in the world is an Egyptian papyrus known as Papyrus Chester Beatty III, written around 1275 BCE and now in the British Museum. It lists dreams and their meanings in a simple format: “If a man sees himself in a dream… good” or “…bad”, followed by an interpretation.

For example, seeing yourself looking out of a window was good, meaning the gods would hear your cry. In the second century CE, the Greek writer Artemidorus of Daldis wrote the Oneirocritica, a five-book manual based on dreams he collected while traveling. He insisted that the meaning of a dream depended on the dreamer’s life, age and situation.

Historical In 1899 the Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams (dated 1900), arguing that dreams express hidden wishes in disguised form. Carl Jung later saw dreams as messages from the unconscious that compensate for one-sided attitudes. These theories shaped twentieth-century culture, though many of Freud’s specific claims have not held up.

Modern Today sleep researchers think dreams draw heavily on recent experiences and emotional concerns, sometimes called the continuity hypothesis. Dreams may help process emotions and memories, though scientists still debate their function. Lucid dreaming, being aware that you are dreaming while in the dream, was confirmed in the laboratory in the late 1970s and early 1980s by researchers including Keith Hearne in England and Stephen LaBerge at Stanford.

How to read a dream without a dictionary

Dream dictionaries give fixed meanings, but Artemidorus and modern researchers agree that personal context matters most. Try this approach. Write the dream as it happened. Circle three key images. For each, write what it means to you, what it reminds you of and how you felt about it in the dream. Then ask what is happening in your waking life that has the same feeling. Often the connection becomes clear. A dream of missing a train, for example, may connect to a sense of falling behind at work, not to literal travel.

Your dream journal practice, step by step

What you need: a notebook and pen kept by your bed, a small light, and a regular bedtime if you can manage one.

1. Before sleep, write the date and, if you like, a gentle question such as “What do I need to know about this week?”
2. When you wake, stay still for a moment and let the dream come back.
3. Write it down before you check your phone, even if you only remember one image.
4. Add one feeling word and anything from yesterday the dream reminds you of.
5. Underline symbols that feel important and write your own association for each.
6. Once a week, read back over your entries and look for repeating images.
7. Note which dreams, if any, matched later events, and which did not.

Journal prompts: Which images keep coming back in your dreams? What feeling woke up with you most often this week? When a dream seemed to come true, was it a prediction, or something you already knew?

Questions beginners ask

People often ask why they cannot remember dreams. Almost everyone dreams every night, especially during REM sleep. Recall improves when you wake slowly, keep still for a moment and write immediately.

Others ask whether recurring dreams mean something. They often reflect an ongoing worry. Writing them down and noticing what is happening in your life when they return can help.

Some ask about nightmares. Occasional nightmares are normal. Frequent nightmares that disturb sleep, especially after trauma, can be treated; a technique called imagery rehearsal therapy has good evidence. Talk to a doctor.

Myths to drop: Dreams do not predict the future according to any reliable evidence. Dream dictionaries are not authoritative. And dreaming of death rarely has anything to do with actual death; it often symbolizes change.

Two gates and a sceptic

Historical The oldest image of dream interpretation in European literature may be Penelope’s two gates in Homer’s Odyssey. Talking with a stranger who is really her husband in disguise, she explains why she does not trust every dream. In Samuel Butler’s public domain translation of 1900, book 19, she says: “dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not by any means invariably come true.

There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed; the one is of horn, and the other ivory. Those that come through the gate of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of horn mean something to those that see them.”

I find Penelope’s caution wise. Even in a world full of gods and omens, she knows that most dreams are not messages, and she holds her own hopeful dream lightly.

Centuries later, Cicero put the sceptic’s case plainly. In W. A. Falconer’s translation of 1923, he asks: “who, if he shoots at a mark all day long, will not occasionally hit it? We sleep every night and there is scarcely ever a night when we do not dream; then do we wonder that our dreams come true sometimes?” With thousands of dreams a year, a few will match later events by chance. A dream journal lets you see the misses as well as the hits.

A dream worked through

Here is a fuller example of the method above. A learner dreams she is in her old school, late for an exam in a subject she never studied, and cannot find the room. She circles three images: the old school, the exam and the lost room. For the school, she writes “being judged, feeling young”. For the exam, “being tested on something I’m not ready for”. For the lost room, “not knowing where I’m supposed to be”.

Then she asks what in her waking life feels like this. She has just been asked to lead a meeting at work on a topic she knows little about. The dream does not predict failure; it shows her worry clearly. She decides to ask a colleague for a briefing before the meeting. That is dream work at its most useful: noticing a feeling and taking a practical step.

Nightmares and gentle care

Most people have occasional nightmares, especially during stress, illness or big changes. After a bad dream, turn on a soft light, sit up, feel your feet on the floor and take a few slow breaths. Some people find it helps to write the dream down and then write a new, calmer ending, which is a simple version of a technique therapists call imagery rehearsal. If nightmares are frequent, follow a traumatic event, or disturb your sleep for weeks, talk to a doctor; there is good help available.

Dream journal variations

The voice memo. If writing in the dark is hard, record a short voice note on your phone as soon as you wake, then write it up later.

The dream sketch. Draw one image from the dream instead of writing the whole story. Pictures often bring back details words miss.

The one-word morning. On busy mornings, write just one word that captures the dream’s feeling. Even a word a day builds a useful record.

A worked example

A learner writes “lost my keys, running for a train, anxious” three times in two weeks. Her association for keys is “access” and for the train is “a deadline”. Reading back, she sees the dreams came on nights before work presentations. She treats them as a sign to prepare a day earlier, and the dreams fade.

Try this

Put a notebook and pen by your bed tonight. Tomorrow, before you check your phone, write down anything you remember from your dreams, even one image, and add one feeling word.

A beginner’s worry, answered. “I never remember my dreams.” Many people do not at first. Keep the notebook by the bed, tell yourself as you fall asleep that you would like to remember, and lie still for a moment on waking before you move. Recall usually improves within a week or two.

A variation for recurring dreams. If a dream keeps returning, give it its own page. Each time it comes back, note the date and what was happening in your life that week. After a few entries, look for the common thread. Recurring dreams often fade once you have recognised the worry or situation they seem to be pointing at, and the page becomes a record of how you worked through it.

Recap

Dream reading is ancient, and Artemidorus’s Oneirocritica from the second century CE taught that a dream’s meaning depends on the dreamer. Today dreams are best used as a mirror. Write them down at once, note your own associations and protect your sleep.

What next

Press “Mark as done” and continue with A month of divination practice.

Further reading: Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, translated by Daniel E. Harris-McCoy (Oxford University Press, 2012). The British Museum’s online pages on Papyrus Chester Beatty III. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep (Scribner, 2017), chapters on dreaming.

Sources

• Artemidorus of Daldis, Oneirocritica (second century CE), trans. Daniel E. Harris-McCoy as Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
• Juliette Harrisson, Dreams and Dreaming in the Roman Empire: Cultural Memory and Imagination (London: Bloomsbury, 2013).

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