“We are all already poets in the depths of ourselves — as our image-filled and wildly imaginative dreams show us!”

David Richo in Being True to Life

When I collected journal entries from contemporary writers for The Writer’s Journal: 40 Contemporary Writers and their Journals, I learned how significant dreams can be for writers. Several authors contributed journal entries that recounted dreams they later used to write stories and even books.

Memoirist and scholar Joan Weimer wrote in an entry:

I dream that I met Constance Woolson [an American novelist and short story writer who lived from March 5, 1840 to January24, 1894] in a crowded hall. She’s slim and tall. I put my arm around her waist. I want to be on intimate terms with her. (Sisters? Alter egos? Lovers?) I tell her I’ve brought her stories back in print, and she’s pleased and surprised. I don’t have a copy of my anthology to show her. (Letting her down?) She’s shy and quiet but agrees to meet me on Friday, a day I don’t teach. (This is not going to be business as usual.) Will she show up? She accepts so few invitations. I’m trembling with excitement…

Ultimately, the author is sure the dream was the germ for her memoir Back Talk: Teaching Lost Selves to Speak.

This week, we interview dream analyst and psychotherapist Joan Mazza on how to keep a dream journal to facilitate your ability to remember your dreams and then perhaps to use the material in your writing.

[Joan Mazza’s words on dream journaling appeared in Personal Journaling Magazine, Winter 1999 and February 2001 –Ed.]

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Sheila
Joan, I am so pleased that you are interested in sharing your expertise as a psychotherapist who works with dream analysis. I know from reading many writers on writing, that images that come in dreams prove significant in shaping poems and stories. But I know that many people, myself included, can go weeks without dreams. What can we do to try and increase our harvest of material from dreams?

 Joan
If you don’t remember dreams, it doesn’t mean you’re not dreaming. In fact, we all dream every night. Nor does it mean that there is something wrong with you or that you are repressed or afraid to remember. You’re probably just not taking the time and effort to catch your dreams.

You are more likely to remember dreams when they are vivid and charged with strong emotions, such as those that are disturbing, weird, sexually arousing, or terrifying. You are also more likely to remember dreams during a period when your life is in upheaval, even if you wanted the changes. Life transitions include job changes, divorce, marriage, moving, illness, or travel. If you are stirred up emotionally and preoccupied with planning and solving problems, your mind will continue to work on these concerns while you’re sleeping.

During times when your life is relatively calm and satisfactory, you have less need to remember dreams although you are still having them. The many “ordinary” dreams you have every night may never reach your waking consciousness unless something like an image, conversation, or event in your waking life triggers the memory. Then you might spontaneously say, “I dreamed that!”

Sheila
Yes, I’ve had that happen. There are times I don’t think I’ve dreamt anything but something floats up during the day.

Joan
That’s a good time to remember that telling yourself to write your dreams down is not enough; you have to take the time to write them down.

You can start right now. To wake up your dream machine, do a journal entry about any dream you can remember — no matter how ancient it is or how patchy the content. Write about your feelings in this dream in detail, allowing your mind to make connections that arise naturally. If you can recall, write down what was happening in your life at the time that you had the dream.

This simple exercise helps you to tune into your unconscious and that will help to turn on your dream machine. By telling yourself in writing that you’re interested in your dreams, you are more likely to remember one.

Sheila
That seems doable. Are there other tricks to building access to dreams?

Joan
Another way to wake up your dream machine is to consider the issues that are in foreground in your life at this time. What is on your mind a lot? What problems would you like to solve? What are your immediate goals? Write your answers down in your journal. Then pick one and ask for a dream about it by phasing a simple request for more clarity on this subject. Write it at the top of a blank page in your journal. For example:

I want clarity about my job dissatisfaction.
Tell me how to be more in touch with myself.
What can I do to get along better with X?
Why am I feeling so frustrated and tired?

Notice that these are not questions with yes/no answers. They call for explanations in paragraphs. Write down whatever you get — no matter how brief, silly, or off-topic your dream seems to be. Your dream will give you an answer to your request even if it doesn’t appear to be. And remember: a dream is a story in the language of symbol and metaphor, and those symbols are perfect because you picked them. They will be in the language of your daily speech. If you were shooting a gun in your dream, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean that you are feeling murderous. That symbol might mean you feel you are shooting yourself in the foot, expressing the insight of self-sabotage, or that you are taking shots at yourself or someone else. It’s a metaphor!

Having a way to record your dreams is the most important step in waking up your dream machine. Place your journal by your bedside. Imagine yourself waking up and writing down a remembered dream. Expect to remember.

Sheila
That sounds easy enough. What keeps us from being disciplined in this way?

Joan
Some obstacles to having or remembering dreams include:

1. Consuming alcohol, caffeine, or other substances and medications that interfere with REM sleep. (But do not change your medication or dosage without consulting your doctor.)
2. Not getting enough sleep.
3. Frequent interruptions in your sleep.
4. Disparaging the value of dreams.
5. Believing you won’t remember dreams. (A self-fulfilling prophecy.)

If sitting up in bed makes you forget your dream, as it does for many people, catch your dream by staying in bed a few minutes as you slowly awaken. Close your eyes and return to your last sleeping position before you rolled over. Try to re-enter the emotions and images of the dream.

Write down whatever comes to mind. A few phrases or key images will capture the essence of the dream and its emotional truth.

Catch your dream and see the value of a dream fragment. You now have a raw insight to work on your own. Or you can work on the meaning of this dream morsel with your dream partner — a trusted person with whom to discuss your dreams and secrets. Having a dream partner, by itself, will help you remember your dreams. By taking dreams seriously, paying attention to their messages, and having someone else to discuss them with, you can wake up your dream life and pretty soon, you’ll have more dreams then you’ll know what to do with.

Sheila
Oh, this sounds like what we already do as writers–select trusted readers (listeners) with our work-in-progress to get response to our writing that will keep us working on it.

What is your definition of a dream journal?

Joan
A dream journal is a record of your dreams along with your feelings and the events of your life at the time of the dream. Keeping your daily journal at your bedside will help you to record dreams and their fragments, whenever you have them. When you have a fragment written down, such as I was in school again and knew I had to take a test I wasn’t prepared for. That can be the first opening toward remembering the whole dream. Suddenly, one sentence unfolds an entire dream to review and understand in waking consciousness.

But simply writing down dreams is usually not enough to understand them. When we write them, we begin to make connections to events and emotions that press on us in our waking lives, but that might not be sufficient to unlock the meaning of the dream. The first connections are what people think the dreams mean. They might say, “I dreamed about losing my luggage at an airport because I bought plane tickets yesterday.” But this is only the first layer of meaning — the literal meaning of the imagery and its source, which is usually from the previous day’s events.

Beyond the literal layer, a dream comes to tell us some new information about our perceptions and behavior at the time of the dream. The dream brings to conscious awareness something that is just below the surface of full consciousness. We know it, but we don’t know it.

We make up the dream story to clarify or solve a problem, to comfort and calm ourselves in the face of daily pressures. In psychological terms, we say the dream offers an insight. By writing the dream down and taking the next steps to understanding the dream, we can arrive at a higher level of self-awareness.

Sheila
That is exactly what I think writing personal essays and poetry does for us!

Joan
In many ways, dreams seem to speak on a plane of wisdom and knowledge that we don’t have access to while we are awake. Our conscious minds frequently rationalize our bad choices, make excuses for our procrastination, blame other people for our troubles, justify our fears and outbursts.

In our dreams, we seem to know better — that we acted rashly or unkindly, that we hesitate when we should have courage and confidence. A dream will tell us that we can do the things we fear. It says we are wiser than we believed.

Sheila
Yes, so many of my poetry teachers claimed, “My poems are smarter than I am.” It’s as if writing our experience and getting in flow with what I call the design mind (the unconscious that throws us just the right images to travel toward insight) can’t be manipulated if it is going to produce a good poem or essay. You can always see the left brain entering the scene and changing things for a “better” appearance. As writers we learn to really listen for tone shifts that signal something is manipulating our words rather than following the path they are creating to realization.

I think writers might do very well not trying to rush to an understanding of their dreams but instead use dream journaling as a way of practicing the art of trust images and remaining inspired to use these images in writing.

Joan
And they can certainly read their dreams as they would a story. There are doorways to deciphering dream meanings: pictures, language, emotions, a story (with an ending).

Dreams give us messages in symbol and metaphor, usually in pictures. We can translate the dream pictures and images into our everyday language. If I see someone struggling to put on shoes in a dream, I might wonder what shoe doesn’t fit? Have I, as the dreamer, tried to force myself into a configuration of style or belief that doesn’t suit me? Am I trying to manipulate someone else into conforming to my requests? My dream figure might be me or someone else — or both. Writing down the dream in a journal helps me to translate the pictures into my usual speech. The clichés of our everyday conversations show up as the images and stories of our dreams.

Sheila
Using clichés is fun for writers–we are always told not to use them in our writing, but to use them in exploring what our dreams might be telling us will allow us to come up with the themes of our stories and obsessions.

Joan
Yes, and because dream language is always personal, you can’t look up the symbols in dream dictionary. You must arrive at your own meanings as you hear the language of the dream as an example of your usual speech.

Sheila
Oh, it sounds like by allowing ourselves to write using the dream imagery we will be listening to meaning–coming upon it, discovering it as we discover the story or poem we are writing from the material.

Joan
Of all the doorways to reveal the mysteries of dreams, emotions provide the best entrance. When a dreamer tells me they felt terrified of crashing (in a car or plane) in her dream, I ask what felt like that on the day before the dream. Whatever the feeling — from blissful ecstasy to mortal terror, the dream echoes the dreamer’s emotions just before the dream. If she feels betrayed in her dream, I suggest she ask herself what kinds of betrayal she feared or faced in the hours before the dream. Is the betrayal literal or metaphoric? Might someone cheat her in a pending business deal? Is she betraying some promise to herself by doing something she had sworn she’d never do again? Has someone else let her down?

Sheila
I think as writers we look for the words and phrases that have sounds that will convey our feelings, such as terror and fear. This sounds like excellent practice for us!

Joan
Yes, and in addition, the story of a dream often has a plot, just like a story in a novel. Something happens, then something else happens. Things get worse (or better) for the dream’s main character, who may be the dreamer or someone who represents an aspect of the dreamer’s personality. And then it ends — for better or worse. The main character changes from the events of the story.

The dream story, like the emotions in your dream, is an echo of your assessment of your life at the time of the dream. However, it’s a snapshot, not necessarily a global statement of your emotional state or competence. You might be very angry or afraid in the dream and at the time of the dream, but the dream isn’t saying that’s what you are — just highlighting your present state.

The dream might be telling you how you’re feeling overwhelmed or exploited and how you set out to resolve it. How does your dream story end? Do you hide? Run away? Or do you face your dragons with your magic sword? What is the dream telling you that helps you to see yourself as more capable?

Sheila
As we write about our dreams then, we should ask questions of the dreams that will keep us writing.

Joan
Here are some steps to understanding dreams that will help do just that:

Write down the entire dream down with all its details, changes of setting, character, and objects.

1. What are the dream’s most vivid images, especially those in color or in sharp contrast to the jumble of shadows?
2. Note anything said in the dream, by you or another character, animal or shadowy figure.
3. Write down your feelings at each point in the dream. Do your emotions change in the course of the dream, such as going from content to fearful? Or anxious to feeling competent?
4. What is the dream story? “I wanted to get to the other side of the railroad tracks. I saw a train coming, but I jumped in front of it anyway.”
5. Condense the dream story to one to three sentences. You will likely hear the dream’s advice. “My behavior yesterday was rash and dangerous. I am ignoring obvious risk.”
6. How does the dream end? If you wake up before it ends naturally, how do you think it might have ended?
7. Note any spontaneous connections you make to the main issues in your life.
8. Write down the events that preceded the dream: what you did the day before, your feelings about your day, your worries, concerns.
9. What was the last thought you had before going to bed?
10. How is the dream a metaphor for your current concerns? What problem or concern might the dream be trying to resolve?
11. What change in thinking or behavior does your dream call for?
12. Before going to bed, ask yourself for another dream for more clarity.

These steps need not be followed in order, nor do you have to do each step. Any step can open the doorway to meaning. As soon as you start to make connections between the dream and its possible meanings, continue to explore those that resonate with you.

Sheila
What do you advise for people who are having recurring dreams or nightmares and are uncomfortable writing about them?

Joan
Having nightmares and recurrent dreams can be very unsettling. We wake up feeling terrified, in a sweat, our hearts pounding. We want to push the dream out of consciousness and make it stop. We don’t want to remember it! But nightmares, especially recurrent nightmares, are the way our unconscious gets our attention. The recurrent nightmare says, “Hey! Listen up! You need to do something different!” The disturbing images and emotions of a nightmare are really a gift — hard as that may be to remember when we’re in the middle of one.

Sheila
And they certainly might lead to some interesting writing since the details are so vivid and the feelings so strong. How do you think we should approach dream journal writing as writers who evaluate our work?

Joan
Much of what we write in a journal can feel like an outpouring of junk. We complain and whine, bemoan our present situation, blame others and wish things were different. It’s a dumping ground for all the feelings and thoughts we want to unload. This might make you wonder if keeping a dream journal is good for you. You may wish you had loftier thoughts or more noble concerns. But this unloading frees us, unburdens our psyche by letting go of the junk. With steady practice in journaling our dreams, we come to terms with our fears and hurts. We grow and change. We see our patterns, our useless anxieties, how we are maturing. A journal with a steady examination of our dreams and nightmares speeds up this growth and development.

We can think of the contents of our dream journal as we would the compost heap in a greenhouse. The pile looks like discarded, moldy, smelly stuff, but within it are the elements for future growth. Its breakdown and decay transforms it into useful material that is rich with possibilities. Used properly in the greenhouse of our unconscious, the compost of our day and of our dreams become valuable, part of the cycle of renewal. In it, we germinate the seeds of our future self — wiser and more at peace.

Sheila
Can you sum up the benefits of keeping a dream journal?

Joan
Certainly. I’d say a dream journal:

• Provides a safe place to ventilate thoughts and feelings
• Suggests solutions to problems
• Offers an opportunity to examine emotions and to reflect on the day’s events
• Gives a bigger picture of one’s life; offers perspective
• Prepares a record of dream patterns and concerns
• Encourages you to listen to your dreams
• Facilitates your reassembling the different parts of your personality
• Offers a place to plant the seeds of creative projects
• Shines a light on your dark side or Shadow (which is often more positive than you think.)
• Invites new ways of looking at problems and troubles
• Raises consciousness and self-awareness
• Grants you permission to safely fantasize lust, revenge, etc.
• Captures your moments of greatness
• Illuminates your authentic self
• Allows you to speak your truth

Sheila
That’s good advice for all writers. Can you give us some more tips?

Joan
Of course:

Find a way to secure your dream journal to feel confident that its contents are private.

Do not share your journal with others.

Write something every morning when you wake, even if you think you don’t remember any dreams. Write a paragraph about how you feel on waking.

1. Record your dreams-in detail alongside your day’s events.
2. When recording dreams, focus on emotions and sensations in the dream. Notice how feelings change in the course of the dream.
3. Write about your feelings, concerns, deepest passions and hopes, not just events in your life or in the dream.
4. Notice how your dreams question your assumptions, perceptions, righteous indignation, and beliefs.
5. Allow your dreams to show your dark side; give them permission to have their say.
6. Do not censor yourself at all when writing dreams and journal entries.
7. Don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, format.
8. Draw or doodle if you feel like it. Include a sketch of a visual dream detail that’s hard to describe.
9. Re-read occasionally so you notice patterns and repeating themes and images.
10. Look for dreams that might be the start of creative ideas.

Sheila
Joan, thanks so much for your expertise. I have always thought that the writing mind and the dream mind have much in common–as writers we must start with our unconscious connection to images and sounds that haunt us. Now, I have more tools for keeping that mind fertilizing my conscious daytime mind.