The Talmud says, "A dream uninterpreted is like a letter unopened." Recent scientific studies estimate that 95% of brain activity is unconscious. Recording your dreams is like receiving dispatches from the deepest part of yourself, a personalized map into your own great unknown.

In order to begin understanding your dreams, here are some helpful tips:

1. Intention - As dreams seem to often contain elements from your waking day, integrate the intention to remember your dream into you are waking life. For example,

a) Tell a friend that you are working on remembering your dreams.

b) Say out loud to yourself, "I will remember my dreams tonight.”

c) Write the intention to remember your dreams in your journal.

2. Sleep well - dreams come during our REM cycle. If we don’t sleep well, or long enough, we may not get a full serving of evening dreams. For advice on improving sleep, see…

3. Awake gently - Ideally, don’t use an alarm clock, or at least use a gentle one that doesn’t rip you shockingly from your slumber and allows you to press snooze. It’s often in the 8 minutes of “snooze” that I’m able to cement the details of my dream into my waking consciousness - unless I’m so exhausted that I fall back to sleep!

4. Journal immediately - Keep journal that you’d like to record your dreams in right by your bedside. Design your own environment for success by creating the obvious cue of your journal as the first thing in your line of sight upon waking. As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviors.”

Write down as many details in your dream as you can, no matter how minute or seemingly unimportant they may seem. After recording the dream, note where the emotions are in the dream. Some recommend writing the actions of the dream down in present tense (“I am running”) vs. past tense (“I ran.”).

Dr. Rubin Naiman, PhD, FAASM, sleep and dream specialist, likens dreams to shy puppies who flee when you get too close. Stay somewhat sleepy when recording your dreams. Don’t rush into the waking world, where they tend to dissipate as soon as “real life” matters enter our consciousness.

To start attempting some beginner analysis of your dreams, begin by brainstorming your personal associations to the dream elements. For more assistance, I highly recommend Dr. Gayle Delaney’s Living Your Dreams vs. a dream dictionary with generic symbology, or bringing your dreams to your therapy sessions.