Some people wake up and check social media first thing in the morning. As soon as my eyes open, I get on my phone, open my dream journal app, and start vigorously typing away. Now I realize that might sound kinda lame, like, a dream journal? Really? But I don't think anyone understands how intensely vivid my dreams are. And this doesn't just happen once every few weeks. It happensevery night.

Since starting it around this time of year, my journal contains (as of Saturday, February 25th) 172 journal entries, 38 of those being from just this year, and one extremely long one from just last night. Granted, for about 3 months I got out of the habit of writing them all down. But now, no matter how tired or how much I really do not want to write them down, I know if I don't do it I'll regret it later. But why do I write them all down?

Keeping a dream journal increases your ability to recall your dreams. Even if you start out only remembering tiny fragments of your dreams, soon enough you'll be able to remember full dreams. I've been an avid "dreamer" all my life. I say that cautiously because I'm prone to nightmares/night terrors. BUT, aside from that, I have found that keeping a dream journal has not only increased my ability to remember my dreams but also increased the intensity and creativity of what happens in them. Not only that, but dreams begin to have patterns. Looking through titles of my dreams, I have had many dreams about New Orleans, basketball, zombies, kidnapping, swamp animals, celebrities, and getting into situations where someone (including me) might get killed...whatever that all means...

Unlike many others that interpret their dreams, I mainly keep my journal as a source of entertainment. It's a pretty great conversation starter too, I guess! The app I use is called Dream Journal Ultimate. It allows you to not only write down your dreams but keep them secure with login info and a pin, mark them as "adult dreams", lucid dreams, you can set a reality check timer to remind yourself you aren't dreaming, AND you can even share dreams with others using the app on the "Dream Wall".

A few of my favorite dream titles I've had this past year are: "Hick Escape", "McDreamy Kids" (I don't even watch Grey's), "Satanic Epidemic", "The Heavy Watermelons", "6 Rabbid Animals"—in which I was bitten by a different rabbid animal 6 nights in a row— and "Marilyn Manson and the Longest Dream Ever". Someday I'll physically write all of them out in an actual journal because I am horrendously terrified I'm going to lose them all somehow. But, I digress. I highly recommend trying it out, and happy dreaming!