The Nocturnal Journal

Tracking Down Sleep

The nocturnal journal is a “diary for the events of the night” in which you record the quality of your sleep. Each morning after you wake up, you will note down how long you slept, what time you went to bed, how often you woke up during the night, your feelings, your state of mind, and others.

The basic idea behind a nocturnal journal is first to get a good overview of your current state of sleep and second, to be able to see which exercises and activities during the day affect your sleep in which way.

You also briefly note down any dreams from the night, because some people suffer from the impression that they have been awake all night even though objectively speaking they show a normal sleep pattern, a condition called Paradoxical Insomnia. A dream, on the other hand, is an indication that you have spent a good part of the night in a deep sleep state. And this revelation can have a very positive effect on the psyche.

How to Keep a Nocturnal Journal 📕

Write down the following about your sleep:

  • Time you went to bed
  • Time you woke up
  • How many hours you slept in total
  • Your process of falling asleep
  • Any phases of sleep you were aware of (e.g. hypnagogic state, dreams, hypnopompia)
  • Any circumstances during the day that may have affected your sleep (e.g. physical exercise, alcohol, caffeine, arguments, stress, relaxation exercise, meditation, rituals, morning light, etc.)
  • How you feel when you wake up
  • How the night went overall

Write down the following about your dreams:

  • All dreams, especially nightmares, you can remember (short and sweet is enough)
  • The main themes and emotional mood of the dreams
  • How these dreams feel to you when you wake up

Why Write Down Dreams?

Recording your dreams has the following positive effects on your psyche:

  • Cleansing/Discharging – by “downloading” the dream to a medium (e.g. paper or phone) and thorough examination of its content, a recurring dream or nightmare does not need to reappear and will stop

  • Expansion of your emotional world – you will become more aware of the richness of your own inner world

  • Your dream recordings are extremely valuable for lucid dreaming techniques, which than can be used to resolve nightmares or trauma

If you can’t remember your dreams, the following affirmation will help:

“Tonight I remember my dreams,
I have excellent dream recall.”

As you fall asleep being half awake half asleep, repeat this sentence in your mind for a few minutes. Then let go of the affirmation and surrender to sleep fully.

With the help of this affirmation, most people can recall at least parts of their dreams without much effort just after a few nights, even if they have not remembered a single dream for years.

The Significance of the Nocturnal Journal 📕

By keeping a nocturnal journal and with each new entry, you are confirming to yourself that you value your sleep and your dreams. Forming this new habit creates a fascinating feedback loop: your conscious mind becomes more aware of your sleep – while your unconscious mind begins to present you with more memorable dreams in return. Your dreams become more exciting, more interesting, more profound – as you have begun to actively listen to them.

For many people, the practice of keeping a nocturnal journal combined with the intention to notice and remember sleep cycles and dreams more clearly, will lead to a heightened awareness after just a few weeks.

Example For A Nocturnal Journal Entry 📖

11th/12th June 2024

I went to bed at 11pm, but stayed on TikTok for another 45 mins. Switched off light at 11.45pm.

After that, it felt like an eternity before I could fall asleep (maybe because of all the doomscrolling on TikTok?). However, as I was falling asleep, I made a firm resolution to remember my dreams.

A few hours later I woke up again to use the loo. I remembered a long dream where I was at work, but the office looked more like a swimming pool. My boss was there too. He reminded me a lot of my father. My workload was heavy and all documents threatened to drown in water. The whole situation felt quite stressful, but my boss encouraged me.

Afterwards, I had trouble falling asleep and felt wide awake. I read a book and tried the 4-7-8 breathing exercise. Eventually I fell asleep again.

My alarm went off at 7am and I immediately hit the snooze button. At 7.30 my alarm went off a second time. I know I had another dream, but I can’t remember it.

After waking up I felt pretty good, much better than yesterday.


Sleep Overall:

  • about 6 hours

Influences Before Bedtime:

  • Before going to sleep, I was worrying that I wasn’t getting enough sleep. To distract myself I scrolled on TikTok. But after that I couldn’t fall asleep for ages.

Influences During the Day:

  • Been pretty stressed at work
  • Did 20 min of breathing exercises during the day
  • A few days ago I read about the benefits of the hypnopompic state. So after hitting the snooze button, I tried to rest in that twilight state.

Tips 💡

  • Write down your sleep and dream experiences as soon as you wake up, otherwise you run the risk of forgetting them.

  • When you wake up, lie still and don’t move yet. First try to feel what feeling is still present in your body. This feeling can often bring back the memory of your dreams.

  • You don’t need to record every tiny little detail of the night. Five minutes of taking notes is often enough to capture the most important things.

  • If you use your smartphone as a nocturnal journal instead of a pen and notebook, make sure the brightness of the screen is turned all the way down and that your phone is in airplane mode to avoid disturbances and distractions.

  • At night avoid constantly checking your watch and don’t count the hours you’ve slept in the middle of the night – both of which will activate your logical mind, which should be disengaged in order to fall asleep. Calmly write down the times you woke up during the night, without spending too much energy on it.

  • Sleep trackers can provide clues about your sleep quality, but please don’t take the data too seriously. Currently, only the very best (medical-grade) devices provide truly reliable and accurate data. Furthermore, sleep trackers that measure movement via an accelerometer (and most of them are) are particularly unreliable: Every time your partner moves in bed or your cat jumps on it during night, a change in your sleep state will be falsely registered and your sleep log will be distorted.

    Better to become your own sleep tracker: by keeping a Nocturnal Journal and by listening to and trusting your own feelings after waking up.

This project is made possible by supporters of SLEEP FIRST AID.

If you’re benefiting from the information provided and your sleep quality has improved, please consider supporting. Through your support you contribute to a better rested and more peaceful world – you make all the difference. Thank you. 🙏