Essay --

When people fall asleep, their minds are taken on a journey beyond their control. They sleep through the night and dream for a small fraction of the time, yet dreams feel as if they last for hours, because of the combination of overlapping events, abnormal situations, and extraordinary details. Some people find meaningful interpretations of dreams, while others reject the idea that dreams are relevant to reality. Even though the true purpose of a dream is arguable, people can still benefit from them. Journalism allows a people to extract their dreams from their subconscious state of mind. The concept of a dream journal is to keep record of dreams as they occur. It allows a person to easily retrieve dreams in the past rather than attempting to do so from memory. It is fascinating how imaginative people are during their dreams, yet they struggle to be creative in their writing. Dream journals train the incorporation of creativity and detail in writing and consist of various stories tha t can be either confusing or insightful. Because dreams have numerous features, it is necessary to write down every detail. If one is experiencing trouble using details in personal writing, then dream journals will work in his or her favor, especially if used daily. A person’s writing skills improve due to forming a habit of recalling and recording details. During my sophomore year of high school, my friend Jacob and I had a conversation about lucid dreaming. He described to me that lucid dreaming was the ability to control oneself in a dream. He further explained that I could train myself to experience lucid dreams by keeping track of my dreams in a journal. This conversation sparked my curiosity and I immediately began experimenting. The next morning... ...xtraordinary mental processes such as dreams† (p. 525). A direct relationship exists between creativity and dream recall. The more creativity a person develops, the easier recalling dreams will be. The more dream recall a person does, the easier being creative becomes. Dreams give us access to a world where any scenario is possible. Most dreams may not make sense, but they are really vivid. Imaginations do not disappear when wake up, therefore creativity exists in everyone. Keeping a dream journal is a way to implicate creativity into a person’s everyday life, specifically in his or her writing. After analyzing my personal experience along with Kimberly’s and professional studies, it is evident that dream journaling has a positive influence in creative writing. This proven relationship can be taken advantage of by those interested in improving their writing skills.