The 2020 Dream Report

I can certainly say that 2020 has been an unprecedented year, but you already know that. Everyone will have a unique experience relating to this tumultuous year, but it's fascinating how universal and shared - around the world - 2020 has been. My experience with this year has been generally positive, though as a deeply empathetic person, I feel the suffering of others all the same. 

That being said, let’s look at the wild world of my own dreaming life! I am particularly obsessed with data, so a big part of my practice is keeping detailed records of each dream and each day’s events. For my annual dream report this year, I’m sharing just a small portion of the amount of data I collect in a massive spreadsheet, as it’s just too much! Nonetheless, I do hope you enjoy peeking into my sleeping brain, as much as I do collecting it. In addition to the data, I’ve also posted all 1,047 dream titles here. Do note that it takes a wee bit of time to load them all.

Always feel free to reach out with comments and questions. Happy New Year!

Emotional Quality

Emotional quality refers to the overall connotation of each dream experience, most typically tied to how I feel when I wake up from them. For simplicity, I'm showing positive, negative, and neutral, though my personal scale has more nuanced levels. For example, some dreams are very positive or very negative.

Level of Realism

The level of realism refers to how fantastical to realistic each dream experience is. For simplicity, I'm showing, realistic and fantastical, though my personal scale has more nuances levels. For example, some dreams are very fantastical or very realistic.

Top Things I Dreamt About in 2020

1. Top General Theme: Work / Colleagues

2. Top Recurring Theme: Going Back to Antarctica

3. Top Positive Emotion: Interested / Curious

4. Top Negative Emotion: Confused / Shocked

5. Top Character Type: People I Don't Know

6. Top Lucid Activity: Talking to Dream Characters

Lucid Dreams Per Month

This chart represents the number of lucid dreams recorded each month of 2020. On average, I recorded 11 lucid dreams per month this year. These are a bit lower than last year, which I also attribute to fewer nights using dream enhancing supplements this year.

Lucid Quality

The quality "level" of lucid awareness within a dream will not be the same every time. Sometimes there's strong influence and agency, and other times, the dream seems sloppy and haphazard. With practice, lucid quality grows and enables more profound experiences.

WILD vs. DILD

WILD refers to a "Wake Initiated Lucid Dream" and means that you go directly from being awake into a dream, carrying awareness with you. DILD refers to a "Dream Initiated Lucid Dream" in which something within a dream already underway sparks awareness and you become lucid.

Dream Sign Distribution

Dream Signs are unusual things that come up in dreams that help signal that you are dreaming and spark lucidity. Stephan LaBarge categorized them by Inner Awareness, Action, Form, and Context. Here's how my dream signes are distrubuted.

A Few Lessons Learned

Dreaming is a skill that takes time to develop.

I’ve been focused on a dedicated dream practice since 2018, and I am still learning new skills and developing my talents. Dreaming is something meant to be practiced every day and keeping up with it will yield amazing experiences. The biggest take-away here is to never give up. Stick with it. Even if you think it’s too hard to remember or you’re focused on lucid dreams but not having them - it’s okay. This practices ebbs and flows and the only way you’ll get better if you simply keep going and keep practicing. You have a lifetime of dreams, no need to rush.

Writing down dreams is the most important activity.

The most important thing anyone in the beginning, middle, or advanced stage of their dream journey is to write down their dreams. Find the way that works for you. For me, it’s short keywords all night long, then transcribing the details later the next day. You have to find a method that you love to do. So if you don’t like writing freehand, type on a computer or do voice dictation. Experiment. Make it work for you, don’t work against it. And adapt along the way. What once worked for you in the past, might need a change up. No matter what, just write. The rest will come in time.

The quality of lucidity in dreams varies greatly.

Lucid quality can be all over the place! There are countless ways to measure this, but it’s so subjective, you’ll need to find something that works for you. The way I like to measure lucid quality is through Levels 1-5 (as shared in a chart above). You can experience simple, low quality fuzzy lucid dreams with little or no influence or strong clear and profound experience where you seem to have complete influence - and everything in between. I like to measure my lucid process on my ability to influence more and more within a dream.

5-10 minutes of Dream Fishing will often bring a dream back.

Anytime I wake up throughout the night, I remain still in bed and quietly think about what I might have been dreaming about. Many of us have little fragments swirling in our minds that can be "reeled" in. I like to think of this process like fishing. I might remember that I was dreaming of something specific like a horse or a person - that's my hook. I also might simply know that I was dreaming, which can be a hook in and of itself. From there, I cycle through random questions like: Was I talking to someone? Was it Night? Day? Was I scared? Was I happy? Mad? What was I doing? Who was there? Usually, I'll "catch" the memory based on these questions and can reel in the entire dream narrative from there based on one tiny spark. It's incredibly effective even when it feels like there was no dream there to begin with.

Random waking thoughts are different from REM dreams.

You may be familiar with hypnogogia, the wild thoughts and light shapes that can occur when you transition from wake to sleep. The opposite of hypnogogia is hypnopompia and represent these fleeting thoughts and micro dreams when you transition from wake to sleep. I often wake with hyponpompic remnants in my head thinking those are clues to what I might have been dreaming about. But the more I fish and dig away from those fleeting thoughts, the more likely I am to recall an REM dream, having nothing at all to do with those waking thoughts. Pay attention to hypnopompic experiences, but try not to get stuck on them when working on recall.