I definitely consider my dream journal to be key in the role of increased dream recall and an increase in dream rate. I too have at least 2 dreams per night, every night. I usually do wake up after each 1, and build it into my brain as I sleep and wait for more. In the morning, I lay awake for a few minutes, enjoying the mild vibrations as they fade away, and recall all that I can. With a little fragment comes the rest of the dream as it had happened from start to finish.
Only thing is, I don't see how this could be easily used as a method to acquiring lucidity in a dream. Is there something I missed, or could you explain further, please? I want lucidity! =)
tHERE ARE SOME VERY GOOD TECHNIQUES OF LUCID DREAMING THAT INVOVE (AS ONE OF THE PRIMARY EXERCISES) KEEPING A DREAM JOURNAL, AS YOU WERE SAYING. THEN FURTHERING THAT BY AFFRIMATIONS BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP TELLING YOURSELF TO WAKE IN THE MIDDLE OF A DREAM OR IF YOU FIND YOU HAVE A SAME OCCURING DREAM TO WAKE (LUCIDLY) AT A CERTAIN POSTMARK OR A CERTAIN PART OF THE DREAM. THERE ARE SOME VERY GOOD LINKS ,TOO MANY TO MENTION HERE JUST GO TO YAHOO TYPE IN LUCID DREAMING AND YOU'LL GET ALOT OF HELPFUL INFO.
I have found that whenever I reach lucidity in the dream there has always been a trigger. My trigger usually is something odd. Last time i managed to go lucid was at my previous house from 7 years ago. It felt normal at the time, but I suddenly realised I lived somewhere else, and when I thought about a bit more, I decided I hadnt actually even visited it so i MUST be dreaming. I then leapt off the 3 storey high balcony (which is really 1 storey in truth) to prove to the friend that I hadnt seen for years standing next to me that i was dreaming. i fell through the ground, and managed to have an OBE! I usually read the OBE forums but the topic caught my eye.
Il start making a journal. The other thing which helps you out a lot is talking about your dreams. Tell someone each day about your dream, but make sure they have a slight interest first, dont make enemies :). In time, your dreams will stick in your memory better after you wake, maybe subconciously by talking about your dreams your brain realises the extra importance you are placing on remembering them. maybe make an affimation not only to wake up but to remember your dreams?
The thing that helped me achieve my first lucid dreams has to be my dream journal. I go back through it from time to time and its amazing how quickly my remembrance and number of dreams per night increased once I started recording them. I went from having maybe just a small bit of a memory of one dream each night, to easily having and recording 4 or 5 per night. This happened over the period of a about a month.
It wasn't hard. I just kept a notebook by my bed and would try and will myself each night when I went to sleep to wake up after each dream. As soon as I woke up, I would immediately grab the journal and jot down keywords that would help me remember the dream in the morning.
So the first night, I didn't wake up until the morning, but I had a dream scrap in my head, and I wrote down that little scrap, something along the lines of "dreamt about the weird house on Kelly".
Each night those scraps became more detailed, and then eventually I was waking up in the middle of the night with dreams fresh in my head, recording each and every one of them.
If you have 5 dreams a night, that gives you 5 shots at lucidity, which is much better than 1 as I am sure you know.
So if you have been discounting the need for a dream journal, DON'T! In my opinion it is probably the most important part of the entire learning process.