Have you ever noticed the way people’s eyes light up when they tell you about exciting dreams they had?

My earliest memory of discussing a dream goes back to when I was fourteen. I was with my school friend, and we sat in an empty classroom of our after-school art club. It was one of the most relaxed clubs where there was little to no supervision — the perfect window of time for students to make paintings quietly. On that day, no other students came to the classroom, so picking up a brush was likely not to happen between two girls who needed some time to catch up.

We were on our own, and I saw my friend had her mind set firmly on narrating a story to me. What came next was a forty-minute adventure tale of her drilling and exploring elaborate underground tunnels. The entire story came from a well-remembered dream she had the night before. And while her voice echoed through the room, I was enthralled by how she shared the experiences with unusual liveliness. I started imagining a scroll of her dream pictures in my mind as she recounted it, expecting that her adventure would be a long one. Even today, I think visualizing the scenes helped me remember some highlights of her story.

With little time to get to know friends at school and considering this was the time way before mobile phones, I remember feeling that listening to a dream seemed like a mysterious pathway to understanding someone.

I have always been somewhat of a light sleeper and prone to having vivid dreams since I was young.

I graduated with BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art College (now University) in San Francisco, having trained to work in children’s book illustration and graphic design. When I stumbled onto a job at Sanrio (a dream of mine as a small child) and started as a graphic designer in my early 20s, I began having perplexing, otherworldly dreams. I’ve always been somewhat of a light sleeper, yet prone to having dreams of odd scenarios – not in any way nightmarish but vivid enough to exhaust me. But as my dreams became more intense, I was beginning to feel caught somewhere between my day at work and these night-time visions, with little time to feel fully rested. I turned to dream dictionaries to decode some of the particularly mysterious plots, but most of them were still somewhat incomprehensible. In the end, my take was that there was more to dreams than what common interpretations seemed to suggest.

The peculiar dreams continued popping up in waves with no sign of ending. I decided to try focusing on how they might benefit me – perhaps there were some clues and messages to help with problems I was facing in my waking reality. I started writing them down whenever I felt the urge to remember them. Over time, the small habit of dream journaling began to take on more meaning. I found out that this short writing activity helped me identify common patterns in my dreams. What initially seemed very chaotic might have had some order under the surface, and after I noticed that pattern, it made the experiences feel less tense. Once I felt some relief from the dreams, the writing process became more enjoyable. Entering a new situation every night didn’t feel quite as shocking or unsettling now that I had my dream journal to find references to other dreams.

Whether it was an intense dream or a more relaxed one, looking back at the small yet growing pile of entries in the journal was exciting, and I was finally able to laugh at the strangeness of some of the stories. From that point on, I started picking up some of the odd and funny dreams and shared them with the people in my life who enjoyed listening to them.

Perhaps they are more than “Just dreams.”
After learning about the advantages of lucid dreaming through Stephen LaBerge’s pioneering work and attending the Active Dreaming workshop of Robert Moss in 2017, I discovered that there are myriads of adults who are fascinated by dreams just as much as children are. My long intrigue about this mysterious theme and the fun of recounting a tale was my inspiration behind Dream Journal Illustrated, a dream blog to share my collection of illustrated dream stories. The dream blog includes some of my favorites from the past as well as some recently unearthed mysteries. I depicted the dream imageries as I remember them and created a typeface for the dream blog to complement the fantastical tone of a dream. My hope is that people will enjoy reading them and perhaps be inspired to reflect more about their own unique dreamscapes!

Dreams are for sharing!
The best part about dreams is that there’s no admission to get in, and you might have a chance to see something extraordinary. By focusing on them more often, you could discover unique techniques to remember them better. Paying closer attention to your dreams may help decipher hidden messages and inspire you to reflect on their meanings in your waking life. With practice, you might even be able to experience a lucid dream state and remain fully conscious while dreaming! I found that learning new skills and techniques added to the fun and entertainment when sharing dreams, but slowly uncovering things about myself has been just as valuable.

I hope you enjoy my dream blog collection and wish you’ll discover new meanings in your own dreams to perhaps share with others over tea, coffee or… a special French hot chocolate!