Pictograms and Dream Sign code(Obscure ideas)

I like to experiment with different ideas when it comes to Lucid Dreaming. I truly enjoy the opportunity for experimentation and exploration that the subject offers me. I am about to be drafted to the military service this November (I will know for sure 20 days before the draft). Military service is mandatory in Greece for males and lasts for about a year. However I don't want this to impact my lucid dreaming practice. While following a strict waking schedule and while sleeping in a room with another 14 people it's tough to do the most important thing an oneironaut can do: keeping a detailed dream journal. I came up with two ideas to tackle this challenging problem 1) Pictograms to encrypt my dreams, ensuring the information contained remains private. 2) A code I call the "Codex Somnus" which aims to skip recording the details but still offer me some basic benefits the dream journal provides, especially the familiarisation with dream signs and patterns PICTOGRAMS: as a language enthusiast, especially a script enthusiast, I have created countless writing systems since middle school, including a logography for Greek and German. I am currently however working on an experimental language based on pictograms alone. It doesn't have a phonology, so it's not spoken out loud, it works simply by the use of glyphs. It's a silent language that purely handles concepts. To narrow down the use of glyphs, as using thousands upon thousands of them wouldn't be practical, I studied some minimalist constructed languages like toki pona and toki ma that have a vocabulary of ~125 and ~300 words respectively, and already possess a logography of their own. I narrowed down my glyphs into a list of 220 concepts. These can be combined together to express new concepts. For example: water 💦 + mouth👄= saliva, weight 🏋️ + big 🐘= heavy, force💪 + down ⬇️= gravity, colour🌈 + sun ☀️ = yellow, parent👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 + woman♀️= mother Rope ➰ + reptile 🦎= snake etc. It still is being tested and developed, to see how much each glyph is being used. I keep my daily journal in pictograms and I am planning to record some dreams too. However it has some disadvantages: 1) No phonemes means I need to use another script in parallel with the pictograms, for names or words too specific that I have difficulty expressing in pictograms.(fortunately I have plenty to choose from) 2) It can be quite ambiguous at times, the meanings are vague, but I am working on it. And I am quite satisfied so far It is an ongoing passion project, that's not directly linked to my lucid dreaming practice, that could however become practical for dream journaling. Wish me luck on that CODEX SOMNUS(aka, Dream Sign Code): Expanding upon Dr. Stephen Laberge's categories of dream signs(inner awareness, action, form, and context), the Codex Somnus attempts to fit dream signs into 16 broad categories, which are all designated a digit in the hexadecimal system. The basic idea behind is is to directly, upon awakening with a dream in the nets of memory, describe WHO/WHAT'S odd or off and HOW. It is accomplished withthout having to write down the details of the dream at all, but instead just designating the dream signs from memory to a broad category. Disclaimers: *It doesn't aim to replace the dream journal, as a truly detailed record of your dreams cannot be replaced in any way. Think of the dream journal as a super computer and the codex somnus as a calculator. Even though not as useful as a super computer, a calculator can at times be useful. **Keep in mind that with dream signs I mean odd events that mostly or only occur in dreams, telltale signs that one is dreaming. A dream pattern is how I define that which is usually called a dream sign amongst lucid dreamers: a reoccurring theme/trope, common amongst one's dreams With the Codex Somnus we try to fit a dream sign into a slot of a 4×4 matrix by pairing it with two factors. Or better said "WHO/WHAT is off or odd and HOW?" The HOW category is similar to the one proposed by Dr. Laberge, but with some changes to it. Placed in hierarchy from inner to outer experience we get: A) Psyche: which refers to something being off about awareness - behaviour. eg. "My otherwise dosile dog bit me, or I feel like I am living here for years" Key words:feel, think, say-behave B) Matter: which focuses on what's off or impossible about appearance-composition eg. "The sky is purple, the moon appears closer than usual, my brother has green eyes instead of blue, I am a wolf" Key words: appear, made of, seems C) Nature: refers to any impossible action-activity that defies natural law eg. "I am flying, she transformed into a car, the trees talked, the island floats on a cloud" Key words: to act, to become D) Reality: refers to any impossible or highly improbable situation-condition that may occur only in a dream eg. "I live in a castle with my dead grandfather, aliens invaded my village, I am president of the USA, lady Gaga is my math teacher" Key words: to be, to be in/on/at, to happen There are another four categories that focus on WHOM/WHAT is affected. 1) Self: Anything that affects/regards me, the dreamer. eg. "I feel lost, I appear green, I breathe underwater, I am Eminem's best friend" 2) Other: Anything that affects/regards someone else, a dream character eg. "The man is suicidal, she is made of wood, my brother shrank, obama wants me to go to Hogwarts with him" 3) Element: Anything that affects/regards a feature, object, or phenomenon of the oneirosphere eg. "The door won't open or feels scary, the house is made of cake, the trees walk down the hill, there's an airplane in my living room" 4) Environment: anything that affects/regards the setting-surroundings of the oneirosphere eg. "The village feels old, i am in my living room but the sofa is in the wrong place, the town turned to bubbles, the space station I am on, is alien" Analytically the possible dream sign categories using Codex Somnus are the following 16: A1: 0, Psyche-self A2: 1, Psyche-other A3: 2, Psyche-element A4: 3, Psyche-environment B1: 4, Matter-self B2: 5, Matter-other B3: 6, Matter-element B4: 7, Matter-environment C1: 8, Nature-self C2: 9, Nature-other C3: a, Nature-element C4: b, Nature-environment D1: c, Reality-self D2: d, Reality-other D3: e, Reality-element D4: f, Reality-environment To summarize: The Codex Somnus is used directly upon awakening to record dream signs(telltale signs one is dreaming) that we should have noticed in our dream and become lucid from. We identify them by asking Who/What is odd/off and HOW. By use of the 4×4 Matrix we identify what combination of "who/what and how" it is and we write the corresponding digit in our journal. We write the digits in a sequence, making sure to place them in trios(groups of three) for convenience. We can add some key words and a sketch to the page for some higher amount of detail or use the Codex Somnus as an exercise after we have completed our regular dream journal entry. *It is not supposed to replace the dream journal, but it can supplement it. Benefits: 1) It forces you to focus on the telltale signs that you were dreaming and the instances where you could have become lucid. As an excersize it may make you more observant. 2) In situations you wish to continue your Lucid Dreaming practice but it's difficult to keep a dream journal, it will come in handy as it is both faster to write and more securely encrypted. 3) By forcing you to think about your dream more during awakening, it may increase dream recall just like the dream journal (although that is speculative, I have to test that) 4) It makes your data more easily interpretable and quantifiable. It offers a broad overview of your dream patterns and what to look out for in the future. 5) It is versatile and can be used for training your mind to identify broad patterns all the way to an emergency notation system for situations where keeping a detailed record of a dream is not possible, but you still want the benefit of having some idea as to what to look out for in future dreams. Drawbacks: 1) It is not detailed enough. Some dream signs are highly specific and personal, whereas with the Codex Somnus you are forced to look at a broader more generalized picture. 2) It may ignore some dream patterns entirely, as they may not qualify as odd enough. You may often dream of being in your workplace or be with a specific person who is close to you in waking life as well. These are patterns completely ignored by the Codex Somnus. 3) Not every dream sign fits in a single neatly organised category. Although the Codex Somnus tries it's best to be able to separate dream signs into categories, there is no guarantee that it will be able to do so every time. In this case you need to categorise the same dream sign into two or more fitting categories. 4) It may be too sterile or unappealing. Lucid dreaming is almost an artform and that means it's highly individualistic and personal. The Codex Somnus may appear to some as wasted effort or not worth utilising. Which is okay Thank you for reading my comment all the way down here, I hope you found it helpful or at the very least interesting. I am open to critique, so please feel free to express your opinions. Also don't forget to perform a reality check 😉.