A database system may implement efficient database journaling using non-volatile system memory. An update to a database may be received, and log records indicating the update may be generated. A non-volatile portion of the system memory may be directly accessed to store the generated log records such that in the event of a failure of the database, the log records may be still maintained. Log records stored to the non-volatile portion of the system memory may be identified as durably persisted, in some embodiments. Log records may be identified and sent to block-based storage, in some embodiments. Recovery from a database system failure, in some embodiments, by obtaining log records from the non-volatile portion of system memory.