Authentic Counselling Training
Dreams and Dreamwork 2
[Under development: 28 June 2005 ]
Enhance your dream-life – some questions
1. During what parts of sleep do you dream?
2. How frequently do you dream
a. in your experience?
b. in reality?
3. How could you become more aware of your dreaming?
4. What types of dreams do you (typically) remember?
5. How could you remember your dreams (better)?
Enhance your dream-life – some answers
1. During what parts of sleep do you dream?
It is possible to dream at any stage of sleep. However, the stage of sleep most associated with dreaming is a type of deep sleep termed rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), so called because the body of the sleeper typically twitches, their breathing may change, and their eyes move about beneath closed eyelids. To an observer, a sleeper in REM sleep appears to be experiencing something. In the research laboratory, compared to a sleeper woken from any other stage of sleep, a sleeper woken from REM sleep, is more likely to report having been dreaming. Two other times when dreaming is more obvious when drifting off to sleep, and when waking from sleep.
2. How frequently do you dream
a. in your experience?
b. in reality?
In reality people dream every night, maybe many times. In contrast, most people report that they dream less frequently, and some report that they never dream. This is because they do not remember their dreams. Dreaming is a necessary process for our mental wellbeing. Were we never to sleep, we would experience our dreams while awake.
3. How could you become more aware of your dreaming?
To be more aware of your dreaming involves making the dreams available to waking thought. There are two factors in becoming more aware of your dreams: giving currency to dreams, and bringing dreaming into more frequent proximity to your waking self. To give your dreams currency, talking about them helps, as does attending a dream workshop. Just as important is recording dreams in words (on paper or on audio tape) or in pictures. To bring the act of dreaming into greater proximity with your waking self may be as comfortable as retiring to bed (to sleep) half an hour earlier, and delaying getting out of bed in the morning by half an hour. On the other hand, it may be as uncomfortable as eating a spicy curry shortly before retiring to bed. Cheese also works well, as does any food that keeps the digestive system rumbling away through the night. Alternatively, the alarm on a noisy alarm clock can be set, albeit by trial and error, to coincide with REM sleep. A notepad and pen (or a Dictaphone) beside the bed are essential.
4. What types of dreams do you (typically) remember?
I tend to remember nightmares, recurrent dreams, and dreams that offer me fresh insights.
5. How could you remember your dreams (better)?
Remembering your dreams better involves making the dreams available to waking thought. The answer to this question, therefore, is identical to Q.3.
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