Take a break from reading this

Take a break from reading this blog, and for a second look away from the computer. First take three mindful breaths and then concentrate on the sounds around you, the sounds of the street or what have you. What is it that you hear? What does it actually sound like? Just simply be present and hear what you hear without qualifying or evaluating further.from: A Buddhist Sleep Lesson: Awakening From The Day Dream; by: David Nichtern.

"drunk dreams."

I'm clean and sober for more than 12 years. But I still have what we call "drunk dreams." Here's a recent one. Although I'm not a follower of hip hop, I dreamed that I was hanging out with the famous rapper Snoop Dogg. I waited all day for him to pull out his stash of drugs. At the end of the day he put out some big fat lines of cocaine and offered me one. I took it in like a like a dirt dog lapping up a few licks of morning dew off the desert floor. The smell was so fresh and it made me feel more alive than I'd felt in years. My heart opened. I loved my life and everyone in it at that moment. In my mind I remembered that I was an addict in recovery. But I couldn't reconcile the question that arose in my dreaming mind, "How could something that feels this good cause suffering?"
 - by: Darren Littlejohn; from:The 12-Step Buddhist: Why Do We Have Drinking Dreams?

Dreams can help with creative problem-solving

The idea that dreams can help with creative problem-solving has been discussed for decades, along with observations that sleep boosts memory. But the new research, which will be published in May in Current Biology, provides evidence that dreams really do help people retain new information—but only if it is worked into the reverie. - from:To sleep, perchance to dream--and learn; By Katherine Harmon

Dreams might be helping your brain

dream nap sleep learn memory improve Dreams might be helping your brain do more than express Freudian fixations or practice escapes from prehistoric predators. They are there, in part, to help you learn, according to a new study from Harvard University. - from:To sleep, perchance to dream--and learn; By Katherine Harmon

During the dream state

During the dream state the whole wakeful world loses itself in the dream state. Therefore, it is not possible to find the distinctive features that would help the dreamer to distinguish the waking world from the dream world.- Swami Sivananda

Chronic Snoring Can Lead to Sleep Disorder

Snoring is a major problem for millions of people. Many individuals who experience chronic snoring are suffering from a REM sleep disorder. During REM sleep individuals will experience irregular breathing, a rise in blood pressure, vivid dreams, and paralysis. People who snore regularly do dream, but will not remember them as often as normal sleeping individuals. They often will develop a REM sleep disorder. This disorder is a condition in which the individual does not experience any kind of paralysis when they sleep. The absence of this paralysis causes many people to physically act out their dreams. Such physical behaviors often include talking, yelling, punching, kicking, jumping out of bed, arm flailing, and even grabbing. The person will remain sleeping while acting out their dreams and will not remember the activity or dream the following day. - By BryanJ ; Source: The List Universe

Dream world is always internal to the dreamer

The objects that are seen in the state of wakefulness are always seen outside the body. It is, therefore, external to the dreamer, while the dream world is always internal to the dreamer. That is the only difference between them.- Swami Sivananda

We actually awaken from our "daydream" mind

That's where the practice of meditation comes in. During sitting meditation, we look directly at the mind's activity and can recognize (on a good day) that we are often completely carried away by our thoughts. Periodically, within the meditation session, and sometimes in daily life, we actually awaken from our "daydream" mind, and experience a clear (if brief and fleeting) moment of being awake, present, without a thick filter of thoughts and pre-conceptions. You can actually do that right now for a moment. - David Nichtern

Whatever appears in the dream world

Whatever appears in the dream world is the reproduction of the waking world. It is not only the reproduction of the objects seen, experienced or dealt with in the present life, but it may be the reproduction of objects seen, experienced or dealt with in any former life in the present world. Therefore the dream world cannot be said to be independent of the waking world.- Swami Sivananda

Famous Dreams

Dreams have often been credited with influencing world changing events. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after having a dream about the monster. "I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion." Elias Howe was a sewing machine pioneer who greatly influenced the product in the middle of the 19th century. He is recorded as saying that he had a vivid dream about a group of cannibals that were preparing to cook him. They were dancing around a fire waving their spears up and down. Howe noticed that in the head of each spear there was a small hole, which ultimately gave him the idea of passing the thread through the needle close to the point, not at the other end. It was a major innovation in making mechanical sewing possible. The scientist Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the seemingly impossible chemical structure of benzene (C6H6)
after having a dream about a group of snakes swallowing their tails. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA. Watson later reported that the idea came to him after dreaming of a series of spiral staircases. A few days prior to his death Abraham Lincoln discussed a dream with his wife in which he previewed a dead body wrapped in funeral vestments surrounded by hundreds of mourners. He claims to have been told by a soldier that the president had been assassinated.- By BryanJ ; Source: The List Universe

Emphasis on dreams

Even before my trip to Egypt, I had long been fascinated by the work of Carl Jung, with its emphasis on dreams and archetypes. His autobiographical Memories, Dreams, Reflections was one of my all-time favorite books.
It helped me explore the possibility that the world of dreams, far from shutting us off from what we consider
"the real world," actually opens us up to another reality -- a timeless place that allows us to listen to our soul.
- Arianna Huffington,  from: 'Sleep Challenge 2010'

Just as we take our reality

Just as we take our reality within the night dream to be completely real (e.g. if someone is chasing us in the dream we run),  in a similar way, during the "daydream" we take our projections to be real ("that person doesn't like me, I suck at my job, I'm in love and now everything is going to be perfect, I need chocolate ice cream right now"). We rarely, if ever, have a good look at the quality of our mental activity to see how much of it is fabricated and distorted, and how much of it is accurate and clear. - David Nichtern

Nightmares vs. Night Terrors

Ernest Hartmann has published many books and papers on the topic of nightmares. His work has indicated that the most common theme of a nightmare is being chased. Adults are commonly chased by a male figure, while children face animals or fantasy creatures. Nightmares are less common in adults and children experience them most often between the ages of three or four and seven or eight. About 5-lO% of people have nightmares once a month or more frequently. Hartmann’s work suggests that nightmares directly correlate with daily activities and are an indicator of fear or anxiety that needs to be confronted. Some common triggers can be drug abuse, traumatic events, or the loss of a loved one. Night terrors are quite different from nightmares. They occur during the first hour or two of sleep and during the non-rapid eye cycle. Loud screaming and thrashing is common. The sleeper is hard to awake and usually remembers no more than an overwhelming feeling or a single scene. Night terrors are much less common than nightmares. Children from the ages of two to six are most prone to night terrors, and they affect about 15% of all children.- By BryanJ ; Source: The List Universe