WHILE OUR MAIN FOCUS HERE IS THE REMEMBRANCE AND EVENTUAL conscious participation in our dream life I am also quite interested in anything related to type and quality of sleep, what makes it better or worse, and how to set up the best circumstances for the most conscious activity while dreaming. One major factor in many peoples’ lives – up to 18 million people in the USA alone – is the condition known as OSA or obstructive sleep apnea. This is a condition in which the air passages in the throat droop and close during sleep and thereby prevent clear passage of air or it may even prevent any air passage. This leads to the sleeper awakening sometimes gasping for air potentially many times a night and effectively keeps the individual from getting a healthy night’s sleep. Snoring to the extent that one’s sleep partner may not be able to sleep and has to temporarily or permanently move to another room. OSA can also be very stressful for the partner when hearing the sufferer stop breathing and then struggling to inhale through blocked passages. Even if a person is in bed and essentially unconscious for 7-8 hours if OSA is experienced she or he can awaken sometimes feeling less rested than when she went to bed. This can cause headaches in the morning and bouts of overwhelming drowsiness during the workday which causes the experiencer to struggle to stay awake for even the simplest of tasks. This drowsiness becomes a dangerous condition when it descends on someone while she's driving an automobile.

Because of the constant interruption of sleep the approximately 20% of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, considered to be the period of most active dreaming, is interrupted. This can cause a significant reduction of dream recall such that OSA sufferers are only about 43% likely to remember dreams compared to the 71% of non-sufferers.* OSA leads to other complications such as reduced memory, increased risk of depression, obesity and stroke and heart disease.

In some increased stress and anxiety can worsen the condition. It can also increase a propensity for nightmares of the dreams that are remembered. OSA is also sometimes correlated with obesity but often times it is not. As such improvement of one’s diet and caloric intake could reduce OSA to a non-threatening level but that is not yet completely proven to be true.

Positive diagnosis of OSA is accomplished by an overnight test performed at a hospital sleep clinic. In this situation the “patient” has numerous sensor wire leads (electrodes) attached at strategic points of the body so heartbeat, respiration, blood oxygen level all can be monitored by a team during an overnight stay and sleep session at the clinic. Sounds of breathing are recorded and analyzed in conjunction with the resulting data collected from the body and a diagnosis is derived from this.

A simple way to do an initial diagnosis of OSA – in addition to observing the various symptoms noted above – is to use some sort of an app in ones cell phone that monitors the sounds of breathing overnight and produces an graph and assessment of sleep quality and activity the next morning. If your mate tells you that you snore and you don’t believe it such apps will tell you the truth when you hear the recording of yourself snoring like a freight train the next morning.

A remedy for OSA commonly in use these days is a CPAP (constant positive air pressure) machine. Various nose pads or breathing masks are used to maintain a small positive pressure above atmospheric pressure of your room such that the lungs and airway remain more inflated and therefore open than they otherwise would with OSA. This prevents breathing stoppage and sleep interruption. These systems must be adjusted to each user by qualified physicians and technicians to optimize each person’s sleep experience.

If you think you suffer for obstructive sleep apnea it is recommended you speak with your physician to arrange an overnight diagnosis at a sleep clinic so you can get a proper assessment. This could significantly improve your quality of sleep and life (as well as in extreme cases possibly lengthen or save a life!) And it could significantly increase your ability to remember your dreams and thereby help you make major progress in extending your consciousness into the subtle world by removing this difficult obstacle!

* See this URL for the full paper reporting the study: http://jcsm.aasm.org/viewabstract.aspx?pid=27713

Every so often a dream makes such an impression on me that I take the feeling along with me through the rest of the day; sometimes even a few days, if it was really impressive.

A few weeks ago I remember becoming fairly conscious in the middle of a dream where this "bad guy" alien was shooting up the downtown of a major city with his laser guns and blowing stuff up (I think I had watched a Star Wars movie that night).  Everyone was running scared away from him.  My first reaction was also to get scared and run in the opposite direction, but due to my semi-conscious state, I stopped myself and reminded myself, "Wait, wait... I'm in a dream!"  Then I realized I didn't like the dream because all of the people in the city were scared.  I became indignant with the alien, thinking aloud, "Why are you scaring people? There is no need for them to fear! We're just in a dream!"  And I became determined to stop him, no matter -and not knowing- what might happen.  So I ran towards him and held him in my grip and didn't loosen it one little bit.  As I was running towards him, however, every step filled me with more uncertainty about the outcome, but at the same time more determination to see it through.  I awoke and spend the rest of the day with a greater degree of fearlessness and of compassion towards others than I had felt for quite some time.  

In a more recent dream I was hiking up mountain at night along a winding road.  It was difficult and cold and a few cars passed by me without noticing me at all.  I wondered if I should keep going, but didn't stop.  I don't remember what happened at the top, but I clearly remember coming back down.  I became light-footed and began almost gliding down the mountain side.  Then I heard a whisper saying to me, "That's right.  Don't be afraid. Run along the path before you!" And I began to run faster and faster, and my vision became tunnel-like and there was a veritable light at the end of the tunnel.  It was daytime down at the bottom of the mountain,  This feeling of faith and/or trust in focusing on what is before me and advancing enthusiasticlly and without fear still feels very real to me.  

With examples like these two, I feel like saying that sometimes I learn and grow more from dreams than from real life.  Certainly episodes require less time in the subtle world than in the physical, so that might account for it.  But nonetheless, they are real experiences and the lessons drawn from them are just as valid as those drawn from waking life experiences.  

I have a question that I am hoping science can answer one day. If scientists are studying our sleep patterns and how to predict whether we can remember dreams, then I would sincerely like to add this to their to-do list. 

You don't have to do much research to find some pretty hair-raising stories about sleepwalking. And this makes the word 'sleepwalking' a sort of misnomer, doesn't it? What I mean is, people do all kinds of things while they are asleep and we tend to use the word 'sleepwalking' to describe all of these activities. Everything from crocheting in a completely dark room to washing dishes to driving to sex - all of these things are called sleepwalking when the person is in that state of consciousness that is akin to sleep. That is, not fully conscious as in a waking state. While some people have even carried on quite lengthy conversations while in this state, in most cases they report having no recollection of their experiences upon waking.

People have done some fairly amazing things while sleeping that they would never attempt while awake. In 2005 a 15 year old girl was rescued from atop a 130 foot crane after she climbed it while sleepwalking. A passerby noticed her sleeping on the couterweight of the crane and called the police. The firemen who came to her aid were afraid to wake her for fear she would get startled and fall to her death. They ended up calling her cell phone so that a familiar sound would get her attention, and once she was aware of her situation she was safely brought down by the firemen.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-354802/Sleepwalker-age-15-curled-crane.html

I have a real question here: scientifically speaking, how do people do it?

Normally, during sleep our bodies become relaxed and our muscles don't do much until we wake up. But the kinds of activities sleepwalkers do are sometimes very intricate tasks that require lots of cognitive ability and fine motor skills. Even a seemingly mundane thing like crocheting takes a lot of concentration and patience - so how did a sleepwalking woman make considerable progress with her crocheting project in complete darkness? One could say something about 'muscle memory' but what about the colors being used? Climbing a 130 foot crane not only takes a certain amount of bravery, but to walk 40 feet horizontally along its arm would take the balance and steeled nerves of an experienced acrobat.

A doctor who studies sleep disorders who was interviewed for the story of the 15 year old girl said, "Anything you can do while awake, you can do while sleepwalking, and of course, without the fear factor."

Why did the doctor say, "of course, without the fear factor"? I believe it's because we are in a totally different state of consciousness that is more aligned with the subtle world. Have you ever had a dream that you were doing something normally considered dangerous in the physical world, and yet you were totally unafraid in the dream? Because in the subtle world, there are all kinds possibilities that simply don't exist in the physical world - and we all innately know this because we spend (on average) 37% of our lives in the subtle world.

I need to take this a step further - hey science, I'm talkin to you!

Those activities that require so much movement and concentration - how do we accomplish them while we are not engaging with full awareness of our surroundings? It seems to me that the ability to control one's body is not only coming from a different state of consciousness, but also a different part of the brain from the one we normally use to accomplish those tasks. Some of these tasks, such as driving, require all of our senses and concentration while awake, and one small lapse of attention can cause a lot of pain and damange. What part of our mind takes over, has no fear, and safely guides the individual through doing these things while asleep? And, noting that most people don't remember their sleepwalking acitivites, why is sleepwalking commonly associated with a type of short-term amnesia?

I wonder what kinds of things might be found to treat things like paralysis, Parkinson's, MS, or even plain old, run-of-the-mill anxiety. Let's get on this please...

Have you ever noticed that your dreams sometimes follow what you were doing right before you went to bed?  Sometimes I watch action packed films and wake up in the morning with a cool story to tell about all the bad guys I out-maneuvered that night.  Or sometimes I’ll get into playing video games with my 7-year-old a for a few hours and then dream that I was the main character in the game going on all sorts of quests and defeating level bosses.  Sometimes I read about some of the evil in the world and my dreams can get quite dark and nightmarish. On the other hand, when I take some time to meditate and read uplifting material before bed, I often see very kind people and we have very pleasant interactions.

I would love to hear your experiences with this.  Please leave a comment below!

Hm, as I re-read what I just wrote and ponder over all the other material on this website, I am getting a notion that I really ought to direct my daily attention with more purposeful intention.  I mean, uplifting thoughts not only make my day more pleasant, but also my nights!  Who doesn’t want that?  It’s in my grasp if I can just manage to make constant decisions to pick up positive, uplifting reading material instead of the scary and depressing stuff that is so much more readily available in this day and age. 

Did someone say “thought-experiment”?

REGARDING CORRELATING SYMBOLISM WITH PHYSICAL WORLD EVENTS  ...  I have often throughout the years noticed things in my dreams which seemed to have a significance other than the normal face value. For example a common object might be much larger than in everyday life, or it might be colored differently from normal, or placed in some very unusual location, or juxtaposed with something it would otherwise never be found with. Or I might find myself in some circumstances but the clothing I was wearing was completely the wrong kind for the occasion, or might be from some other period of history. Another very common experience is that there might be someone present in a dream who is playing the role of some family member or friend, and has all the familiarity feelings mannerisms and actions of that person but when looking at him or her he or she is clearly not that person. Reflecting on these circumstances or related events after awakening there would often become apparent some meaning other than that given by the appearances. Having kept dream journals for years these would often be noted and then I would simply watch what develops in my life to see if something comes to pass that shows a correlation between the dream and the rest of my life. Often something would later happen that would become quite clear. For instance, once I saw in a dream a large building with multiple rows of windows of about three stories' height on a building but the odd thing was the building was in the middle of a local bay. And the building was smoking and on fire. A house floating in the middle of the water; very out of place and strange for sure. But a few days after that there was a fire at the ferry terminal. In the dream it was no building but was the large broad side of a ferry with the rows of windows of the multiple decks. This turned out to be a case of seeing something that reflected impending events in the physical world. There have been numerous other observations and recollections that afterwards correlated with events that took place from anywhere within a day or so to a few years after. Fortunately I made notes of these and was able to develop over time a sense of the way these things were observed in the subtle world. In most cases there was nothing personal or any direct connection to me or my life but it was fortunate they were noted and could be correlated afterwards. I recommend for those who are sincerely working at developing a greater awareness of our lives in the subtle world that a journal or notebook be kept. Over time the quality of types of events and the quality of the way things are observed and occur becomes apparent and the relation between them and other parts of life can become more discernable.