June 2009
The Lost Art (and Science) of Dreaming
I believe that dreaming is among the most critical misunderstood and overlooked factors in our health, well-being and spiritual development. In contrast to waking, which is usually about an intentional, concrete and active relationship with the world around us, dreaming is more about a receptive, expansive, ephemeral and dynamic relationship with the world within us.
Dreaming plays a critical role in learning and the formation of certain kinds of memory. Dreaming also helps us heal from emotional losses. People who don’t dream well can suffer memory loss. And people who dream well heal from emotional loss more quickly.
Yoga for the Soul
Daily life can feel constraining. Our deeper self is not necessarily comfortable remaining cooped up in a physical body 24/7. I believe that dreaming is a kind of psycho-spiritual stretching, like yoga for the soul. Dreams gently expand, release, soften and open us up again. Dreaming provides a poetic cushion for our sharply literal lives. In our dreams, we are free from the constraints of the physical body.
Not surprisingly, the process of psycho-spiritual stretching offered by the dream is actually tied directly to our muscles. When we dream, our voluntary muscles become inhibited. Although all necessary biological functions are on automatic pilot, we essentially become paralyzed while we are dreaming. This protects us from the dangers of actually acting out our dreams in the waking world.
Dream paralysis allows us to release emotional energy stored as tension in our muscles. Because the neural networks that control our muscles are interwoven with those that process emotion, emotional energy is continuously channeled through our musculature. Over the years, this emotional energy strongly influences our posture and our facial expressions.
If we dream well, we can help shake out this muscular and facial tension. I think of dreaming as nature’s nightly Botox treatment. We all look better not just after a good night’s sleep, but after a good night’s dreaming.
Dream Deprivation
I believe that we are at least as dream-deprived as we are sleep-deprived. A healthy night requires both sleep and dreams, but most seem to believe that the experience of the dream itself is meaningless. We live in a world where the dream has become devalued. “Forget it,” we might suggest to a loved one who had a nightmare, “it’s just a dream.”
Modern lifestyles interfere with healthy dreaming. Over-exposure to light at night, excessive evening alcohol consumption, antidepressant medication, and many commonly used substances and medications suppress dreaming or disrupt sleep. Ironically, many sleeping tablets actually limit dreaming.
Like most sleep doctors, I routinely hear my patients say they dream very little. Some have not had any dream recall for years. I have met a handful of people who deny ever having had a dream. Certainly, this might mean they are simply not aware of dreams that they are having. Given their lifestyles, however, I think it’s safe to assume that their actual dreaming is diminished. And even those who have dreams but are unaware of them are not able to enjoy and be fully nourished by them.
I believe the dream is the broader context of our present lives, and we should embrace and nurture our dreams. In next month’s newsletter, I will discuss how to increase your own dreaming.