Quality of Sleep and Dreams

[blackraven]

I'm a person that needs a lot of help falling asleep and staying asleep. I can't sleep a single night without both a prescribed sleep aid as well as melatonin. The other thing I must have to sleep is my white noise (ocean waves crashing) machine turned on and door to the bedroom closed with complete darkness.

This is the odd thing. If I forget to take my sleep aid or forget to turn my white noise machine on or close my door I lay there all night until I'm so exhausted just before the alarm goes off that I slip into a light sleep to which I dream like crazy just before day break. Otherwise, if I sleep deeply I can't seem to remember dreaming at all.

So what's up with that I ask? Am I usually so deep under with the aid of my devices and pills to reach a semi-conscious level after dreaming, whereas I can remember what I just dreamed about?

[Traveler]

The sleeping aids are keeping you out of REM sleep. Try some boron and B6 supplements with the melatonin. The boron helps decalcify the pineal gland so it can produce melatonin better. The fluoride in our water isn't good for our pineal gland. B6 will help with dream recall.

[JustBe]

Hi black raven

Devices and aids are filling up a space which is fine, a lot of people use them. When you begin to notice you could experience differently, your kind of answering your own question perhaps?


Just some thoughts coming in as I typed that.
A lot of people still carry fears of the night time space from their childhood. Even as we might not consciously believe this, our subconscious holds patterns that have installed programs in our bodies. So those things linger and as we get older it’s often noted through difficulties with sleep and deep stillness. Whether it’s fears of our dreams or fear of the dark their is often a whole host of reasons that can create long term struggles to fully release those binds as a mind body spirit relationship ship.

Also too, you are your dreamer, so even as you may not know more directly what your dreaming, it’s still filtering through you while your asleep and awake. You may not be fully aware but it can still affect your day to day life experience.

Part of my learning is not to engage my dreamer but rather, if I’m alerted just notice and take what I need To be aware and awake to it’s message.

A lot of people can get caught up in their dreams and dreamer self to a point it becomes an obsession and constant focus. I’ve done this myself during heightened times I needed to listen deeper to myself awake. It was my dream work period of awakening. My dreamer coming to life as myself.

If you stop the sleeping pill you might be able to source why you can’t sleep unaided? That might help undo a pattern and free up the dreams contained in that space.

Maybe the wearing off early morning signals when morning comes your letting go more so. Sleep is like meditation... how do you feel letting go deeper?

[boyce]

I sympathise and empathise. I too find sleep a challenge or at least I find staying asleep a challenge, periods of waking irksome and even upsetting. Sleep is vitally important the experts tell us and I have no reason to doubt them but it's something we can't control it seems.

Medication can and does help some individuals, others may be helped by certain techniques and/or preparation for sleep. We can avoid things that we have found affect our sleep - alcohol, caffeine from drinks, rich food and emotional stimulants such as TV or computers/games/phones. But finding a totally predictable way to get to sleep and stay that way long enough will remain a challenge for many of us.

The issue of dreaming is another matter altogether with as much variability as there is with sleeping itself. My approach is to treat recalled/remembered dreams with caution concerning what we believe they might be telling us.

[blackraven]

Originally Posted by Traveler

The sleeping aids are keeping you out of REM sleep. Try some boron and B6 supplements with the melatonin. The boron helps decalcify the pineal gland so it can produce melatonin better. The fluoride in our water isn't good for our pineal gland. B6 will help with dream recall.

Thank you Traveler. I thought too that maybe the sleep aid might be keeping me out of REM sleep. I never heard of Boron before. I will research that. Thanks for your suggestion.

[blackraven]

JustBe - Thank you very much for your thoughtful and very thorough response! As a child I used to have serious night terrors that the Devil was reaching large claws up through my mattress and pulling me down to Hell. I have trouble sometimes as an adult with such severe sleep paralysis that I find myself under attack again and scared out of my mind. I would love to just fully relax and wake up refreshed and remembering the last dream I dreamed, which is seldom. I've been on sleep aids for so many years, I couldn't tell you what it was like sleeping without them. I certainly could try to use them sparingly and experiment instead of being so reliant on them on a every night basis. I use to meditate for a few years, then I fell out of practice. I was able to fully relax during meditation and I looked forward to that time. Perhaps I should get back into my meditation practice if nothing else as an exercise in full relation. Maybe then, I could train myself to meditate myself to sleep at night. Thanks again for your input JustBe.

[blackraven]

Thank you Boyce. Looks like you're new here so I welcome you to SF. Yeah I definitely know I'm not alone with sleep difficulties. I think sleep aids are prescribed first and sometimes the underline cause is never addressed. I like to dream because I feel I'm in the deepest sleep when dreaming. I like the symbolism in dreams as well. But if I can't reach a dream state I just accept it. I think it's what what Traveler and JustBe said about deepest relaxation. It is that state of being that REM takes place. I'm convinced anyway. Best of luck to you with your sleep.

[JustBe]

Hi again. Yes night terrors are such deeply ingrained patterns. The body in the ongoing fight and flight can be very debilitating, to move beyond those patterns. It sounds so horrible what you were caught up in. That would have been so difficult. I was always so scared of the dark, of certain visions that kept haunting me each and every night. It creates a really troubled state to let go fully and trust in your own deep state. I think meditation is a very valuable Solution. The more you can let go fully, the more safe you would feel, to let go to sleep and sleep more peacefully.