Sweet Dreams are Made of These.
Jul 04, 2025
Intentions.
Yes here we are again, learning to live and now how to sleep with intentions.In my sleep classes I ask people to create a sleep intention, the invitation is to enquire how do you want to sleep and also how do you want to wake up.
This forms the beginning of a yoga nidra practice and it is important. It sets the tone, we become aware that we are intentionally creating a desired out come.
Any one who has studied or is interested in dreams will know something about the lucid dream state. I am choosing not to use technical terms such as REM sleep as thats another rabbit hole to dive into. Instead I just want to chat as I do in classes, explaining very simply what happens when we sleep, and why the deep sleep state is important to us.
Not everyone remembers dreams and not everyone has lucid dreams. These occur at the last part of sleep, before you wake up and can feel very real. They are often chaotic, mine certainly are and I have come to understand that I am more prone to these sort of dream if I am about to do something that I haven’t done before. They often present utter chaos that feels real. For me as a yoga teacher these dreams are always when I am going to teach a new group or perhaps when I would cover for a teacher. And I have to say they are wild. Depicting scenes of utter chaos as I try and manage an unruly situation, things that were way beyond any sense of control. Just nuts.
I have learnt that this dream state is all about clearing our systems, creating peace in our nervous system. Therefore I don’t stress about it, instead these days I just laugh.
This dream state is often described as a night shift of cleaners going into a building. Tidying up and cleaning so that when people arrive in the morning they are welcomed by a clean environment.
The hardest part for many people though is to get to the place of deep sleep where this activity begins. If people are waking up before deep sleep happens, usually after 5 hours then they will never get this extra and essential quality of the sleep state and all the benefits of a good nights sleep.
I invite you to do your own research on this, but I do recommend this book, This is why you dream by Dr Rahul Jandail. it’s an easy read and the author suggests that we sleep in order to dream and that we can control the lucid dream state which is that part that I want to get to.
Lucid dreams can be controlled. They are used for enhancing performance, think of David Beckman dreaming of kicking the ball in the net.
Just going to quote here from the film Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come.
Which takes me back to the beginning of this post. The sleep intention is important. Asking our self what we want from sleep and considering our actions or the effort that its going to take to make tit happen. Dreams do become our reality, what we think does make a difference.
Be clear with your intentions, keep them simple and achievable. take small active steps towards the gaol and don’t worry if you don’t worry if you don’t get their first time.
Practice makes perfect.
Need more help? Down load my Yoga Nidra Audio and treat yourself to 20 mins deep relaxation, prepare for a good nights sleep.
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