Whether or not you are aware of it, dreams have the power to unlock clarity and solutions to problems that cannot be achieved with the conscious mind alone. There are many examples in history of people whose dreams had a significant influence on decisions they made, fulfilling needs, and finding answers to questions they could not seem to resolve. In modern times, many people are still influenced by their dreams from time to time, but few understand how to harness the dream power of their mind. If a person does not learn how to use and interpret the results of dreams effectively, they are missing out on a very powerful mechanism for improving the quality of their self awareness.

The content of our dreams is significantly influenced by what happens in our lives during the waking hours. A person might accidentally stumble on an inspiration or idea, without really trying, which happens as the result of a dream. Dreams utilize areas of the mind that generate our purest forms of imagination and creativity. They are unfettered by the limits of our physical reality, and the most powerful source anyone has for "out of the box" thinking. In the dream state, the mind is unfettered by limits and conditions we tend to place on accomplishing things while we are awake. Here we are able to explore the impossible without having to worry about why it cannot be done. During sleep, the mind lets go of its physical constraints, and does whatever is on its current agenda. Our bodies prepare for this by locking down physical responses, so we do not actually move in reaction to what the mind is doing. Despite this safety mechanism, some dream state activities are so intense; we bypass the defense mechanism, and wake up with a sudden jerk or flailing of arms and legs. The old saying, "Let me sleep on that," is not without good foundation.

While many dreams may seem to have little real value or meaning, they actually do have a greater potential for helping us understand our own minds than most people seem to think. Though the conscious and unconscious mind seem to operate on different levels, they are both an integral part of our overall being, working together to make us who and what we are. If a person does not create a strong connection between their waking mind and the dream state, they are less able to take full advantage of the faculties available to them. When dreams are perceived as random and meaningless to the conscious mind, a person becomes more rooted in their waking reality, making it more difficult to overcome limitations and problems confronted in the activities of their lives.

The pace and complexity of modern life has caused many people to lose touch with the benefits of their sleep physiology, moving them away from being able to leverage the insights they could potentially gain from an appropriate balance of individual resources. It has been proven that people who do not get enough sleep have less energy, and have more difficulty in making appropriate decisions, but why? There is speculation that the brain needs the down time represented by sleep in order to rest from the rigors of waking hours, but sleep studies show that the greatest rest comes from the dream state when the brain is as active as it is when we are awake.

There are ways to make more effective use of our dream state mental faculties, and apply this power for practical benefits. You can try these methods for yourself, and see how they make a difference in your own experiences. In my next article, I will outline how the mind works in the dream state, and what methods to use in developing a good connection for passing information and results back and forth between your conscious mind and the dream state.