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Sleep is essential to our survival. Some of us love the feeling of sleep and others hate it when it comes around because they have to stop what they are doing. Before we get into dreams, I'd like to spend today talking a little more about sleep, which is the condition prior before our dreams.

For many people, it may feel like when we sleep, it is like we are shutting off a machine ' like we are robots with an 'on' and 'off' button. But this isn't the case as all as we never fully 'shut down.' Part of us still remains conscious as we sleep, but we are unconscious in what we are thinking about. We cannot control our thoughts. Our biological parts of our bodies however, are still alive, well, and functioning.

Sleep happens usually as a result us losing energy, whether this is mental or physical energy. We let our conscious minds rest temporarily, letting the unconscious part take over. While this is happen, our mind and bodies start to regain the energies that we spent during our days at work, with our family, playing sports, and other activities.

The relationship between sleep and dreams can also be seen as a human energy field or a power reservoir, if you enjoy picturing things in that way. Most of what goes on is through our inner self. This can be regarded as our personality, memory, and emotions, or the components that make up or spirit or our soul. The outer body is just our physical body, layered in skin receiving directions from the inner self.

How much energy we take away from this power reservoir  depends on things such as our personalities, current feelings and emotions, current conditions, health factors, age, and social and economic situations. When we sleep, it is a time where we recharge or restore energy to this power reservoir to maximum efficiency. Maximum efficiency is the most amount of energy we need in a day, and is usually given to us when we come into life at birth, but averages out when we get older.

More sleep does not mean more power or energy to this reservoir as there is only an extent of energy we can reach. Furthermore, oversleeping can cause us to lose energy and become drowsier during the day.

The best way is to get a good amount of sleep ' 7 to 9 hours ' without waking up in the middle or with any other disturbances. It is best to take one entire stretch so we can reach the REM stages of our sleep, where dreams occur, so we can be fully rested, rather than take short naps every so often, as even combining the time of these short breaks won't equal the total period of one long sleeping period and also will not be effective to restoring our full energy.

Sleep, should never be pressured, but come naturally. By naturally, we should never command ourselves to sleep. When the right time comes, the body will naturally tell the mind to shut off. And within 5-10 minutes, the mind should start drifting into the unconscious state while the body begins to rest. This requires a natural sleeping pattern which will take time and effort to adjust.

Whatever your desired sleeping time is, you should point it at that time whether it's 9, 10, 12 or 1 and be prepared to go to sleep within that time period of about 20 minutes. When you constantly wake up at the time you want, whether it's 6, 7, or 8 and you don't take any naps in between, you'll find yourself starting to go to sleep at the time you desired to sleep.

Let's talk about the meaning of sleep. Death, is often labeled as an 'eternal' sleep. It is based on religious ideals such as from Christian concepts and Egyptian concepts ' that when we die, the soul is often judged by God or a god in which determines our fate from there.

There are many associates with sleep as 'death' such as putting a dog 'to sleep'. But I find it weird however that these two associates are mixed as, when we are asleep, we are alive. All functions are retained and the bodily movement continues.

When we are dead, all vital functions stop and body is lifeless. I guess it's just a more mannered way of expressing death, by using sleep, such as having a 'peaceful sleep' or having an 'eternal rest' imprinted in tombs.

Other interpretations of the word sleep have sexual meanings such as 'sleeping with someone' or 'sleeping with a person.' It is not surprising as it is common for people to have a sexual intercourse prior to falling asleep or right after waking up from sleep. Since sexual intercourse draws out a good amount of energy, it would most likely give in a good rest, providing a possible link or relationship between the two.

What about hypnotists? Some people do not fall asleep naturally but have hypnotists help them change their sleeping patterns, discover something about themselves and their past, or relief stress, worry. Hypnotists can be valuable in digging out memories from the unconscious mind as well as heal a person from constant anxiety by removing mental blocks.

Obviously, we have to be in a state of sleep before we can dream. That is why it is important, whether through good sleeping habit, activities through the day, sexual relationship, hypnotists, or what have you, to get the deepest sleep possible in order to give energy to our power reservoirs. And as we are in those full 7, 8, or 9 hours of sleep, our unconscious takes over.

The power of sleep will depend on the power of our dreams and since we've kind of covered sleep, I've always wondered about some questions about how sleeps affects our dreams and what kind of things can we draw out from those dreams'

Is man the only one that can dream? Can plants or animals? What kind of messages can we draw in our sleep and in our dreams that we cannot receive in the awaking state? Can we see, feel, or touch supernatural entities in our dreams? Can we communicate with some other force on the other side of life? Could there be psychic communications from the world beyond?

So get a get night's sleep tonight and see if you can remember your dream after you when you wake up. We will begin by talking about what really is a dream anyway, tomorrow.

About the Author:

Tristan Lee is a writer who enjoys helping others with self-improvement and personal success. Read more of his self-improvement posts at his blog, http://tristanleesblog.com/.