The way you sleep and dream are clues to your state of consciousness and the dormant activity of your spirit. Our normal waking existence is only another form of dream. By gaining conscious awareness of sleep and dreams you can create significant shifts in consciousness and self realization.
Dreams are prophetic, healing, inventive and have helped many figures in history. The quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli claimed dreams were his “secret laboratory.”
Tossing and turning during sleep is an attempt of the body to attain balance of the breath. Sleeping on the left side creates a right side dominant breath and sleeping on the right side makes a left side dominant breath.
Tantric Dream Yoga suggests sleeping in the fetal position and on the right side (lunar/psychic dominant breath) to aid in the conscious control over dreams. Applying pressure to the right side of the face and throat, creating more saliva and various other techniques are harnessed to allow conscious entry in and out of the dream world.
While dreaming your consciousness is said to move upward from the heart center of deep sleep and exit through your throat or head center, which is why sleeping with your head facing north is advised with caution for those practicing dream work (other texts advise South or East to sleep restfully in congruence with the Earth’s poles).
The term ‘sweet dreams’ comes from the old folk tradition of using flowers and herbs near the head to produce a relaxing and sweet sensation for the psyche to enter into the dream world with.
Resolving to remember your dreams before you sleep, recognizing the waking dream while you are awake, and waking slowly and consciously go a long way.