Scientific Research About Dreams

Sleep lab research indicates that humans (adults) have a 90 minute rhythm sleep cycle which is accompanied by dreams. This cycle includes Non-REM and REM segments during each period of sleep. When we first fall to sleep (light sleep) is when the dreams (REM phase) occur. As we sleep (hours) through the night the REM phase becomes extended. During the REM the eyes are literally looking (back and forth) at the pictures of the dream. The research indicates that an average person will dream one to two hours each night. That makes it ever more important to get 8 hours of sleep per night.

REM is the active form of sleep. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) discovered in 1953.

Sleep Tips to Help You Get a Good Night of Sleep:

  • Establish a regular bet time timetable.

  • Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco before bedtime.

  • Create a comfortable sleep environment void of distractions and noise.

  • Establish a regular exercise routine daily but not within 3-4 hours of your scheduled bed.

  • Reserve your sleeping area for sleep. Make a habit of getting in bed, turning off the lights and prepare yourself for sleep.

  • Steer clear of heavy meals near bedtime.

  • Try not to worry about issues and especially around or during bedtime.

I call it, “The Committee”. The Committee likes to hold it meetings at bedtime or during the night. The Committee tries to solve all our problems as well as those of our family members and in some cases it tries to help God save the world. It will keep us awake night after night in meetings worrying over life’s problems. We all have experienced those nights.

It gets down to trusting God and handing Him our problems. I know one lady which said to the Father, “Everything in my life is broken God! Fix it Lord!” and in a gesture of throwing up her hands in surrender, handing off the cares of the world to the Father. Her testimony today is that He did take up the issues in her life and she finally slept after nearly a week without any rest.

How to prime the pump for Godly dreams

We can enhance the dream environment prior to going to sleep by:

  • Turn off auditory or visual stimulates such as TV or radio hours before going to bed.

  • Read the Bible

  • When you lay down think on a scripture and meditate on it or meditate on Him.

  • Tell the Father that you believe in dreams and that they contain a genuine message for my life.

  • Ask God to speak to you in the night through dreams and visions as found in Job 33:14-18.

Job 33:14-18 "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, {yet} no one notices it. "In a dream, a vision of the night, When sound sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds, Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction, That He may turn man aside {from his} conduct, And keep man from pride; He keeps back his soul from the pit, And his life from passing over into Sheol.