Dreaming for Answers with the Power of Naps and Biphasic Sleep Benefits
Whenever I encounter a difficult choice, challenging situation, or simply a burning question in my waking life I set aside some time to intentionally explore it during a nap or the second part of a biphasic sleep pattern.
Often I’m successful, waking with a sense of deep understanding that arises specifically from the content and exploration of the dream I encountered. This has been particularly useful in recent times as I’m a new mom and have a LOT of questions about how I want to parent and how I can effectively implement those answers into my daily life. My dreams—the content I create for myself—have been supporting me with answers pulled from the deepest parts of my being. Whether you’re beginning a new life phase or just want to connect with yourself on a deeper level, your dreams can help you explore the questions you have.
In this article we’ll dive into the biology behind potent nap dreams and biphasic sleep, how to best harness their power, and some suggestions for personal exploration.
The Biology Behind Nap Dream Potency
Did you know that for thousands of years humanity slept in a biphasic pattern: a first and second sleep split with a brief wake window? It’s only recently that we’ve begun sleeping through the night in a single stretch, specifically since the Industrial Revolution and dependency on artificial light through inventions like gas-powered lamps and household electricity. In fact, some societies without artificial light still experience biphasic sleep today.
Personally, as a new parent, I’m experiencing biphasic sleep and an increase in daytime naps as part of caring for my infant son and I’ve noticed that my dreams have become even more vivid, detailed, and off-the-charts informational. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where I’ll set an intention before my second sleep or afternoon nap and my dreams will follow through on that intention within a few days or less. Previously, fulfillment on my dreamwork intentions could take several weeks or more.
I’ve identified this increase in dream potency to be the result of the increased length of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep found in naps and later nighttime sleep cycles paired with an increase of consciousness as described in the wake-back-to-bed method for lucid dreaming.
REM Sleep and Dream Probability
Though it is possible to dream in any stage of sleep, most dreams occur during the REM phase of a sleep cycle.
A typical adult experiences 4-6 sleep cycles per night that take an average of 90 minutes each to complete. Every sleep cycle begins with restorative N-REM sleep before transitioning to the dreaming aspects of REM sleep.
What’s most important to note, however, is that the first sleep cycle of the night has the highest amount of N-REM and the lowest amount of REM sleep. As the night progresses, your sleep cycles shift, lessening the amount of N-REM and increasing the amount of REM. The last sleep cycle of the night has the most REM sleep and, therefore, an increased probability of potent dreams.
Increasing Consciousness with the Wake-Back-to-Bed Technique
Biphasic sleep and long (full sleep cycle/90 minute) afternoon naps are essentially the same as the common wake-back-to-bed (WBTB) lucid dreaming technique. The theory is that a brief mid-night wake window engages your consciousness enough to bring it back with you into sleep and, subsequently, your dreams.
Biphasic sleep is inherently built around a middle-of-the-night wake window but instead of only waking for 20-30 minutes as with WBTB, biphasic sleepers may stay awake for over an hour during their wake window, allowing a greater element of consciousness to arouse before falling back to sleep again. Additionally, with full sleep cycle nap dreams, consciousness may also be at the forefront.
When combined with the lighter sleep and longer REM cycles of naps and second sleeps, the extra element of consciousness can enrich your dreams and sharpen their focus on your intentions.
Harnessing the Dream Power of Naps and Second Sleep
Your dreams are content and communication created by you, for you. So when you explore a problem, situation, decision, or question in your dream space, you explore it entirely within yourself. This allows you to tap into exactly how you feel about the things in your waking life, allowing you to better address the world from your unique perspective and internal compass. By setting an intention for your dreams, you can open the door to receiving advice directly from yourself.
Setting Dream Intentions
When it comes to exploring something specific within dreams, the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD) technique is a great way to set intentions for your dreams.
The key with MILD is to verbally state your dreamtime intention, create a mantra for it, or engage a repeating phrase identifying it aloud before falling asleep. Vocalizing your intention helps externalize and reinforce it, moving it from abstract thought into something more concrete. When combined with the pattern of a mantra or repeated phrase, the vocalization of your intention embeds itself within your mind and carries into the dream space.
When you use MILD right before a nap or second sleep of the night, the probability of your dreamtime intention increases further with the focus of sleep shifting away from physical restoration to experiencing dreams through REM sleep.
Putting It All Together
Here are a few steps to increase the probability of fulfilling your dreamtime intentions and accessing the information you have for yourself:
Identify a dreamtime intention. Some suggestions include, “how do I resolve this conflict with my friend,” “what next project would be most worth my time,” or even “I want to connect with one of my spiritual guides.”
Plan your sleep. Either intentionally engage biphasic sleep through the WBTB method, use a natural window of wakefulness during the night, or lay down for a long afternoon nap.
Engage the MILD technique before falling asleep. Repeating something like, “show me what I need to know about X” or “I will explore X situation in my dreams” can be enough.
Repeat until fulfilled. Sometimes I’ll set the same dreamtime intention several nights in a row. It may take longer for beginners to this practice.
Dreaming for Answers
Over the last several months my sleep pattern has naturally become biphasic as I wake in the middle of the night to care for my baby. But instead of giving in to the feelings of disruption, I’ve consciously tried to reframe it as an opportunity for dreamwork… and it’s working!
By combining intention-setting and the MILD technique with the right timing of my second sleep and afternoon naps, I’ve been able to explore how I feel about parenting techniques, planned out full articles or book chapters in my dreams before sitting down to write them, and even connected with some spiritual entities I had been trying to contact through a lucid dream.
So the next time you’re searching for the answer to a question or looking for guidance on a decision, consider bringing it to bed with you. Whether it's a quiet afternoon nap or the opportunistic hours in a second sleep, your dreams are there to support you.
State your intentions, engage them at the right time, and trust your inner self to emerge from the dream space.
