Thread: Are we aware in DEEP sleep?

wtf? How do you know you are thinking in deep sleep

Yep it was probably somewhere in light sleep

I'm just wondering what it's like, I've heard of monks who do Dream Yoga being aware during deep sleep. I just wanna know what it is like . . .

We can be aware in deep sleep, but very rarely is any memory created.

I think it's mostly monks that are advanced meditators that ever experience it fully.

I may experience the same thing (or similar), at times I wake up with some new insight or idea repeatedly cycling through my head as though my conscious mind is desperate to remember...almost as if from a gift from my subconscious...or from somewhere in the deep dark places of sleep. It's usually a song like a piano composition, a work of art, or an interesting saying or observation. It's like inspiration direct from...somewhere. For me it usually happens closer to waking in the early morning hours, but is definitely non-REM, or at least non-dreaming. We talking about the same thing ya think?

Wow, I thought you couldn't be aware when you were in deep sleep for some reason, but there isn't really anything that says you can't.

The exact same thing lol!!

There is awareness in deep sleep, however it is nothing like most people have experienced.

It is an awareness without any sensation of subject or object, no duality at all. If you are thinking at all, that isn't the same thing. Since your consciousness associates itself with the thinking, conceptual mind, it won't allow itself to carry over into that state.

Have you ever wondered why your mind cannot stop thinking, even for a few seconds?

The sensation of being a subject, of there being a "I" who is separate from what is perceived requires constant mental effort to uphold. If you were to stop thinking entirely you would dissolve back into a state of complete unification without any boundaries. No "here" or "there," no "self" and "other." Your ego views this as death, so it gets terrible anxiety when confronted with the prospect; hence it needs a constant train of thought.

This is where you go in deep sleep. Effectively you are dead, but paradoxically awareness can persist. Monks who are trained in meditative techniques which silence the ego can maintain this awareness both in waking life and while asleep.

If you have taken a psychedelic drug before you may have come in contact with something similar. It usually happens at the peak, if you are lucky.