Lavender Sleep

Insomnia is the condition where people get insufficient sleep. I’m wondering whether it is a physiological condition or all in the mind?

Dreams and Actions.

Dreams filled with action are frequently symbolic. Many of these symbols are directly connected to popular phrases and sayings which the subconscious translates into its own language.

Take cleaning, for example – we might say ‘I’m going to make a clean start’ , or refer to a successful business as ‘cleaning up’ , meaning it is making a lot of money easily and quickly. Clean also means completely, as in ‘I clean forgot’. Once you start to look for parallels you will soon be able to spot all kinds of double or even triple, meanings in your dreams.

There are two further major kinds of action dream:
1) literal dreams
2) action-replay dreams.
Literal dreams are completely free from symbolism or imagination, for they represent a straightforward message from the subconscious. These messages attempt to bring something to your attention in the moist obvious possible way, and often focus on something you have forgotten or overlooked. They can also present problem-solving solutions, suggest new ways of doing things or give you creative ideas. Sometimes they are a kind of wish-fulfilment – a dream trying to come true, if only in fantasy.

Other action dreams seem to be identical replays of situations you have already lived through. These dreams are trying to help you come to terms with an event in the past which you may have misinterpreted. By dreaming of your actions, your mind is giving you an opportunity to set the memory records straight – and fully understand a situation. At one time scientists believed all our dreams were a way of filing information in the memory banks , but have now realized that dreams are much more complex and mysterious than that.

Lavender may help insomniacs.

In folklore, pillows were filled with lavender flowers to help the restless fall sleep. There is now scientific evidence to suggest that aromatherapy with lavender may slow the activity of the nervous system, improves sleep quality, promote relaxation, and lift mood in people suffering from sleep disorders. Studies also suggest that massage with essential oils, particularly lavender, may result in improved sleep quality, more stable mood, increased mental capacity, and reduced anxiety. In one recent study, participants who received massage with lavender felt less anxious and more positive than participants who received massage alone. Lavender flowers have also been approved in Germany as a tea for insomnia, restlessness, and nervous stomach irritations.

Everybody dreams. It is a matter of remembering our dreams. The question “Why do we dream?” still eludes science. Approximately every 90 minutes during the night we enter a period of light sleep. This may be for 20 minutes or just a few seconds. This part of the sleep-cycle is when we dream.

Serious sleep research began in the United States in the 1950s, and soon spread to specially designed sleep laboratories all over the world. By attaching electrodes to volunteers’ faces and scalps, scientists were able to measure brain-wave activity and other physical cycles through the night. One of the discoveries is that eyes (even of the blind) move about rapidly beneath closed lids during a dream. This was established by waking subjects at intervals. If volunteers are woken during rapid eye movement (REM) then they report dreams.

More recent experiments have established that dreams are essential to mental and physical well-being. When people have been deliberately denied dream-sleep they become quite disturbed, experiencing hallucinations and a range of psychotic symptoms.

A Japanese company has invented a product which, it says, allows owners to create their own dreams.

see

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3395505.stm

regards Andrew

I understand that lavender can be used as a stimulant as well as enhancing sleep.

Can anyone explain this apparent contradiction?

Evidently some need less sleep than others . Ms Denis’s annimation demonstrates that sleep is all in the mind……

「夢を見る」

see Gaëlle Denis

In English, we say somebody dreams or has a dream when they’re sleeping.
There is no verb in Japanese that is directly equivalent to the verb “to dream”.
When Japanese people describe a dream they either see a dream 「夢を見る」　or paint a dream 「夢に描く」.

Jersey Lavender

Concerning lavender as a plant, a new page has been created on lavendersleep.org

Explaining some general information regarding lavender.

It covers some of the aspects of lavender horticulture and the science of lavender relating with specific reference to sleep.

“There are around 30 types of lavender.” says Richard Norris of Long Barn Lavender.