Seeing the Voice of God: What God Is Telling You through Dreams and Visions by Laura Harris Smith Page B
Authors: Laura Harris Smith
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night. If babies dream and the blind dream and animals dream (check out our FAQ page at the end of the book), then why would God snub you? Not only is it scientifically impossible for you to opt out of the REM dream sleep cycle, but it is not within God’s nature to exclude you from what is potentially His greatest opportunity to get you still and speak to you.
No one can say he or she does not dream. Every one of us dreams. Every night. Multiple times a night. In fact, you may be dreaming as many as three dozen dreams each night. So all of you who say “I never dream” can stop saying it. The real issue to address now is not the dreaming, but the trouble remembering those dreams.
Get serious about taking back your dreams.
Sick and Tired
We spend about 8 hours daily, 56 hours weekly, 240 hours monthly and 2,920 hours annually doing it. That is right . . . sleeping . Live 45 years and you will have slept 15 of them. Live 75 years and you will have slept for a quarter of a century!
In 1960, a survey by the American Cancer Society asked 1 million Americans how much sleep they got per night. The median answer was 8 hours. Today that number has fallen to 6.7 hours. That is a decrease of more than 15 percent in less than a lifetime. 5
According to Web MD and its various physician sources, the amount of sleep we need varies from person to person anddepends on various lifestyle factors. Babies usually need 16–18 hours of sleep per day (and it is mainly all REM sleep), while teens need about 9. Most adults should get between 7–8 hours of sleep each night. 6
As we age, we still need the same amount of sleep, but our sleep tends to get lighter and shorter. N-REM stages 3 and 4 (N3, deep sleep) sometimes shorten or stop completely in the aged. So we have to ask ourselves, is diminishing health just a part of old age, or does it develop as a result of diminishing deep sleep? One thing is for sure: Even a young adult’s health will diminish more quickly if a sleep disorder is present that prohibits restorative sleep.
Sleepless in America
According to the NINDS, at least 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders and another 20 million encounter them periodically. The sleep medicine business is a $16 billion a year industry involving more than 70 identified sleep disorders. Most of those can be treated, returning the sleepless to a good night’s sleep. 7 Let’s look at two of the most common sleep disorders.
Insomnia
Simply put, insomnia is the inability to sleep, or consistent sleeplessness. We are not talking Sleepless in Seattle or the occasional inability to fall asleep, but chronic sleeplessness. There is also sleep-maintenance insomnia, which is the inability to stay asleep after falling asleep. Insomniacs rarely awake feeling refreshed, and the nightly tossing and turning leaves its imprint on their entire day.
Dr. Evans says that in his experience, women suffer from insomnia more than men. He offers promising opinions about treatment and says that whereas a primary care doctor would prescribe a sleeping aid and perhaps refer you to a psychologist, in his lineof work he tries to determine the tangible, physical reasons you are not sleeping and correct them so that you are not dependent on medications. One of the results of taking sleep aids can be iatrogenic (physician induced) insomnia, which is when a patient develops a tolerance to a sleep aid and requires larger and larger doses, or is advised to stop taking sleep aids and then develops severe insomnia as a withdrawal symptom. This causes the patient to return to sleep aids in a vicious cycle that is hard to beat. 8
Dr. Evans says that REM sleep should account for approximately 25 percent of your total sleep time each night. A downside to sleeping pills is that they depress brain functions and interfere with sleep cycles. In fact, they make REM sleep less likely, period. 9
In my line of work, ministry, I have another approach to helping
No one can say he or she does not dream. Every one of us dreams. Every night. Multiple times a night. In fact, you may be dreaming as many as three dozen dreams each night. So all of you who say “I never dream” can stop saying it. The real issue to address now is not the dreaming, but the trouble remembering those dreams.
Get serious about taking back your dreams.
Sick and Tired
We spend about 8 hours daily, 56 hours weekly, 240 hours monthly and 2,920 hours annually doing it. That is right . . . sleeping . Live 45 years and you will have slept 15 of them. Live 75 years and you will have slept for a quarter of a century!
In 1960, a survey by the American Cancer Society asked 1 million Americans how much sleep they got per night. The median answer was 8 hours. Today that number has fallen to 6.7 hours. That is a decrease of more than 15 percent in less than a lifetime. 5
According to Web MD and its various physician sources, the amount of sleep we need varies from person to person anddepends on various lifestyle factors. Babies usually need 16–18 hours of sleep per day (and it is mainly all REM sleep), while teens need about 9. Most adults should get between 7–8 hours of sleep each night. 6
As we age, we still need the same amount of sleep, but our sleep tends to get lighter and shorter. N-REM stages 3 and 4 (N3, deep sleep) sometimes shorten or stop completely in the aged. So we have to ask ourselves, is diminishing health just a part of old age, or does it develop as a result of diminishing deep sleep? One thing is for sure: Even a young adult’s health will diminish more quickly if a sleep disorder is present that prohibits restorative sleep.
Sleepless in America
According to the NINDS, at least 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders and another 20 million encounter them periodically. The sleep medicine business is a $16 billion a year industry involving more than 70 identified sleep disorders. Most of those can be treated, returning the sleepless to a good night’s sleep. 7 Let’s look at two of the most common sleep disorders.
Insomnia
Simply put, insomnia is the inability to sleep, or consistent sleeplessness. We are not talking Sleepless in Seattle or the occasional inability to fall asleep, but chronic sleeplessness. There is also sleep-maintenance insomnia, which is the inability to stay asleep after falling asleep. Insomniacs rarely awake feeling refreshed, and the nightly tossing and turning leaves its imprint on their entire day.
Dr. Evans says that in his experience, women suffer from insomnia more than men. He offers promising opinions about treatment and says that whereas a primary care doctor would prescribe a sleeping aid and perhaps refer you to a psychologist, in his lineof work he tries to determine the tangible, physical reasons you are not sleeping and correct them so that you are not dependent on medications. One of the results of taking sleep aids can be iatrogenic (physician induced) insomnia, which is when a patient develops a tolerance to a sleep aid and requires larger and larger doses, or is advised to stop taking sleep aids and then develops severe insomnia as a withdrawal symptom. This causes the patient to return to sleep aids in a vicious cycle that is hard to beat. 8
Dr. Evans says that REM sleep should account for approximately 25 percent of your total sleep time each night. A downside to sleeping pills is that they depress brain functions and interfere with sleep cycles. In fact, they make REM sleep less likely, period. 9
In my line of work, ministry, I have another approach to helping
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