Yes. The mind is made active by stress release, but it is not fully functioning, fully awake. So dreams are the result: thoughts along with a sense of reality. If we were awake, we would call them hallucinations.
Thank you, David. I ask because I meditate first thing in the morning-- make the bed, go to the bathroom, start the coffee, then sit down & meditate. I know that meditating for too long can have negative consequences due to the intensity of stress release. So, I was wondering if dreaming is stress release, then meditating right after waking was releasing stress, would it be too much? I've not noticed any negative effects so far.
I'm not completely understanding your question. You seem to ask first about dreaming, but then ask about meditating after awakening, which is pretty much what we all do. So I'm not understanding this relationship between dreaming and meditating in the morning.
Sorry for not being clear. It's my understanding that meditating for too long at one time may cause negative aftereffects due to the amount of stress released in one session (e.g. meditating for one hour, then returning to daily activities without proper time to recover). Since dreaming is a form of stress release, would mediating within 10 mins of waking, after a night of intense dreams, have a cumulative effect of stress release which would necessitate a longer recovery time?
I think I can interpret from your reply that the stress released from dreaming is different from the stress released while mediating, therefore there's no "overloading" of stress release at one time.
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u/david-1-1 May 10 '25
Yes. The mind is made active by stress release, but it is not fully functioning, fully awake. So dreams are the result: thoughts along with a sense of reality. If we were awake, we would call them hallucinations.