How to be alert in sleep and dream?

Question: HOW TO BE ALERT IN SLEEP AND DREAM? The person who has asked says that whenever he tries to be aware, he cannot sleep. Or, if sleep is coming and suddenly he remembers that he has to be alert, the sleep is broken, and then he cannot sleep -- it is difficult. Awareness with sleep cannot be worked out directly. First you have to work with the waking. Don't try that, otherwise your sleep will be disturbed and your whole day will be disturbed and you will feel depressed, lazy, sleepy. Don't do that. Remember always there is a chain and one has to move from step to step. The first step is to be aware while waking. Don't think about the sleep at all. First you be awake while waking in the day.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHEN I GO TO SLEEP AT NIGHT, I AM SWEPT AWAY BY SUCH INCREDIBLY SURREAL DREAMS THAT I WAKE UP IN THE MORNING SURPRISED I AM IN MY SAME BED. OSHO, IS THERE A WAY TO CHANNEL THIS PHENOMENAL ENERGY THAT GOES INTO DREAMING AT NIGHT, INTO WATCHFULNESS? The phenomenon of dreaming and watchfulness are totally different things. Just try one thing: every night, going to sleep, while you are just half awake, half asleep, slowly going deeper into sleep, repeat to yourself, "I will be able to remember that it is a dream." Go on repeating it till you fall asleep. It will take a few days, but one day you will be surprised: once this idea sinks deep into the unconscious, you can watch the dream as a dream. Then it has no grip over you.

Question: Second question: Osho, I don’t see dreams in sleep, yet it feels as if I haven’t slept for many days. At the slightest disturbance the body wakes up, as if I had been awake all along. But I don’t feel tired, and the hours of sleep seem to slip away. Please tell me what this state is? Good; it is auspicious, beneficent. As meditation deepens, you will find that even at night someone within remains awake. The upper layers go to sleep; inside, some corner is lit, illumined. The body sinks into darkness, the mind is lost, yet a ray of consciousness keeps burning on. Within, a witness keeps watch. Even now, even while you sleep, that witness is present—whether you know it or not. In the morning who says, “I saw dreams at night”? Who remembers the dream?

Question: ALSO, MEDITATE ON KNOWLEDGE THAT COMES DURING SLEEP. ALSO, MEDITATE ON ANYTHING THAT APPEALS TO YOU. THUS, THE YOGI BECOMES MASTER OF ALL, FROM THE INFINITESIMAL TO THE INFINITE. Dream is a tremendous activity, more powerful than your thinking, more meaningful also, because it belongs to the deeper part of your being than your thinking. When you fall into sleep, the mind that was functioning the whole day is tired, exhausted. It is a very tiny mind, one-tenth compared to the unconscious, which is nine times bigger and greater and powerful. And if you compare it with the superconscious, comparison is not possible, because superconscious is infinite, superconscious is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Superconscious is what God is. Even compared to the unconscious, the conscious is very small. It gets tired, it needs rest to be recharged. The conscious goes off; tremendous activity starts in sleep, which is dreaming.

When Turiya becomes easy in the day, then you can use it even in dreams. At night as you fall asleep, carry only one remembrance: I am the watcher, I am the seer. As sleep approaches, let a single tone resound within: I am the witness, I am the witness, I am the witness. Repeating this feeling-stream, fall asleep. You will not even notice when sleep came and when this stream broke. If you keep guarding this stream, sleep will come — the stream will continue. For the stream is flowing within you; sleep comes to the body. If the inner stream continues, one day suddenly even in a dream you will experience: I am the watcher. And the moment you experience this, something unique will happen — the dream will break instantly. As soon as within the dream you remember, “I am the watcher,” the dream stops.