What is the quality and nature of an enlightened person's sleep?

"does an enlightened person ever dream? Can you tell us something about the quality and nature of an enlightened person's sleep?"

No, an enlightened person cannot dream. And if you like dreams very much, never become enlightened. Beware! Dreaming is part of sleep. The first thing is that for dreaming to happen you have to move into sleep. For ordinary dreams you have to move into sleep. In sleep you become unconscious. When you are unconscious, dreams can happen. They happen only in your unconsciousness. An enlightened person is conscious even while asleep. He cannot become unconscious. Even if you give him an anaesthetic -- chloroform or something like that -- only his periphery goes to sleep. He remains conscious; his consciousness cannot be disturbed. Krishna says in the Gita that while everyone is asleep the yogi is awake. It is not that yogis are not going to sleep in the night; they also sleep, but their sleep has a different quality. Only their bodies sleep, and then their sleep is…

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, auspicious; do not be afraid. Dreams will slowly disappear. When the witness is awake, dreams cannot be. If there is dreaming, there cannot be witnessing. Good. The dream has fallen away; a sense of wakefulness remains through the night. Gradually it will deepen and grow denser; swiftness and intensity will come. The witness becomes keen—like the edge of a sword. But in the beginning there will be difficulty. We believe that eight hours of sleep are necessary—this is a notion—and then what is this that is happening? The whole night seems to pass as if awake. And if you remain “as if awake” for eight hours, the night feels very long, as if it will never end. If you sleep, you forget; you do not know when the night began or ended. You sleep and it is morning. But now it feels as if all night it remained morning;…

Beloved Osho, in the sixties and seventies neurologists became very interested in an area of the brain stem called the "reticular formation." it is said that this is the area that filters input into the brain while we are asleep. Thus, a mother sleeps through all sorts of noises, but wakes the instant her child cries -- this function was said to be achieved by the reticular formation. It seems that during sleep there is one element within us which remains awake. Does witnessing have any relationship to this phenomenon? Does witnessing belong to a part of the brain?

It is recorded that Buddha never changed his posture in sleep; he would sleep in the same posture the whole night. His disciple, Ananda, was puzzled. Many times he would wake up and look, and he could not believe how Buddha managed. In sleep you cannot manage to keep the same posture. People cannot even manage the same posture while they are awake; there is so much restlessness that they have to turn this way and that. But in sleep you are unconscious... One day Ananda finally asked, "How do you manage the same posture the whole night long?" Buddha said, "You will understand one day when you become enlightened. I will give you the answer but it will be difficult for you to grasp it. I simply rest, I don't sleep. Since the day I became awakened, sleep has disappeared." Other things may be disturbed in the bodies of…

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.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, BEFORE SEEKING YOU'VE INDICATED YOU WANT ME TO INSTRUCT YOU BY LETTER IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS. THIS VERY THOUGHT OF SEEKING INSTRUCTION IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS HAS ALREADY STUCK YOUR HEAD INTO A BOWL OF GLUE. THOUGH I SHOULDN'T ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF FROST TO THE SNOW, NEVERTHELESS WHERE THERE'S A QUESTION IT SHOULDN'T GO UNANSWERED. I ASK YOU TO ABANDON AT ONCE ALL THE JOY YOU'VE EVER FELT IN READING THE WORDS OF THE SCRIPTURES YOURSELF OR WHEN BEING AROUSED AND INSTRUCTED BY OTHERS. BE TOTALLY WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING, AS BEFORE, LIKE A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD. THOUGH THE INNATE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THERE, IT DOESN'T OPERATE. THEN CONTEMPLATE WHAT'S THERE BEFORE THE THOUGHT OF SEEKING THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS ARISES: OBSERVE AND OBSERVE.