Sleep and Dreams

My two teaching sessions on Tuesday were devoted to sleep and dreaming.  During the first session, we discussed how sleep can be measured, the phases of sleep, developmental changes in the phases of sleep and some differences in how animals sleep.  This discussion prepared the monastics for a lecture by Dr. Ravindra Nagindra, a professor at a local Bangalore University who studies the effects of meditation on sleep.  He presented data showing how people who meditate have increased durations of REM sleep.  A lively discussion followed this presentation with many questions from the monks about the purpose of sleep and the meaning of dreams.