Lama Ole’s answer:
There are several phases of sleep. First, the often broken-up impressions of the day are processed once more. Everything gets checked again. In my case, these impressions are often protective states: the lecture halls, the experiences of the day, the old protector concepts like, “Be careful here, secure that there, how is he doing,” and so on.
Then there is usually a phase of sleep that I apparently don’t have at all. Here, some people have nightmares or something similar. I might have never had a nightmare in my whole life. People tell me about them and I have compassion, but I don’t understand it.
Then, every morning, there are phases where I can switch between dreams at will. I can decide, “Ah, now I want to dream about this—that would be exciting!” I have many action-movie dreams, where I fly, jump, and do such great things. OK, also a few prophetic dreams or memories of great experiences come up, like the motorcycle trip to Oslo. That was really fantastic! The colors and the light—everything was light green with a lot of birch trees.
Then I also consciously check different things in my dreams: “What signs are there? Does somebody want to tell me something?” If I see buddha aspects or hear mantras, it is very special. There of course I am immensely thankful!
In the moment I wake up, I then have a choice. Either I say, “Now you must remember!” and I am able to do so, or I say, “Now you don’t want to remember.” The dream was a completed thing, and with twenty letters waiting for me to answer, I have to be completely here and now. Most of the time I choose this option. Only if I really think there was a dangerous sign, then I must remember.