Dreams

It seems dreams aren’t just visual non-sequiturs that happen behind closed eyelids. This piece from Jonah Lehrer, on the New York Times Opinionator blog, is interesting (and slightly worrying, for someone with at least occasional insomniac tendencies):

All this knowledge about the important roles dreams play in our waking lives is fascinating. But it doesn’t make me feel better about my insomnia. Obviously, my old consolation — dreams are nothing but useless melodramas — is clearly false.

So, in not sleeping, and thus not dreaming, one deprives oneself of valuable unconscious ‘solving’ time. The question is, how to get to sleep? And what role might nightmares have in this?