Sleep

'Sleep' within a dream represents assimilation -- the process of digesting and integrating your life experiences. Sleep is when the conscious mind rests and the subconscious mind goes to work processing, sorting, and integrating everything that happened during the waking hours. When sleep appears as a theme within your dream, it is reflecting the assimilation process itself. Your subconscious mind is highlighting the importance of processing your experiences -- not just having them, but truly digesting them and extracting the lessons. When sleep shows up in your dream, it is calling for you to make sure you are giving yourself adequate time and space to assimilate. Are you rushing from experience to experience without pausing to integrate? Slow down. Rest. Allow the subconscious to do its essential work of turning your experiences into permanent understandings.