The Dream Journal Sleep Loss and the Nature of Consciousness with Rubin Naiman, PhD
Sleep loss is at epidemic levels today. What are we missing out on? How can dreams help cure insomnia? Because of what our guest calls, “Wake centrism,” Americans are subject to hyperarousal, and 60-70 million of us have some level of insomnia. This is an epidemic levels of sleep and dream loss. We also talk about consciousness: our fear of it and our innate need to expand it. Dr. Naiman proposes that dreaming is a dialogue with the unconscious and that sleeping can be approached as a kind of spiritual practice. He describes our fear of the unconscious and our innate need to expand consciousness.
Dr. Naiman will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Tucson conference for the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
BIO: Rubin Naiman, PhD, is a psychologist, sleep and dream specialist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona’s Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Naiman is a pioneer in the development of integrative approaches to sleep and dream disorders, integrating conventional sleep science with depth psychological and transpersonal perspectives. He founded and directed sleep programs at Canyon Ranch and Miraval Health Resorts. He is also the director of NewMoon Sleep, LLC, an organization that offers a range of sleep and dream related services, trainings and consultation internationally. Dr. Naiman maintains a global telehealth practice and has worked with a diverse clientele including Fortune 500 CEOs, professional athletes, statesmen and entertainers. He is the author of several groundbreaking works on sleep and dreams including consumer books, audiobooks and articles as well as medical book chapters and papers.
Dr. Naiman’s primary interest is the field of consciousness, which includes the flow of sleep, dreams and waking. He believes that these states can be best understood in context, that is, in relationship to one another. Dr Naiman has long been concerned about evidence suggesting that we are at least as dream deprived as we are sleep deprived. This silent epidemic of dream loss is symptomatic of our culture’s devaluation of dreaming, which stems in large part from a mistrust of the unconscious. He sees cultivating a relationship with the dream world as a personal spiritual practice that has positive transpersonal ramifications.
Join us at the 2022 IN PERSON dream conference in Tucson July 17-21. Register and learn more at https://iasdconferences.org/2022/
Outro music is Everything by Mood Science. Today’s ambient music is created by Rick Kleffel new every week. (The audio can be found sprinkled throughout the blog at NarrativeSpecies.wordpress.com.) Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show, to Tony Russomano for answering the phones and to Ewa Malady for audio editing.
Show aired on July 2, 2022.
The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time. Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or at onair@ksqd.org.
If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact katherine@ksqd.org, or find out more about her at ExperientialDreamwork.com.
The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at