The alarm clock is the greatest destroyer of restful sleep the world has ever invented. I haven't used an alarm clock in over 30 years. I have trained myself to wake up naturally. On those rare occasions when I've set an alarm, just in case, I've found that disturbing my final sleep cycle with an alarm ruins my day.

I've spent far too much time and effort studying my own sleep cycle.

I sleep in nearly uniform 2-hour blocks.

The first cycle is deep body sleep, generally devoid of dreams.

The second is a mixture, but more heavily toward body rest with some dreaming.

The third is light body rest and much REM sleep with active dreams.

The fourth, which I don't generally need, is usually a meditative period where I don't fully lose consciousness. If I do dream, this is the cycle where I am most likely to remain lucid and gain control of my dreams.

I'm not a prolific lucid dreamer, but I've studied and practiced enough Tibetan dream yoga to have these dreams a few times a month.

Lucid dreams are glorious! I love to fly!

Unfortunately, other than the meditative aspect of the last cycle, dreams aren't liberating. You won't become enlightened by paying attention to dreams.

The Tibetans practiced dream yoga simply to retain their conscious awareness at all times. They have no expectations of special experiences during that time.

Dreams are useful to examining hidden messages buried in your subconscious, but if you spend enough waking hours in meditation, you can bring all your subconscious thoughts into awareness without relying to reading tea leaves from the clues in your dreams.

BTW, I really like your writing style. The simple presentation, like you're speaking to a child is the most effective way to reach people's hearts.

Those conversations with your daughter weren't just with your daughter. You were speaking directly to the inner child in all your readers, whether you were aware of it or not.

Kudos!