Fighting In Your Sleep

I came across a great article from the BBC about "The Myth of the Eight-Hour Sleep", and it brought up many ideas.

It seems that humans were never meant to sleep an entire eight hour shift, and literature going back to ancient times suggests that pre-industrial folks had what is called "First Sleep" and "Second Sleep".
Between the two was a time of awakening that was typically spent thinking, praying or going out to check livestock.
One text stated it was the best time to have sex...
All of that changed with outdoor lighting, all-night coffee shops and the industrial revolution. It may even be healthy to lay awake at night.


From the "So Much Sass" Blog:

Ron: I suffer from a disorder called Sleep Fighting.

Leslie: Wow, must be terrible.

Ron: Only when I’m losing.
-------------------------------

Which made me think about something I experience, and I'm sure many of you out there do also; I fight in my sleep. It drives my wife crazy.

Fortunately, I am somewhat restrained by the straight jacket of blankets and never develop too much power in my technique. The worst is when I kick the heavy wooden dresser by the foot of the bed. I'm an expert at that, pulling the toes back, striking with the ball of the foot like I have been trained for the last thirty years.
But seriously; I believe that if you can pull of a perfect technique in your sleep, it is deeply ingrained into your psyche and would be a perfectly natural response in real-life awake time. I even remember disarming a guy with a club in a dream, it was so perfect I woke up and thought about it. I have no doubt I would have the same response while awake.

Sleep technologies have been historically used by priests, shamans and warriors.
In Carlos Castenadas books, the Shaman instructs Carlos to visualize looking at his hand in his sleep. After many months, Carlos finally saw his hand, and then he owned the dream. He controlled it and could use it to travel to far-away places and modify his awake behaviour.

Good stuff. Anybody else have similar experiences?