The opportunity to dream is precious, and many people underestimate the significance of dreaming for our health, wellbeing and spirituality. Doctors stress the importance of getting a good night’s sleep, but do not recognise that the problems deriving from insomnia stem as much from lost dreaming time as from the more conventional explanations of stress, diet and lifestyle.

Simultaneous dreaming is something I have wondered about before, but it was only last night that an ordinary experience helped me to confirm that we can, indeed, be in two dreams at the same time.

At 3.30, I was awoken suddenly by the unusual sound of cars and voices in the lane below my home – I think there may have been a Young Farmers’ event somewhere in the area and a few of them were returning to a neighbouring house rather late: thrust out of a deep sleep I was straddling different planes of consciousness for a few moments as I came to a waking state, aware of the outside noises and yet still in my dream state, but finding myself part of two vivid dreams and not just one, each one ongoing still but quite separate from the other.