Sleep

 To sleep is to allow the ego to hand over the stage to the unconscious.

Unconsciousness

If someone is sleeping in a dream, it may indicate that the dreamer is unaware of something. This could be an inner quality or something related to the outer world and other people. For instance, if you dream that you are sleeping in your childhood home, it may suggest that you are unaware of letting family dynamics control your life. If you're sleeping in the back seat of a car, it might imply you're unconsciously allowing others to take the reins, and so on.  

Sleeping in dreams means being too unconscious, as Edinger notes in "The Christian Archetype," and he adds, "One should not sleep in one's dreams."

The Mother Archetype

Falling asleep is a regression, in a sense, giving up one's consciousness (which always requires a degree of willpower and individuality). Sleep, in this way, is associated with the mother complex. When the mother archetype dominates a situation, one may become drowsy and fall asleep. This is often illustrated in fairy tales. When we fall asleep, we release the demands of daily life on our consciousness, regressing back to the great, nurturing mother—the unconscious.

Because consciousness is demanding and "unnatural," there is always a longing for the natural, carefree state of unconsciousness. "Sleep and unconsciousness are associated with early paradisiacal ideas." (Drömbild: Orm, p. 25.) Walking away to sleep in a dream might illustrate a flight from reality.

Meditation

However, going away to sleep can also suggest the need to "sleep on it," to digest something, and to gain new energy (and information). Thus, sleep can also be associated with wisdom. Old folk tales sometimes suggest that the hero should sleep because "the morning is wiser than the evening."

Helplessness

The one who sleeps is helpless and entirely passive, at the mercy of the surroundings. However, our personal, negative sides are also neutralized. A sleeping person does not express the ego's greed, desire for power, and so forth. The sleeping person is innocent, like a child.

Temporary Death

Like the Great Mother, sleep is associated with death. Sleep is considered "temporary death," and to sleep is an euphemism for being dead. This connection has also been used for magical purposes; for instance, to make someone keep sleeping, one might sprinkle earth from a grave over him (Den gyllene grenen).

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