ABSTRACT
Reformed Protestantism in the British Isles developed a rigorous culture of self-discipline and self-observation. One of the features of the holiness which these men and women were trying to cultivate was constant awareness of the presence of God. This made sleeping and dreaming particularly problematic, as these are points at which disciplining your thoughts is difficult. This chapter explores the different faces of their spiritual struggle with sleeping and dreaming, and argues that that struggle provided them with opportunities as well as problems. On dreaming, the Biblical witness is more complex, because it is clear from both Old and New Testament examples that dreams can be messages from God; but it is also clear that there can be false dreams, and indeed the book of Deuteronomy equates the dreamer of false dreams with a false prophet who should be slain. As Carole Levin has pointed out, one of the richest Protestant collections of divine dreams was in John Foxe's martyrology.
