Few of us manage to get "a good night's sleep'' every night. There are a great many variations in what we actually get from our sleep time. Sometimes you wake up feeling refreshed, sometimes not. You might be full of joy one morning but stiff and grouchy another.

This Dream of the Week explains how to explore your ''On-Awakening'' body, as I call it. I think you will be surprised when you pay attention to how you actually wake up. Your physical aches, pains and pleasures reveal a great deal about your sleep and your dreams.

Is Your Sleep Leaving You Physically Refreshed?

It is not unknown for people to wake up with backaches, tense fingers, sore shoulders or other problems that go away during the day. Even when these are on-going issues, if they go away during the day, they are easily ignored.

Perhaps your body wakes up in a neutral state, neither particularly better or worse for its sleep.

And sometimes you can wake up with sexual and sensuous feelings that create a mental sense of well-being.

The Question:

How does your body actually feel as you wake up?

In order to answer this question, you scan your body while you are still in bed.

The task is easy. The only catch is that it takes some focus and practice to remember to notice at all.

If you are a more emotional, ''dreamy'' kind of person, your initial awareness might be more ''mental'' with words coming to mind such as excited, anxious, happy, nervous, relieved, frustrated. After you have noted that feeling, then orient around your body and see how ''it'' feels.

In an earlier column, Dream of the Week #6. The Best Way To Remember Your Dreams, I described how you need only a few minutes of quiet while you are still in bed to remember your dreams. It is in this same period that you check your body.

Dreams and the Body:

You will often find that the state of your body is clearly connected to your dreams.

Here are two dreams of mine. In the first, the on-awakening body settles a dream issue. In the second, it tells me another way to work with my dream issue.

David's ''Good'' Dream:

I dream that a knife thrower performs an amazing feat. He throws one knife into the wall and then throws a second knife that splits the handle of the first one.

This was a thrilling dream, better than any circus act, but I woke up not being able to tell whether I had witnessed a truly skilful performance or a con trick. Nothing in the dream could separate out these two possibilities.

When I scanned my body, I discovered that I was breathing ecstatically in two ways: up and down my spine and through my belly. There were two genuinely exciting events happening in my body. I took that to mean that I could trust that the knife thrower was genuine. In my waking life I had two major projects, each of them very big. I wanted to pursue both but was not sure whether this was possible. I took the dream and the breathing to mean that I could be successful with both ''throws.''

David's Nightmare:

I dream I am climbing down a brick wall. At first it feels easy. But then I am hanging onto a ledge by my fingers. I am terrified.

I had a number of dreams like this. Each time that I performed a body scan, I found that the first two knuckles of my fingers were exceptionally tense.

Besides working on the dreams using Dream RePlay (to bring this ending to a more positive resolution), I also practiced yoga postures that reduced the tension in my fingers. The combination of the dreams and the physical response was like an alarm bell warning me about some problems in my waking life.

The Method:

As you wake up, and while you are still in bed, perform a body scan from head to foot. Notice anything special in your body. Consider your breathing, the tone and tension in your muscles, the clarity of your eye sight and your overall vitality. Are you vibrant, sexy, sensuous, refreshed, alert, sleepy, groggy? Is your heart pounding with joy or fear?

Remember to distinguish between emotional and body feelings. For instance, if you notice that you feel ''anxious'', ask yourself where does that express itself in your actual body.

You might discover recurring ''themes'' such as: "My left shoulder is always frozen", "My neck is often stiff", "My lower back hurts."

Or each day can be different: "Today my wrists were incredibly sensitive", "Today my eyes were burning", "Today my fingers were tense, just my fingers", "Today I could feel waves running up and down my spine."

In this first introduction about dreams and the body, I am not offering solutions or remedies to particular body states; rather I am simply suggesting that you take notice of what is happening. Awareness is a first step and a wonderful source of information.

If you are not comfortable with the way you wake up, you now know what you wish to change. You might, for example, find yoga poses that address your issue. You might need a new bed.

And let your dreams help you solve the problem.

The Bigger Picture:

I believe most Americans underestimate the importance of their sleep and dreams. It appears to be a minor ''quality of life'' issue that can safely be ignored. My complaint, to put it bluntly, is that we are a sleep-deprived, dream-neglecting society, ruled by schedules and clocks. Our lifestyles come at great cost to our sleep and our health.

Listening to your body holds important clues. An investigation of your on-awakening body will be as revealing as analyzing your dreams.

Best wishes