This paper was presented at a “Mind and Life” seminar arranged by the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, in October 1992, the theme being “Sleeping, dreaming and dying”. The first part of this paper summarises Freud's theories on sleeping and dreaming, and the relation of dream theory to the theory of the life and death instincts. Part two presents a clinical vignette including a dream of the analysand as well as a dream of the analyst to illustrate the creative potentiality of dream analysis. Part three is a discussion of the theories of sleep and dream after Freud. Attention is drawn to Geza Roheim's idea of dreaming as an essential elemental force which revitalizes every human being in his relation to himself and others. Reference is also made to Dadoun's concept of dreaming as a possible source of the creation of sexuality and desire rather than the other way round as Freud conceived of it. Bertram Lewin's concept of sleep as a blank screen upon which dream scenes are projected and its link with the primitive image of the “breast mother” is also discussed as well as certain of Winnicott's concepts.