1 Kings 3:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream— Sleep is like a state of death to the soul; wherein the senses are locked up, and the understanding and will deprived of the free exercise of their functions. And yet this is no impediment to God in communicating his will to mankind: for, no doubt, he has power not only to awaken our intellectual faculties, but to advance them above their ordinary measure of perception, even while the body is asleep. See Job 33:14. In a word, we cannot but allow, that God can approach the soul in many different ways, when the body is in a state of rest and inactivity; can move and actuate it just as he pleases; and when he is inclined to make a discovery of any thing, can set such a lively representation of it before the understanding, as shall prevent a man's doubting the reality of the vision. See Calmet.