7 Steps to a Snooze-Free Meditation
You can manage the urge to sleep with the practice of breath awareness.
1. Sit comfortably erect. Use a chair or a wall to support your spine if helpful.
2. Close your eyes and begin to follow the movements of your breathing. Stay with the breath for a few minutes, until your focus is steady. Read more
The Hub of Concentration
Sleeping in meditation is a powerful sign of lethargy and fatigue. It signals that we need to watch the way we are handling our energy levels. Tamasic impulses need to be managed over the long run, and when fatigue or lethargy alerts us to an imbalance, it’s important to give it our attention. In the end, sometimes the best way to manage sleepiness is simply to sleep. A 10-minute nap after lunch, or an occasional early bedtime, may be just what your meditation needs. It can soothe the otherwise irresistible pressure to nod off. Read more
Pre-Meditation Tips
The power of sleep, unfortunately, is real, and easily magnified. The commitment to step back from the brink of slumber requires the ability to recognize and manage factors that foster sleepiness. For example, if you have just eaten before sitting down to meditate you can count on at least 45 minutes of lethargy. That doesn’t mean that you can’t meditate during that time, but you won’t be anywhere near your sharpest while your energy is being funneled into digestion rather than concentration. This explains why meditation manuals advise waiting two to four hours after a full meal before meditating. Read more
Developing a Meditative Perspective
Meditation allows us to explore the encounter with sleep in detail. In meditation we observe the subtle shifting of consciousness. More important, according to the sage Patanjali, we gain a measure of control over it. The aspiration of every meditator is to gain mastery over the fluctuations of the mind. This is accomplished through relaxed concentration – the conscious settling of the mind in a resting place – and by gaining inner distance and detachment from the passing activities and objects of experience. Read more