How Can I Manage Tiredness When Meditating?

05:05

05:05

How Can I Manage Tiredness When Meditating?

by Zachary Phillips

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

16

In this session, we discuss how you can manage the sensations of tiredness and sleepiness during meditation. You will be given a variety of options, including sleepiness as a meditation object, the use of different positions, as well as potentially entering a lucid state and continuing to meditate. Please note: Because this track discusses sleepiness and lucid states, we recommend adding a gentle disclaimer reminding listeners not to listen while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Meditation Sleep Anxiety Sleep Lucid Dreaming Advanced Posture Walking Meditation Intention Advanced Practice Posture Adjustment Intention Setting

Meet your Teacher

Zachary Phillips

Melbourne VIC, Australia

Meet your Teacher

Zachary Phillips

Melbourne VIC, Australia

Transcript

Okay, So question. I often drift into sleep during silent meditation. Any advice? So it depends on what you're meditating for. If you are meditating to fall asleep, Great, But I'll assume you're not. If you can, There's a couple of options. The first option is to mindfully observe the process and aspects of sleep coming, Right? So sleep itself is something you could observe. The symptoms, So to speak, The different feelings that arise in the body and the mind, The gentle relaxation, The slowing of the heartbeat, The mind sort of drifting into, I guess, A dreamscape or sort of that sort of like trippy sort of lack of focusedness. All of that, All of it can be the point of mindful focus. You can witness sleep arising as opposed to moving towards it or pulling away from it. Just witness what is arising. This right now is the nature of my consciousness in this moment. We're mindfully observing it. Now, Don't get me wrong. This is an advanced practice. I've said it in a previous session, But there's something that the mind does when we meditate. It throws up distractions to grab us, Pull us away. And it starts with just random thoughts and then it might throw up pain. And then one of the things it tries to sort of stop itself from being contained to the breath is tiredness and sleepiness. But it's an advanced practice because it's hard to, I guess, Address and to counter in the moment. Sleep is very intoxicating. It's very pleasurable. So it's one thing that you can practice on saying, Okay, I'm not going to fall asleep. Sort of mindfully, You sort of give yourself a priming beforehand. It's like, Okay, I'm going into an extended silent sit. I'm going to observe what arises, Observe the feelings of tiredness and sleepiness as they come. And I'm not going to fall asleep. You're giving yourself an intention. You're priming yourself beforehand. Now, Yes, You still may fall asleep. That's okay. Interestingly, If you meditate as you're falling asleep, You may become lucid as in lucid dreaming. That's when you become aware of when you are in a dream and you can get some control over yourself. And with advanced practice, The dreamscape. I say that because let's say you realize you are dreaming. You realize you've fallen asleep. You've become lucid in the dream. You can actually practice mindfulness meditation within that dream. Once again, Really advanced practice, Really deep diving into the meditation and the mindfulness here. But that is something that can be done. You practice mindfulness as you fall asleep, Trying not to fall asleep. But if you do, You become aware that you are in fact dreaming. You continue the practice. There's some deep insight into both focusing on the sleep itself, Staying awake and meditating within a dream. But it's an advanced practice. The other solution I have to this problem is to simply shift your position. Sit rather than laying down when you're doing silent meditation. If that's not good enough, Stand, Right? Change your body position. There's a temptation that we have to grit it out or bear it out. But say we're doing a meditation and we feel pain in the body. Some traditions, Some practices, Some teachers will suggest you really feel it through and you do not move. You sit in strong determination as a Vipassana term, For example. That can be useful to try. But if we're meditating as sort of like a hobby or just, You know, We're not like practicing to be a monk, So to speak, That can be too much and make us not want to do it. Just shift your position. Mindfully move. You can go, Oh, I'm feeling sleepy and tired. Okay, I don't want to fall asleep. I'm going to observe all of these different sensations. Okay, It's really getting hard to stay awake. I'll sit up or I'll stand up. Or you could even move like a walking meditation, Feeling the sensations on the ground as you walk. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly. The other option is if you are lying down, You can have your hand up. So you're lying down, But your hand is up. And then as you start to drift, Your hand will fall, Almost like a self alarm. Lots of different options there. But my summary would be to shift and observe the sleepiness itself as the meditation object. Set an intention that you won't fall asleep, That you'll observe it. And you may find that that observation helps you to pass through the tiredness, Pass through that wave of sleepiness, And you'll see what's beyond it mindfully.