Note 5 : Insomnia of a Meditator

21 notes for Meditators: Answers for Questions you never asked!

Note 5: Insomnia of Meditators.

While a lot of people recommend Meditation as a tool for good sleep. Over some time Meditators discover their sleep becomes less and of a different quality than before. Today let’s talk about the sleep of the meditators.

Several scientific journals have concluded that the majority of Modern Man’s illness is related to sleep. Sleep is not a waste of time. Tired of your ego, tired of your day-to-day activities, the routine, tired of your personality, you fall asleep. Nature reabsorbs you, recreates you, and gives you back your vitality in the morning.

In deep sleep, the mind disappears, because there is not even dreaming, no content. In deep sleep, you have fallen back again into your nature. That’s why deep sleep refreshes you. In the morning you feel alive again, rejuvenated, young, vital because in deep sleep you had fallen again to your original nature. You were no more ego, you were no more a mind — you were just part of nature. While you are deep asleep you are just like a tree or a rock, you are no more an individual. You have become part of the ocean, of course unknowingly, unconsciously.

Meditators go through three stages of sleep transformation:

First stage: 

The first stage is when you start meditation. When you start meditation suddenly you begin to understand relaxation from the mind’s thought flow. The number of tension points you carry within your mind and body begin to relax and because of this, your sleep starts getting better. You will also notice that your sleep gets a little deeper. Once your sleep is better, generally your mood gets better and you feel meditation has a deep impact on your life.

Second stage:

This stage comes after you gain some expertise in watching your mind. After practicing meditation for over six months to a year regularly, you can expect your sleep to move into the second stage. Usually, we do not recall our dream vividly after a day or two, although we vaguely remember the framework of a dream. In the second stage, we start becoming aware of our dreams; we start to see vivid colors, pictures, and tones, sound… etc. Awareness begins to seep into our dreams. In this stage, you tend to wake up suddenly and quite a number of your life questions appear in terms of dreams and you begin to wonder at the nature of the dream. At this stage, your sleep tends to be in compartments. You sleep in intervals of two three hours and then wake up and then you will again get back to sleep.

The best thing at this stage to do is accept the change happening to your sleep. Also start accepting vivid dreams you are getting without analyzing them much. Dream analysis becomes exciting and of passing time for most of the meditators. It’s almost like a newfound toy. People start getting tired a little bit and but not overly concerned. Meditators need to just let go and keep practicing meditation.

Third stage: 

At this stage, meditators find it difficult to sleep in the traditional sense. Even when sleep is descending over you, you can watch it. There is a constant flow of awareness even when you are asleep. Initially, meditators find it very difficult to come to terms with this nature. Because it feels awkward to be awake in your sleep! If someone calls your name in the middle of the night, usually you will respond as if you were not sleeping. At this point, initially, there will be a lot of uncomfortable feelings because you are used to sleeping differently before.

Most of the meditators at this stage start fighting with sleep and awareness. Instead of accepting watchfulness, they start fighting the awareness. It is this fighting that makes meditators very tired. Their whole routine will go for a toss from now on. Every day they come into bed to fight with awareness instead of letting go and by the sunrise, they are so exhausted that they start sleeping during day time. This event can take away all the hard work Meditators have put in over the years to reach this state.

What can you do?

Breathwork for sleep : 4-7-8 breathing

you can start practicing certain breathwork techniques to improve your sleeping and one of such techniques is 4-7-8 breathing and I have a descriptive post on the same.

You can learn more about this technique here

Breathing technique for Sleep:4-7-8 Breathing

Yoganidra for sleep

Yoga Nidra guided relaxation, instantly recharges and brings an incredible quietness and clarity within you. Yoga Nidra in Sanskrit means Yogic sleep. The rest that you get through this power nap is much more powerful than sleep because the relaxation takes place consciously. It is recommended that you practice Yoga Nidra

Parting note:

If you are relaxed and meditative, your sleep automatically comes down. It is important to if you are relaxed and meditative, your sleep automatically comes down. It is important not to fight with it but accept it and be one with it. Bring awareness towards sleep and you will be amazed, that many doors of consciousness will open to you.

I send you love and awareness . let me know your thoughts and any feedback is welcome!

~love….Sureshg

Sureshg is the founder of Breathwork India. If you have any doubts , feel free to write in comments or if you have personal or professional question then do use our contact details page to write to him.

Image credit: Found on alexandrasophie at deviantart