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Jun
15

FALLING ASLEEP DURING MEDITATION

By Stephanie Nash
A man who comes to my Sunday meditation sessions is quite embarrassed. He keeps falling asleep during the meditations and snores. He is beside himself
about it because, due to the fact that he has no transportation, I usually go and pick him up ahead of time, and he says that he is ashamed to be asking me for a
ride and then snoring in my class. This has been an issue with him every time he meditates (not just in my class.)
I told him a story that my teacher, Shinzen Young, often tells. Early in Shinzens teaching career, when he had very few students, a man who was a psychiatrist
complained of the same issue. This doctor was extremely frustrated with his total inability to meditate even for a few minutes. Every time he closed his eyes to
meditate, hed zonk out.
Shinzen asked him if he was really committed to working through it and the man said yes. Shinzen then asked the doctor how much he charged for a
psychiatric session and the doctor said $80. (Yes, it was long ago.) Shinzen said he would meet privately with the man for half that amount every week for
one hour for one year.
So, once a week, they would meet and sure enough the man would fall asleep within seconds of closing his eyes and Shinzen, who was sitting across from him,
would simply wake him up and remind him of the meditation focus. Usually the entire hour was spent with Shinzen waking the man up every few minutes,
saying something like, Stay alert. Bring the awareness back to [the breath or whatever the focus was.] They never did anything more, just sit, the man falls
asleep, Shinzen wakes him up, repeat.
Then one day, towards the end of that year, the man reported that a light went on and his consciousness was permanently brighter he had more clarity,
insight, equanimity and didnt have the issue of falling asleep anymore. Just like that.
For me, this story is similar to the metaphor of big waves crashing against a rocky cliff for years and then one day, a whole hunk of the cliff just falls away.
Was it the wave that hit the cliff that particular day that knocked down the rock? Or was it the years of waves that led to a final letting go?
Heres where the commitment to the long-term benefits, to the practice, to the potential for awakening can yield much greater results than focusing on
individual meditations, or peak experiences, or comparing ones experience to someone elses. Just let the waves do the work. Just sit. It doesnt matter what
happens in the meditation its that you sat down and meditated.
Even if you are falling asleep but keep waking up and coming back without self-judgement, that can be a powerful practice. [see story above]
You can think of meditation as creating an environment for the deep mind to sort itself out. What were going for is a natural process, and were just trying
to create an environment in which its more likely to happen, and techniques that can act as catalysts.
So if you are falling asleep during meditation, and if you have tried the standard ways of staying awake i.e. straighten the spine, open the eyes, or stand in
place see if you can find a way to wake up and bring your attention back to whatever the focus of your meditation is (and it might not hurt to have a very
tangible focus that does not put you to sleep. For some people, walking meditation is ideal in this scenario, and the placement of the feet on the ground can be
the focus, other people find focusing on external sounds to be quite stimulating and helpful, and others always like returning to the breath.)
Their are many wonderful ways to direct your focus during meditation, but if you lose focus altogether and end up snoozing, you can give others permission to
wake you or just bring your attention back when you can. And know that the commitment and intention to work through it along with creating the time and
space to sit makes it a noble, worthwhile endeavor.

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Technorati Tags: falling asleep, mindfulness strategies, sleepiness during meditation

Categories : Practical Applications, Starting a Practice

Comments
1.

social media advice says:

March 8, 2013 at 9:20 am
You are the best writer Ive seen in a while I told my wife Francine about this blog shes very much into this stuff
Reply

2.

Anne says:
April 4, 2013 at 12:47 pm
Sleeping is the best form of meditation for me when I need to do a rest meditation.
Reply
Stephanie Nash says:
April 14, 2013 at 9:28 am
In my experience, sleeping can work as a meditation when there is a strong momentum of meditation practice in daily life as when one is on
retreat and then the transition to sleeping will often involve meditating oneself to sleep and awaking into meditation (also often including
dreams of meditating.)
Otherwise, sleep is a nice rest, but to get the benefits of a meditation practice i.e. increased concentration, sensory clarity & equanimity a
more effective meditation would be to stay alert and focus on restful states (including the sensations of sleepiness) to experience the rest but
also continue to gain clarity. I used to do yazas (all-night sits) every month and worked alot with sleepiness during meditation a fabulous
practice that can yield rich results if you can remain alert. It does take a while to master, but its worth it.
Reply

3.

Anne Young says:

June 9, 2013 at 11:54 am
I like to meditate but I also suffer from narcolepsy. When I meditate I always sit quite high up on meditation cushions. If I sit like this I cannot fall asleep
because the second I do, my body starts to fall forward and that wakes me up. If I was to sit on a chair I would be asleep throughout the whole session.
Reply

4.

Marie says:
February 15, 2014 at 6:30 am
Its painful when Im bringing my attention back to meditating when my head starts to droop from falling asleep:-/ When I start to fall asleep, I just lay
down and go to sleep for the meditation session.
Reply

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