Inside Yoga 195 (27/2/2017)

Last week I was asked: “If I fall asleep while meditating, am I still meditating?”  Not only is this an important and good question, it is one that I have been asked before, several times … so here’s an answer, and as you would expect from the world of yoga the answer is not a straight forward yes or no, or perhaps it is!

If we look at the practice in technical purist terms, if we are meditating and nod off – not in deep sleep but the semi-conscious state, near to or actually in the dream or REM state – we are no longer meditating because the we have stopped focussing on the object of the meditation, which might be the breathing and body, or counting. Instead we are thinking, though this might not be regarded as thinking we do when awake, this is still thinking. As the purpose of the meditation is not to think, and is to maintain silence, we are no longer meditating.

There is a classic meditation saying which states, while meditating if we think at the time that we are meditating we are not, because thinking is not meditation.

The answer is no, but perhaps not so? Meditation practice involves doing our best to stay focussed without thinking on a point of focus, eg the breathing. Every time we lose this, we return to the focus when we catch ourselves thinking or perhaps nodding off. Every meditator acknowledges that we do lose our focus through the distraction of thoughts, or distracting sounds, smells and other sensations which distract us. Most of us realise we spend most of the practice trying to get back to the focus on the breathing than actually in silent meditative focus, but this is still part of the meditation, and contributes to a large extant to the benefits derived from the practice.

So yes, if you nod off you are still meditating – provided you come back to the exercise.

Add to this that if we are seated in meditation and nod off for a few moments, remain seated and return to the meditation exercise we are still meditating because it is still part of the meditation session.  This explanation refers to nodding-off, a short doze and similar, which does not last long and we return to meditating soon after. This is part of the meditation session, but if we fall asleep and enter deep sleep, waking up much later, the meditation stopped when we fell into deep sleep.

The important qualification here is that we should not feel bad or think that we have failed if sleep happens. And, I think this is the most important part of the reply to the above question. We all struggle with tiredness and nodding off is common when meditating. Incidentally, this is why we sit in meditation and do not lie down – although lying down is a classical mediation position it is not advised because there is much more chance that we do fall asleep – and into a deep sleep.

Most of us find that life is busy: non-stop, one thing to do after another, never-ending, so much so that when we meditate the relaxing nature of the meditation process means that our body and our mind soon slide into a sleepy state that we try to fight off but more often than not, we end up nodding off for a few moments or minutes, or actually falling into deep sleep.

My advice is when this happens is, do not worry if it happens, because it is sign that you need to catch up on some sleep!  But do try to stay awake or wake up again, as the task is to meditate (and make a note to go to bed early that night!). Sleepiness is simply a state of mind that we acknowledge as part of our meditation experience in the same way we note thoughts that we have when meditating.

Do not chastise ourselves for failing by sleeping or being sleepy because these are thoughts in themselves, and distracting from the meditation. In other words, nodding off is regarded as the same as thoughts which distract us and stop us meditating… we acknowledge them, drop them (whether thoughts or sleep) and return to the practice, and with equanimity.  We do not want to become stressed and agitated and give ourselves a hard time for simply nodding-off.  Admittedly, there are some schools of meditation and teachers who do berate the sleepy student for sleeping but this is not constructive in my opinion.

At the end of yoga classes we have the savasana (relaxation) where we lie down, rest the body, keep the mind quiet and follow our breathing. It is easy to slip into sleep in this position while tired but like the previous explanations, we do still try our best to stay awake, so that we might enter the fuzzy feeling stage of semi-awake (semi-consciousness) when we feel a falling sensation just before we wake back up (or don’t). This is a good place to be for a few moments because this is when the body and mind restores energy levels most effectively, and after we can feel refreshed.

There might be times when the sleepiness is so bad that lying down to sleep is needed and the only option – so the meditation comes to an end at this point, but most of the time we keep returning to being awake and carrying on with the practice.  If we keep practising, whether it is on retreat or as a regular daily practice, we will notice how it varies, some sessions we feel sharp and wide awake while others we feel sleepy and struggle. These fluctuations are normal and worked with by doing our best to stay with the meditation but at the same time we acknowledge that this is how it is for us right now.

One of the names for the Buddha was the “Awakened One” – he was awake not just in terms of not being sleepy but in terms of being omniscient. Being a Buddha might feel a long way off so why not start with staying awake when meditating?

In meditation sleep is seen as just another state of mind, which comes and goes, and what keeps going on steadily is our meditation.  If nodding off or sleepy we fight it off, which might feel like a struggle at times but we accept it as part of the practice.

On a ten-day meditation retreat where we start practising pre-dawn and carry on into the early evening, alternating between seated meditation and walking/standing meditation – of course, with meal breaks and bedtime, there is a pattern which can be seen. During the first three or so days the participants feel tired and struggle to stay awake. The towards day six there is an increase in energy levels, with participants staying awake in the sessions and needing less sleep at night, and also, the mood in the group becomes lighter to the point that sometimes a meditator would start giggling (a distracted thought perhaps) and then like a contagious wave it would sweep through the group filling the hall with laughter! The point here is that shedding the sleepiness takes time and is part of the practice.

There is another way of looking at sleepiness: being semi-conscious while meditating has another aspect which states that when we are semi-conscious our mind state is more fluid and receptive. In the 1990s I lived at Kopan Monastery, in Nepal, for seven months practising and studying Tibetan Buddhism. My main teacher was Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who was not only a very busy monk but one that reputedly never sleeps – using meditation instead to recharge his batteries.  So when we were told to expect a lesson from him we had to wait until he was ready to teach, which sometimes ended up being late in the evening before he started and often past midnight. As we rose early in a monastery it was really hard to stay awake while he spoke in his softly spoken English. Many of the students would say that this was his master touch, to teach us when half asleep because our minds were more receptive then!

So the answer to the question, am I meditating if I fall asleep? No but yes, as long as you carry on meditating and resist the slip into deep sleep. And importantly, don’t berate yourself, remain calm, and return to the practice as soon as you can.

Feel free to share this blog with others, and any thoughts, questions or comments contact me via the blog reply panel below or email me gary@yogabristol.co.uk