To Stay Awake While Meditating By Jane Michael At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

People relax when they fall asleep. But even though meditation is calming, you don’t want to fall asleep while meditating because you want to receive the complete benefits from meditation. When a person is asleep their brain waves go into the theta and delta ranges, but when meditating the brain waves are mostly in the alpha state. The brain is calm, though alert.

The reason that a lot of beginning meditators fall asleep is that they have not learned how-to bring out the inner awareness—alertness that is like, but not the same as the relaxation response that happens before going to sleep. There are similarities between sleep, mediation, and hypnosis. Energy ebbs from the external senses and the energy focuses on the inner imagery.

It may be easier to mediate after getting up in the morning and not before going to bed when you are tired. Wait until a few hours after eating or mediate before eating. Using drugs and meditating don’t work well together.

Never lie down to meditate, as you will probably fall sleep. When you mediate you want to be comfortable, but don’t want to encourage drowsiness. Do find another comfortable posture. Do not practice meditation in the place you sleep, if you fall asleep in your easy chair, never meditate there. You don’t want to initiate a sleep response.

If you find you are so comfortable that you can’t stay awake, try a different posture or create s a bit of discomfort. Something that isn’t so irritating, but helps you stay awake. Perhaps, sitting on the floor instead of a chair or trying a less comfortable chair will increase your alertness.

Changing where you meditate might snap your mind wake-- maybe meditating in your backyard or by a lake or at the park. You can try positioning your arms or legs so that they will fall or move when you fall asleep and wake you up.

On the other hand some people use meditation to get their mind quieted before they go to sleep. It can relieve sleep disorders. When someone first begins to practice meditation, they will see how quickly and how many thoughts careen into the mind when they try to still their mind.

If thoughts about troubles, bills, TV shows, work, your relationships etc. flood your mind when you try to fall asleep, then using meditation to control your focus and be serene can help you to fall asleep easier and can keep you calmer during the day.

When someone practices meditating each day, he can learn to be calm and focus his thoughts. This is what happens to the body while meditating: more blood flows to the arms and legs, blood pressure goes down, stress hormone levels lower, brain waves go to the alpha state. These physiological changes occur when the mind is cleared and the thoughts are focused. With practice a person can learn to meditate.

Whether you are having trouble meditating because you are falling asleep or you want to use meditation to fall asleep afterwards it is a practical, useful, and benefit habit.

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