Meditation And Sleep

[Sukhpaal]

Hey guys! I realized as time goes on into my meditation habit, mainly within the last month I've had a huge increase in sleep. I'm not sleepy during the day but when I sleep, I sleep for around 10 to 11 hours and this is happening everyday. I noticed that this started happening around the time I increased my meditation time. Could meditation and increased sleep hours be related? Thanks guys!  

[Afonso]

For me it's the opposite. I have so much more energy I don't need to sleep for more than 7 hours. Before I would sleep for 10, 11 hours.

[Sukhpaal]

Hmm, I assume maybe because I'm more of a newbie than you are? Maybe later down the road, the same might happen to me. Maybe increasing my meditation time so much has made my mind/body realize how sleep deprived I've been and now its catching up? But of courses these are all maybes 

[Max_V]

@Sukhpaal I have had both. When I'm used to my meditation habit, 6 hours is enough for me.

But now that I bumped my sessions up to 1 hour, I had to sleep atleast 8 hours for a couple days because my body was really worn out from it.

So you are not alone  !

[LaucherJunge]

I can imagine this could be due to a lack of sleep in total in your past before you started. With the peace that the meditation brings into your life you are able to catch up to the missing sleep and after a while it will get less than before.
Meditation usually decreases sleep a few people can even stop sleeping altogether and just meditate instead.

[Sage_Elias]

Insight from Sadhguru : the more we rest the body by peacefully sitting still( in your case meditating ), the less sleep the body will need at nights.

 

Maybe there are different factors at play here...look into your diet and exercise, which both play a role in the amount of rest the body needs and the quality of the sleep you get.

[Leo Gura]

@Sukhpaal Yes, it definitely could increase your sleep as your brain is growing and needs to re-build itself.

The psyche is a complicated thing. It goes through phases of expansion and contraction.

Spiritual practice is often a purging process, and it can be rough on your body/mind.

Just keep practicing. Over time your sleep quota should reduce. But maybe not in the first few years of practice.

[YaNanNallari]

One common theory is that it can bring up a lot of stressful, angry or whatever kind of thoughts and emotions. This makes you spend more energy and you need more sleep.

[Sukhpaal]

Thanks guys for the help!