Sleepiness While Meditating

[Enizeo]

While meditating, my biggest issue is just staying awake and keeping my eyes open. It really keeps me from getting the full benefit of meditation and enjoying it. Have any of you experienced this issue before? How did you deal with it? Thank you for your help

[Henri]

@Enizeo That`s no problem and is mostly happening with people who are beginning with meditation.

Stresses get released by meditating and you can easily fall asleep. The benefits of your meditation however will be there, even falling asleep. Continue your meditation and this will soon not happen anymore.

[SkyPanther]

The two recommendations for when this happens is either doing walking meditation to get your blood flowing then sit down again, or visualizing white light while you sit:

Quote

There are also a number of visualization techniques traditionally recommended for dissolving sloth and torpor.  You can, for example, visualize light - brilliant white light - inside your body and head, and then imagine it glowing and radiating outwards from your body.  Tibetan teachers sometimes recommend visualizing a point of white light inside your heart which shoots upwards out of the crown of your head, merging with the sky.

 

[Naviy]

11 hours ago, Enizeo said:

While meditating, my biggest issue is just staying awake and keeping my eyes open. It really keeps me from getting the full benefit of meditation and enjoying it. Have any of you experienced this issue before? How did you deal with it? Thank you for your help

Yeah, that's a nasty problem. Leo recommends to meditate during your peak time of the day. Not when you are sleepy (early in the morning, for example) and not when you are tired (at night after work).

But how can you follow this recommendation if you work 9 hours a day, and going to work and from work takes 4 more hours? You only have time to cook dinner and sleep at home. 

The only thing that helped me - start getting enough sleep. Go to bed earlier. Sleep more. Get up a couple hours before going to work, and meditate during this time. I am still sleepy sometimes though.

[Enizeo]

12 hours ago, Henri said:

@Enizeo That`s no problem and is mostly happening with people who are beginning with meditation.

Stresses get released by meditating and you can easily fall asleep. The benefits of your meditation however will be there, even falling asleep. Continue your meditation and this will soon not happen anymore.

 

Thank you, I will definitly keep on

 

12 hours ago, SkyPanther said:

The two recommendations for when this happens is either doing walking meditation to get your blood flowing then sit down again, or visualizing white light while you sit:

 

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll try this out in my next few sessions and tell you how it went

 

1 hour ago, Naviy said:

Yeah, that's a nasty problem. Leo recommends to meditate during your peak time of the day. Not when you are sleepy (early in the morning, for example) and not when you are tired (at night after work).

But how can you follow this recommendation if you work 9 hours a day, and going to work and from work takes 4 more hours? You only have time to cook dinner and sleep at home. 

The only thing that helped me - start getting enough sleep. Go to bed earlier. Sleep more. Get up a couple hours before going to work, and meditate during this time. I am still sleepy sometimes though.

 

That's why I always meditate in the morning, before going to University. Unfortunately that's when I am still tired, even thou I focus a lot on getting enough sleep.

[30secs]

I just straight my back when I felt sleepy during meditation, and be like more mindful when sleepiness strikes.

[JevinR]

I saw a video that says the sleepiness is caused by the ego, for what ever reason

Edited April 22, 2016 by JevinR

[Falk]

I experienced it too lately, solutions/ideas:

-get more sleep and/or meditate in the morning after you slept well

-don´t fap in the moring or before the meditation

-if you notice you are tired say this to yourself 3-5 times : (breathing in) "I breath in fresh energy (breathing out) "Breathing out my awareness increases"  ...or something along the lines, then continue with your meditation focus...

[Khin]

@Enizeo keep practicing man! When I started meditating, I could even fall asleep while sitting. Mannnn, come to think of it, it was so much fun. Anyways, you are not the only one.