What does this mean?

[Jonsey]

I do "Do Nothing Meditation"(eyes open) for an hour every day(morning or night).

For 15 minutes I do "Do Nothing Meditation" in lotus pose(left leg inside).

For 30 minutes I sit in a chair.

And for the remaining 15 minutes I'm back into lotus pose(right leg inside).

When in lotus pose I am able to stay awake. The pain sucks, but the more I sit in lotus pose the pain become less and less of an issue due to my body becoming more acclimated to the position. But when I sit in my favorite chair I always seem to doze off/fall asleep half way through the meditation. 

Can anybody tell me what this means? Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with my brain? When I meditate with my eyes close I have no problem remaining conscious. 

[Adamq8]

No is normal =) to comfortable perhaps ?=)

[DIDego]

@Jonsey Start a trial and error, seek out for new situations and evaluate what happens, where and when.

Example, do you use same chair to all kind of activity?

What happens if you try a different chair or change locations, much stuff happens subconscious, related to other stuff that makes you not motivated and might put you into a tired mode.

[Carl-Richard]

Falling asleep is a sign that you haven't slept enough .  I'm being totally serious. Also what kind of chair is it? Do you sit in an upright position or are you leaning back? Slouching posture might increase sleepiness.

[Jonsey]

@Carl-Richard Well, I work the night-shift at an Amazon Warehouse from 7:00pm to 5:30am. Do you think this may have something to do with it? See my chair attached below.

[Jonsey]

1 hour ago, DIDego said:

@Jonsey Start a trial and error, seek out for new situations and evaluate what happens, where and when.

Example, do you use same chair to all kind of activity?

What happens if you try a different chair or change locations, much stuff happens subconscious, related to other stuff that makes you not motivated and might put you into a tired mode.

Oh believe me, I'm motivated, and I'm not tired when I start the meditation, it's just that I just get sleepy halfway through the practice. Maybe I should focus more on sitting in lotus pose for longer periods of time. I think I can sit in lotus pose for an hour, but I'm not sure, too afraid to try at the moment lol.

[Carl-Richard]

9 minutes ago, Jonsey said:

@Carl-Richard Well, I work the night-shift at an Amazon Warehouse from 7:00pm to 5:30am. Do you think this may have something to do with it? See my chair attached below.

If it's very cushy to the point where your spine is not resting "on itself", I think that might be one factor. If it's more firm and your back is more or less straight, I believe it could still work if you sit with one leg under your butt like this:

By the way, I recommend this chair . Perfectly comfortable, firm, upright. https://www.ikea.com/ma/en/p/markus-office-chair-glose-black-40103100/

[Carl-Richard]

35 minutes ago, Jonsey said:

Oh believe me, I'm motivated, and I'm not tired when I start the meditation, it's just that I just get sleepy halfway through the practice. Maybe I should focus more on sitting in lotus pose for longer periods of time. I think I can sit in lotus pose for an hour, but I'm not sure, too afraid to try at the moment lol.

The thing about sleep is that it's a more gross type of rest that has a higher priority than meditation. Meditation is a subtler form of rest that only happens when you're otherwise fully rested. Meditating when you're sleepy is like trying to build a house of cards during an earthquake. Establish a firm base, a stable ground of wakefulness that naturally supports the meditative states of awareness. That way you don't have to inflict yourself with pain in order to stay awake. Besides, sitting comfortably in a wakeful state will only deepen your meditation. Then again, pain can be a very good tool for training your concentration.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Carl-Richard

[Carl-Richard]

8 minutes ago, toocrazytobecrazy said:

don't take "do nothing meditation" literally.

they don't actually mean do literally nothing. then ofc you fail fall or fall asleep.

just chill and observe your own behaviours.

This is false.

[Jonsey]

39 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

If it's very cushy to the point where your spine is not resting "on itself", I think that might be one factor. If it's more firm and your back is more or less straight, I believe it could still work if you sit with one leg under your butt like this:

By the way, I recommend this chair . Perfectly comfortable, firm, upright. https://www.ikea.com/ma/en/p/markus-office-chair-glose-black-40103100/

WOW!!! Thanks a lot Carl. I'll be sure to look into buying this chair. But more importantly, I've gotta do a better job of getting more sleep.

[The0Self]

6 hours ago, Jonsey said:

Oh believe me, I'm motivated, and I'm not tired when I start the meditation, it's just that I just get sleepy halfway through the practice. Maybe I should focus more on sitting in lotus pose for longer periods of time. I think I can sit in lotus pose for an hour, but I'm not sure, too afraid to try at the moment lol.

When people start a meditation practice, the experience is often pervaded by distraction. When some skill is acquired and distraction subsides and focus gets more stable (via repeated positive reinforcement; appreciating that AHA! moment when you realize you're not focusing on the meditation object), one can get pretty sleepy, as there isn't a lot of distraction energy to keep one awake. What you could probably do now is focus on arousing and maintaining energy, via a broad awareness of the whole body. Fill your whole body with awareness, as if you were blowing up a balloon -- in the center of this awareness, maintain a light but constant focus on your meditation object. If something seems to pull your attention away from the object/breath, briefly tighten up on the breath until the distraction pull subsides. This is a balancing act that can turn into a flow state and will very likely be impossible to fall asleep during. In other words, you might want to sharpen your mind before you do do-nothing meditation again. Or if you want, you could do what I described above, but instead of using the breath as an object, use watching-for-intention-so-you-can-ignore-it-and-let-go-of-it as the object. But still use the aforementioned balancing act.

[Carl-Richard]

8 hours ago, Jonsey said:

WOW!!! Thanks a lot Carl. I'll be sure to look into buying this chair. But more importantly, I've gotta do a better job of getting more sleep.

No problem. By the way, even if you're adequately rested, meditating at the right time of the day is also crucial. If you meditate straight after a big meal, you'll be consistently more sleepy and unfocused. Let your stomach be atleast half-empty.

You'll usually have one point during the day where you mind and body is at peak perfomance (for me it's around 2 hrs after my first or second meal), and even though you might be busy during that time, you should try meditating atleast once to see the difference.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Carl-Richard