Sleep Yoga: Conscious During Sleep (Guide)

[Michal__]

6 hours ago, GreenWoods said:

Here is another benefit of sleep yoga.

Being conscious during all of your sleep results in a merging of your conscious self and your unconscious, which then probably results in a significant increase of your power to manifest.

I explained that in more detail here:

 

Yes. My manifestation definitely works better when I do a lot of dream work.

[TheSelf]

On 5/5/2022 at 6:46 PM, GreenWoods said:

Based on my research so far it seems like it's definitely possible to OBE during all sleep stages. 

So if you don't like the non-dual void you could just OBE 8 hours straight.

It's probably more difficult to OBE during deep sleep, but as a sleep yoga master it should eventually be easy.

@GreenWoods I really like to master this, this is one of the main goals that I have in my life, but practices really mess with your sleep and you feel shit in the morning. How do you manage this?

Btw, thank you for all these good contents you share here in this forum man, great stuff. ????

Edited May 8, 2022 by m0hsen

[GreenWoods]

3 hours ago, Michal__ said:

Yes. My manifestation definitely works better when I do a lot of dream work.

@Michal__ Nice!

 

3 hours ago, m0hsen said:

@GreenWoods I really like to master this, this is one of the main goals that I have in my life, but practices really mess with your sleep and you feel shit in the morning. How do you manage this?

My body has kinda adapted to it. 

Now it makes no big difference for me whether I sleep 7 hours straight while lying down rather than a few hours sitting and a few lying and woken up all the time by alarm clocks.

Currently I do most of my practice while lying down, but last year I had phases of doing it only while sitting, so I had phases of never sleeping while lying. Then when for some reason I did sleep lying I got back ache from that lol, because my body wasn't used to that (and I had no backache from sleeping sitting). Now that I sleep more lying down again, my body adapted again and I don't get backache from lying anymore.

Also, before I started sleep yoga, it usually took me longer than for the average person to fall asleep and sleeping sitting was very difficult. Now even when I have a normal degree of tiredness like others, it's relatively easy to sleep sitting with lights on and noise going on.

[GreenWoods]

3 hours ago, m0hsen said:

Btw, thank you for all these good contents you share here in this forum man, great stuff. ????

[GreenWoods]

Music

Tastes of music can be very different but I have a hard time comprehending how music like this doesn't get you pumped up.

I listen to this whenever I'm getting lazy or I need an extra boost of willpower for something, like sleep yoga.

So that's the ultra spiritual music I listen to to increase my motivation for spiritual practices lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of it is quite SD stage red, but it creates some serious viking warrior vibes to become ruthlessly productive. 

My current approach (and I think this approach is better) for sleep yoga is a lot less tough than what I've done last year for some time, when I did the sleep deprivation sweet spot approach. For that approach it was crucial to not resist suffering, because when you resist suffering during such a sleep yoga practice (like when you are sitting and holding one arm up and doing FILD while tired af) then you naturally/automatically do whatever is needed to decrease suffering and that makes you fall asleep and lose consciousness. In order to get into that mindset of not resisting suffering, that stage red music was quite helpful. (You can achieve "no resistance to suffering" with a forceful masculine warrior approach or with a feminine surrender approach).

 

 

 

I also listen to very feminine music. Not to get pumped up but for non-dual meditation and surrender, for dissolving the ego and merging with love and bliss.

 

 

 

Currently I'm more tapped into the masculine polarity, but I guess generally my psyche is kinda balanced with masculine and feminine energies. I think I kind of have both extremes (whereas most people tend to be more towards the middle without having either extreme), and depending on the given situation I tune into whatever energy is more effective. 

With masculine vs feminine I mean:

• active vs passive
• dominant vs submissive
• resisting vs accepting & allowing
• assertive vs receptive
• power & force vs surrender 
• SD red & coral vs green & turquoise 
• willful vs detached
• in conflict vs in flow with "what is"
• success vs happiness 
• head vs heart
• intellect vs emotion
• external vs internal
• order vs chaos
• illusonary vs non-dual
• ego vs Infinity
• mind vs soul
• conscious vs unconscious

Edited May 9, 2022 by GreenWoods

[GreenWoods]

This is the biggest benefit of sleep yoga:

 

[TheSelf]

21 hours ago, GreenWoods said:

Now it makes no big difference for me whether I sleep 7 hours straight while lying down rather than a few hours sitting and a few lying and woken up all the time by alarm clocks.

Can you please explain this sleeping while sitting a bit?

You do retain some consciousness while doing so right? and would that get you the full sleep needed to able to function normally during the day and not feeling tired and in need of sleep?

Also what's your current level at sleep yoga? 

 

[GreenWoods]

1 hour ago, m0hsen said:

Can you please explain this sleeping while sitting a bit?

I usually sit either on a chair or crosslegged on the floor on a pillow at a wall as back support.

And then I do the sleep yoga practice.

1 hour ago, m0hsen said:

You do retain some consciousness while doing so right?

At some point I lose consciousness...

1 hour ago, m0hsen said:

and would that get you the full sleep needed to able to function normally during the day and not feeling tired and in need of sleep?

Depends on many factors.

For example whether you get enough deep sleep. 

Generally, your sleep would be less effective so you might need more sleep to compensate. 

I think the best way to practice for most people is to first have normal sleep for maybe 3 or 4.5 hours to get their deep sleep, and then start doing the sleep yoga practice. 

Maybe only practice on the weekend, all depends on one's personal life situation. 

1 hour ago, m0hsen said:

Also what's your current level at sleep yoga? 

During the deepest sleep yoga state that I currently reach, the body feels partially paralyzed, but I can still move it if I really want. Body feels heavy, and body sensations are fading. The state of consciousness is different, the void dimension is a lot higher.

The big breakthrough is when the state of consciousness is deep enough that by remaining in it it replaces the need for unconscious light sleep, and when inducing OBEs is easy and reliable. 

I don't know how close I'm to that state.

[GreenWoods]

Another benefit of sleep yoga:

Sleep yoga is the most powerful technique to increase your Void Dimension. 

High void dimension allows for vivid contact with spiritual entities.

Sleep yoga mastery entails:

• Able to have very vivid interactions with spiritual entities during OBEs
• Able to somewhat increase your void dimension at any time and thus achieve more vivid invocations during meditation 
• During non-OBE conscious sleep, while still in the physical body, you can do invocations. In that state of consciousness they can be very vivid and effective. sleep yoga plus invocations essentially allows for extremely powerful growth.

Edited May 20, 2022 by GreenWoods

[GreenWoods]

Holding an Object in your Hand

Holding an object in your hand can make sure you don't accidentally lose consciousness.

As you're losing consciousness, you lose grasp of the object and it begins to slide down. This usually causes you to fully regain consciousness (unless you're extremely tired), and you can re-strengthen your grip before the object leaves your hand.

If the object does drop, then the moment of it leaving your hand can make you regain consciousness. 

 

• You can take any object. I use a small ball almost the size of a fist.
• The heavier the object the more likely that it will make you regain consciousness, but it's also more effortful to hold. And vice versa. Therefore, the less tired you are, the less heavy the object should be. In that case you can for example use a paper ball (made of 2 crumbled up pieces of paper)
• If you're lying down, you can hold the object over the edge of the bed
• You can choose an object and surface so that the dropping of the object onto the surface will make a noise which would further increase the likelihood of you regaining consciousness. But that's not neccessary. I never do it.
• Holding an object is effective for regaining consciousness if you lose it. But for remaining conscious while the body falls alseep, I find other anchors better. 
• This technique has essentially the same effect as holding your arm up vertically, supported by your elbow on a surface. But holding an object is far more effective.
•  focusing on holding the object (rather than focusingon something else), increases the likelihood of regaining consciousness if you lose it
• Holding an object can be used directly for trying to remain conscious while the body falls alseep. It can also be used as an insurance to remain conscious for:

1. Chilling out for some more moments at the start of your sleep yoga session. If you start with your full sleep yoga technique right away, you might already be a bit mentally exhausted from doing it by the time your body gets close to falling asleep (and this is the point when the main practice starts). So you could hold the object until that point, and then switch to a different anchor (if you prefer a different anchor for your main sleep yoga technique)
2. When you are very tired or sleep deprived, self inquiry becomes a lot more potent (in my experience). By holding an object you can focus on inducing mystical states (more about that in this Post ) without worrying about losing consciousness 
3. Likewise, transmissions and invocations become far more energetic (in my experience). Holding an object prevents accidentally fully losing consciousness.
4. During these states, listening to music can be more enjoyable 

Edited June 20, 2022 by GreenWoods

[Sempiternity]

@GreenWoods  Seriously, thank you for all the work you do and share here. It is honestly the saving grace of this forum, and the type of intelligent informative discussions I would ideally like to see on a forum dedicated to higher consciousness ideals, instead of the low consciousness stupid shit that is 99.9% of this forum nowadays. Please keep up the amazing work and keep sharing.

[GreenWoods]

@Sempiternity Thanks

[Arcangelo]

Thank you Mr. @GreenWoods !

[GreenWoods]

Anchors 

Anchors are crucial. They are needed to keep you conscious.

 

- Different kinds of anchors:

• physical (noise, body sensations,...) vs mental (thoughts, counting,...) 
• dynamic (breath, counting, FILD,...) vs static (body sensations,...)
• active (counting, holding an object, active focus on an anchor,...) vs passive (body sensations, passive observing of an anchor,...)
• uncomfortable (sitting, holding an object, pain,...) vs comfortable (breath, body sensations,...)

Sleep yoga has a "mind awake" and a "body asleep" component.

Every anchor usually has an effect on those two components.

Anchors that are physical, dynamic, active or uncomfortable make it easier to remain conscious (positive impact on "mind awake"). But they also make it harder for your body to fall asleep (negative impact on "body asleep").

For example if you hold your hands up and continuously clap, that will make it very easy to remain conscious ("mind awake") but it also makes it extremely hard to fall asleep ("body asleep").

The trick is to use anchors that increase "mind awake" as much as possible while at the same time negatively impacting "body asleep" as little as possible. 

The worst for "body asleep" is physical muscular tension/involvement. The less of that, the easier for your body to fall asleep. When you are sleep deprived you can afford to have some muscular involvement, but generally it is best to try to minimize muscular involvement.

Therefore these sleep yoga practices are not ideal:

• practicing while sitting
• doing large FILD movements 
• holding an object (unless it is very light, like a ball of paper)
• ...

Some of them are beneficial in certain scenarios. But generally you should try to achieve the "mind awake" effect from anchors that have a less negative effect on "body asleep".

 

- Ways to increase "mind awake":

• increasing the intensity of the anchor (increasing discomfort, increasing the speed of counting, increasing the movement of FILD,...)
• increasing the area of the anchor (using more fingers for FILD, larger area of discomfort,...)
• using several anchors at once

 

 

• Good anchors:

- Mental Anchors 

• constantly checking whether you are (still) fully conscious (additionally you can count how often you lose perfect concentration. That can make it easier)
• repeating "aware" or "FILD" (the speed is variable)
• counting. variations:

1. speed
2. counting forward or backward
3. combination of forward and backward (2 numbers forward, then 1 backward)
4. counting one number at a time vs counting only every 2nd, 3rd, 4th,... number 

 

- Physical Anchors:

• focusing on breathing (belly breathing is more dynamic) (putting your hand or an object on your belly increases the sensation while breathing)
• focusing on your pulse 
• audio that repeats "aware"
• discomfort (lying on your hand, clamp skin with a clothspin,...)
• FILD. variations:

1. doing FILD with both hands (simultaneously or switching back and forth
2. doing FILD with all 10 fingers (simultaneously or switching between fingers (each finger one wriggle, or several wriggles for a few seconds)
3. Adding your toes (thus you further increase the area of the anchor)

 

 

- Combining anchors

• The more anchors you use the bigger the impact on "mind awake"
• linking an anchor to another anchor can be beneficial 
• For example: If counting is linked to let's say the breath, and you make a new breath, then it's (subconsciously) expected that you count. Due to the link, additional pattern interruption and expectancy, you are more likely to recognize if you stopped counting and thus that you are losing consciousness.

 

But there is also a benefit of only using one anchor because then  you don't split your focus. Being completely focused on only one anchor might make it easier to remain conscious. 

Some time ago I thought completely focusing on only one anchor is more effective. Currently I think using multiple anchors simultaneously is more effective. 

Experiment and see what works best for you.

 

- One of my favourite anchor combinations 

"aware" + counting + FILD variation + breath awareness

Combining chanting "aware" with counting (aware 1, aware 2, aware 3) and linking that to FILD (with all 10 fingers. switching between fingers. Starting with the smallest finger of the left hand, then smallest finger of the right hand, then next finger of the left hand, then....) (after the 10th finger, when starting with the first finger again, I start counting at "1" again), as well as linkin it to the breath ( so during each inhale/exhale I mentally say "aware [+a number]" and wriggle with one finger). I'm also trying to permanently check whether I'm conscious.

 

 

- "Mind awake" and "body asleep tools"

Refering to this post.

It should be tried to choose tools that increase one component ("mind awake" or "body asleep") without negatively affecting the other component too much.

At first glance, these 2 scenarios can seem to be equally balanced regarding "mind awake" and "body asleep" (because both scenarios have tools for both components):

1. sitting + darkness + binaural beats below 8 Hz
2. lying + light + 40 Hz

But the second scenario is a far better choice. Because the "mind awake" tools of the second scenario (light and 40 Hz) have relatively little negative effect on the "body asleep" component compared to the "mind awake" tool o the first scenario (sitting).

 

"Mind awake" tools that have a relatively small negative impact on "body asleep":

• anchors of this post
• light
• 40 Hz
• nootropics/supplements (galantamine, caffeine,...)

The more tired you are, the more mind awake tools are required. 

The more tired you are and the more you increase the "mind awake" component the more likely you succeed at remaining conscious during sleep. 

Also, the easier it is for your body to fall asleep (no or little muscular involvement, comfortable position), the more likely success.

 

- About FILD

• in the original version you wriggle 2 fingers, like playing a piano. In a previous post I mentioned the alternative of rythmically pressing 2 fingers together. I don't know but I feel like the original version might be slightly more effective. 
• the FILD movement should be really tiny. Such that you can hardly see a movement, or even see no movement at all, and are just kind of sending the signal to move to the nerves in the fingers. But I guess there should be a tiny muscular activation. Just focusing on the finger is not enough.

 

 

 

If you have some ideas for anchors, share them:)

Edited June 22, 2022 by GreenWoods

[vvnaidu]

Hi, Very good content. Need help, Is it possible to connect with you over phone?

[GreenWoods]

@vvnaidu I'll pm you.