Meditation and sleep

[shadow159]

Hi their, I've recently began to do meditation/trance on a night time, usualy just before I go to sleep (though I dont lie down) as this is mainly the only time I can practive this without being interupted.

A night or so ago I did this and found it quite hard to get to sleep right after, even though I expected myself to be tired, even before I began trance. I had a very restless nights sleep, waking up multiple times in the night, very unlike my usual sleep cycle.

Could this have anything to do with the trance/meditation as I dont want to make this mistake again and miss out on further sleep. I recall hearing that the Delta brainwave state makes up for a certain amount of sleep, though im not sure how this would interupt my sleep cycle.

Thanks for any help.

[Tom]

The material that you stir up in your subconscious mind during meditation is what is being processed in your dreams. It is a great way to make progress, if you don't mind the effect that the loss of restful sleep has. There are ways to let go of things during the day if you want to practice without losing sleep over it and the only time you have is right before bed. Going over the events of the day in reverse order, watching them as though they happened to someone else, will help to unwind them. You can do the same thing in the morning with your dreams. The thing about going in reverse order is the important thing. There is a tendency with the technique to want to stop at points and switch to going over things in forward motion. My guess is, though, that meditation before sleep will not have the same effect on your sleep every time. Some days it will stir things up and make it hard to get a restful night's sleep. Other times it might actually help you to sleep better. I find that rather than cutting back my need for sleep, the more I meditate the more sleep I need.

[shadow159]

Oh, I wasnt aware that during meditation thoughts are brought to the surface, and your mind goes though the days events, I thought everything just remained blank and it sort of gave your subconscious and conscious mind a rest.

You say allowing your thoughts to appear in your dreams will allow you to make progress. Make progress with what?

[Tom]

Going through the material at the end of the day is actually a technique that you can use to process the material from your day. It is like unwinding a cassette tape. It reduces the amount of processing you need to do in your dreams overnight, making it easier to work with your dreams.

During meditation, according to Bill Harris (His company is Centerpointe, which makes the holosync binaural program) during meditation most of the action occurs at a subconscious level. Material there is being processed and re-organized. Things get stirred up and can have an effect on your dreaming, especially if you meditate right before going to sleep. It doesn't always have quite the effect you described, but it can from time to time. It is like writing an operating system or some other huge computer application. At first, you might start out with just the basics and then you keep adding code to extend the features and patches to correct bugs as they appear. At some point you get a whole mess of code, written by a lot of different people, and it is useful to start combining sections of code to work together more effeciently. Entire sections of code can become obsolete as newer, more efficient code takes over all the functions. Your subconscious mind also has its programming and during meditation you are giving it a chance to revise its programming to work more efficiently. Often this process has to continue for a while after you finish meditating. Dreams are a great way for the subconscious mind to continue its work.

[shadow159]

I understand what you mean now. So should I the 'Reverse' technique before i begin any trance / meditation work?

[Tom]

It isn't something I bother doing, either before meditation or before going to sleep. I just brought it up as a point of interest. The more intense and weird my dreams are the happier I get.

[Matthew]

Tom brings up a good technique.

I just want to reiterate: when rewinding your day, make sure you go backwards and don't start playing the events forward again. Actually, for awhile I did this technique and would fall asleep before I rewound to the morning.

As for the meditation, what type of meditation are you doing? Are you emptying your mind of thoughts, using a mantra, etc.? This can make a difference when it's close to bedtime.

I usually do an "empty" mind technique at night... not much to it. Started it back when I read The Cloud of Unknowing- a Christian mystical text. When I really can't fall asleep, I do TM meditation. I started doing TM over twenty years ago. So, the technique might not really be any better around bedtime. It might just be that I did it for so long that I enter a deeper more relaxed state.

By the way, trance work can sometimes wind me up... I don't know why. So, I'll often do the energy and trance work first. Then, get up, walk it off, and then meditate. For some reason, this helps me get ready for snoozy-ville.

I would suggest doing the reverse technique after the trance work while you are lying in bed (again, because it often put me to sleep).

-Matthew

[shadow159]

I wasnt aware that their was a diffarence between meditation and trance. What i do is just clear my mind of all thoughts to go into a deeper state of consciousness.

I havent had recurrence of that sleep problem, and i have used the reverse technique to an extent. So hopefully it was just a one off.

Thanks

[The_Musician]

i think a trance is continuously going deeper and deeper, while a meditation is hovering in a desired deepness for a period of time. Im totally talking out of my ass, but im using what i have heard over the last two months and some experience.

[darkrealmz]

Yeah, usually when i wake up multiple times during rest it's due to recall. Your mind is in a trance hence waking you up after something has happened, i.e a dream, Astral projection etc. I sometimes get the urge to write down what happened in the experience too.