Quote Originally Posted by 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.
Meditation at it's core is relaxed focused awareness. A focus is used to keep the mind clear through observance (such as a mantra, breath, visualisation, music etc). Meditation is never forcing to keep the mind clear, it's simply letting go of distractions and returning to the meditation object repeatedly. Over time the distractions become less and less. Forcing the mind clear can suppress a lot and seriously impede progress.
Trance is more a deepening state of relaxation, one can experience trance through meditation, but one doesn't need to be meditating to experience trance.
As you go deeper into trance, quite frequently you'll find your mind wanders, or gets caught up in hypnogogic scenarios. With meditation one returns to the object of meditation even with the distractions of hypnogogic hallucinations etc.

If I meditate before bed, or do some form of visualisation/consious altering technique, I find I can't sleep afterwards too.