Falling Asleep While Meditating – What to Do

Some people are falling asleep during meditation. This is due to several factors that manifest themselves on the path of internal journey. The appearance and absence of problems arising at different stages, depth of results in meditation – all that is related to the state of the body, energy and mind. Let's try to understand why drowsiness during meditation comes, based on knowledge about our nature.

The simplest reason why you want to sleep during meditation can be overwork and tiredness. The conditions of urban life, the impact of negative factors, systematic stress and the pursuit of trends-all this can take a lot of energy, which is necessary for successful meditation. Lack of fresh air and a sedentary lifestyle can influence energy body. This has a greater or lesser effect on making you sleepy during meditation.

Life in the city has different facets. Sometimes our body saves a tension, which is an answer to factors of external and internal reality. Not positive events, emotions and thoughts block energy channels of the subtle body. The reason why you want to sleep during meditation is that the energy flows passing through the places of tension accumulation and cleanses them. You can feel it as a sleepy state. This is a natural process. Study to relax body with awareness. Gradually the conductivity of subtle channels will widen, energy will flow freely, minimizing the symptom of falling asleep during meditation.

Let's talk about one more reason of drowsiness during meditation. Usually our consciousness, thinking, and emotions manifest according to our life experience. In meditation, we go deeper inside ourselves. We dive in the inner layers connected with the subconscious. Unconscious immersion in the subconscious occurs at night, during sleep. When meditation brings you into contact with the subconscious layers for the first time while you are awake, the physical and energetic bodies change. In life, such subtle changes happen during the sleep. In meditative immersion, the body signals and displays habitual behaviors caused by penetration into the subconscious, so you want to fall asleep during meditation.

The problem of overeating is very important. In general, people eat volumes of food that far exceed the required measure of the physical body. This factor can also cause a sleepy state during meditation. If the amount of food exceeds needs to much, then the body spends a lot of energy on digestion. Overeating creates conditions in which more effort and time is spending on digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Excessive, not fully digested food turns into slags in the body, an overabundance of which also causes falling asleep during meditation.

Before we continue, let's answer the question: is it acceptable to fall asleep during meditation? Of course. Please, do not rape the body and mind, fighting with yourself in practice, if you want to sleep. It is better to do few dynamic yoga exercises and try to again.

Recommendations for Preventing Drowsiness during Meditation

1. Try not to eat an excessive amount of food berore meditation. Do not eat more than 2-3 hours before practice.
2. Walk in the fresh air more often, preferably in the forest. Breathe deeply while walking. It will give you an additional inflow of forces and help to develop meditation.
3. Take care and cleanse the body from toxins. Today different detox techniques are available. It will have a beneficial effect on not falling asleep during meditation.
4. Take time to relax your body and relieve stress. Lie down in a horizontal position for 10-15 minutes shortly before the meditation, using technique of Shavasana, a conscious relaxation of the body. This technique evenly distributes energy throughout the body, deeply relaxes and restores.
5. A daily contrast shower before practice keeps you from falling asleep during meditation.
6. Yoga prescriptions for strengthening your physical and energetic body will help you to stay awake during meditation. Classical texts on yoga, such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya provide prescriptions and instructions how to prepare for meditation through hatha yoga practices and breathing exercises. If you want to reach heights in meditation, study these ancient scriptures, which explain in detail the fundamental rules on the path to meditation. Of course, also, a great support in exploring meditation is master who will agree to guide you in journey to the inner world.

A fundamental principle in moving forward on the path of meditation and dealing with the problem of sleepiness during this practice is the accumulation of additional energy.

Two fundamental principles of energy accumulation:

1. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya describe the first stages in preparing the physical body for the accumulation of additional energy. It is worth to say that there will be indeed more energy. Therefore, it is important not to waste it on the satisfaction of habitual desires and passions. Why is it necessary? Imagine that you have a car (a physical body). By car, you are going on a trip to another city, which is far away (meditative immersion in the deep layers of yourself). To do this, you need to fill up a tank of gasoline (to accumulate enough energy in the subtle body). In yoga, Pranayamas (breathing practices) accumulate energy. Diving into deep inside layers without mastering Pranayamas can give effect of drowsiness during meditation.
2. Accumulation of gratitude. The deep result on the path of self-development and path of meditation directly depends on the quality of life. The result depends on the goals. The essence of meditation is in self-knowledge, in the deep immersion of a person inside himself. The key role in spiritual realization is an altruistic life dedicated to people and the world. If you want to get deep progress in meditation, we recommend creating the energy potential. It means that spending energy in life should be less than its accumulation. Only in this case, a deep progress on the road to your essence can happen. By doing altruistic, selfless things that make other people thank you, you accumulate additional energy. Than this energy opens higher levels of consciousness through meditation practices. There are two fundamental principles – the accumulation of energy in breathing practices and the accumulation of sincere gratitude for work from other people. Living in harmony with these principles people accumulate an energy potential, which allow them not only get rid of drowsiness in meditation, but also discover the qualities and abilities of higher states of consciousness.

Different levels of soul evolution, individual karmic conditions impose appropriate restrictions on certain people.

Every human being has unique personality. Each person's path is special. Make an effort and learn how your physical and energetic bodies work, learn to feel yourself, to understand the causes of problems in meditation practices. No matter what goals you set in meditation, this practice has a very positive impact on your life path.

1. "Hatha yoga Pradipika".
2. "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali".
3. "Ancient Tantric techniques of Yoga and Kriya"