sleeping during meditation

[Sarasotayogi]

Greetings fellow Yogis, as a student of the practice since 1970 I had recently come back to a full routine 2 years ago doing Anusaura/Vinyassa flow yoga. I have learned much, but the meditations were elusive. It’s been 2 months since I found the AYP web site and have since read all of Yogani's books. I have been able to meditate and experience a lot of the joy and inner peace I had many years ago by following the lessons. The question I have has to do with an issue that has developed in the past week. During my twice daily meditation I have developed the habit of entering a sleep like state, I can still go back to the mantra, but the thought stream and imagery is strong and dream like. I notice my inner gaze has shifted from the third eye center usually to the back of my head. The real problem is afterward, I feel spaced out like I over slept. I rest afterward and sometime fall asleep. I have read other post similar to this, but this sleep like stupor seems to be abnormal. Is this normal? And will it pass, or do I need to make some adjustments? Thanks for the help
Namaste

[Richard]

HI Sarasotayogi welcome to the forum

 

quote:The question I have has to do with an issue that has developed in the past week. During my twice daily meditation I have developed the habit of entering a sleep like state, I can still go back to the mantra, but the thought stream and imagery is strong and dream like. I notice my inner gaze has shifted from the third eye center usually to the back of my head. The real problem is afterward, I feel spaced out like I over slept. I rest afterward and sometime fall asleep. I have read other post similar to this, but this sleep like stupor seems to be abnormal. Is this normal? And will it pass, or do I need to make some adjustments? Thanks for the help

Nothing to worry about just lots of purification going on that's all. It seems like You may be overdoing it a bit with some of the practices let us know what practices you are doing and how long you are doing them for.
It is not unusual to see imagery at the back of the head that's where the optical centres are in the brain. Just let the images and thoughts come don't try to stop them, be aware of them and then go gently back to the mantra.
Feeling spaced out like that is not unusual If you go really deep into meditation, resting afterwards is good. If you are in a situation where it doesn't matter if you fall asleep after med thats the best way to deal with this,  then when you have rested get straight into some grounding activity. This is just a phase it will pass.
 

[Shanti]

Welcome Sarasotayogi.
What you are experiencing (sleep related) is very normal. Many people have had similar experiences and yes it is a phase that will go away and may come back again. It is all purification and at times sleep is exactly what you need.

Yogani talks about it in this lesson:

quote:Lesson 17 - Meditation Q&A – Was I asleep?
Meditation sometimes produces
a sleep-like state, like you described, but the physiological
parameters are different. The metabolism goes much lower than in
sleep. Heart rate and breathing are much slower than in sleep, nearly
stopped. The body and mind come to a state of complete silence, while
still awake inside. The level of rest in the body and mind in
meditation is deeper than sleep. It is a different kind of rest that
removes impurities; obstructions to consciousness that sleep cannot
reach. However, meditation is not a replacement for sleep, which has
its own dynamics in the daily rejuvenation cycle.

Also...
 

quote:Lesson 17 - Meditation Q&A – Was I asleep?
You did just right by lying down at the end of your session until you were able to get up feeling clear and smooth. This is another
circumstance where extra rest after meditation is needed. Much
cleansing went on during the meditation. Many different kinds of
experiences can happen during meditation, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. It is all part of the same process of easily thinking the mantra and letting it settle in. Then the purification happens. We let it happen. Then, when we become aware, we return to the mantra and let the mind dive again. This process, done twice daily for twenty minutes, will gradually transform your life to bliss.

This has been discussed at the forum too...
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=1475
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=1392
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=2828

Also seeing images at the back of your head was discussed recently.
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=2930

Hope this helps.
Wish you all the best.

[Sarasotayogi]

Thanks for the help
Namaste

[Sarasotayogi]

Shanti, I see by the post that you went thru a sleep phase last year. Have you gotten thru this yet? Mine seems to be a little different, I'm fully awake but in a dream like state. I changed the mantra to "Shree Shree Iam Iam" and that seems to ground me more. Also I used a old technique I learned years ago by slightly opening the eyes, this also brings me back. But after reading the posts I wondering if I should do that. I'm still on the Mantra the whole time, except when I'm off in a stream of thoughs,then back on the Mantra. My practice is about 5-10 minutes spinal breathing, 20 min med.I try and do a Asana routine before I start and of course rest in Savasana for 10 minutes. After reading Yogani's post on this I feel confident to stay with the procedure.
Namaste

[Shanti]

quote:Originally posted by Sarasotayogi

Shanti, I see by the post that you went thru a sleep phase last year. Have you gotten thru this yet? Mine seems to be a little different, I'm fully awake but in a dream like state. I changed the mantra to "Shree Shree Iam Iam" and that seems to ground me more. Also I used a old technique I learned years ago by slightly opening the eyes, this also brings me back. But after reading the posts I wondering if I should do that. I'm still on the Mantra the whole time, except when I'm off in a stream of thoughs,then back on the Mantra. My practice is about 5-10 minutes spinal breathing, 20 min med.I try and do a Asana routine before I start and of course rest in Savasana for 10 minutes. After reading Yogani's post on this I feel confident to stay with the procedure.
Namaste

Hi Saratogayogi,
Yes, I did get over that phase.. and actually have been through that phase a few times, over the past 2 years. That is why I said above, its a phase that you will get over and may go back into again.

Saratogayogi, I am a believer in not questioning what happens.. to go with the flow.. I have phases of meditation when I go through what you are going through now, then some when my mind is very active, yet some when I feel like my meditation was very surface level but when I get out of it I feel very groggy and disoriented like it was a very deep meditation, and yet times when I have really awesome deep meditation. At first (for me) it was hard to not analyze each session and wonder why this and why that. About a year back I dropped it all and just did mediation without analyzing what each session felt like.

If you ask me.. you are doing very well.. and if you just continue like you are now, without trying to change anything to what you think your meditation should be like.. rather let meditation take its own flavor every time and let the mantra do what it needs to do.. you don't interfere with it.. just practice like (Jim says) brushing your teeth.. you will get over this phase soon. Yogani always says, don't measure your progress by how you feel during your mediation/practice, rather how you feel outside your practice. The more we try to control the less effective the practice gets. But that is just MHO.

[Sarasotayogi]

Yes, very good. Sometimes we just need to hear it from someone who has been down that road. This morning I got up at 5am to meditate, afterwards I fell asleep for 2 hours and felt very refreshed afterward. So I will continue in the practice and just accept what comes along...Namaste

[Christi]

Hi Saratoga Yogi,


I would agree with Shanti, it is a phase in meditation, and there is nothing wrong. Things come up during meditation, lights, sounds visions, dream like states, emptiness, it is all just stuff of the mind. We simply favour the mantra and carry on. If you open your eyes, or change your mantra deliberately to try and get rid of something that is happening, then you are reacting to a mind state rather than following the meditation procedure. It is actually a good sign, as it shows that your mind is relaxing enough to access stuff which is normally subconscious and only accessible to the mind during sleep.

[gumpi]

Old thread i am resurrecting.  I wanted feedback on something i have experienced repeatedly for a while and haven't really got a solid answer to.

During meditation i will find myself in a place where i seem unconscious - that is, there doesn't seem to be any thoughts but i am not totally unconscious or unaware.  It is like i SEEM to be.  Then i will "wake up" and the mantra seems to be continuing by itself from whenever i drifted in to this "place".  Before all this happens i seem to enter a light hypnagogic kind of state where i am possibly hearing voices or my subconscious thoughts are coming up (they are all kinds of things, some songs i have been singing mentally, or thoughts i have been thinking recently, rarely old thought patterns) but i don't fall asleep when this happens, and sometimes i seem to come out of it which i guess is due to concentration on the mantra.  But sometimes i enter in to this "place" i can't describe.

Another thing that happens is i will be meditating and suddenley i will feel some kind of "shock" enter my head and travel down into my back and body which feels completely exhilirating and "warm" and GOOD.  Does anyone experience this and what is it?

[CarsonZi]

Hi Gumpi,

Can't comment on the "shock" things, as I have no personal experiences with these, but on the odd state of being occuring during meditation I certainly can comment on from experience...
I have gone through stages that sound exactly the same as what you are experiencing here even including the "voices" or "subconscious thoughts".  Often I have wondered if I am tapping into a television frequency because the conversations I hear, or the visions I have, because they really have nothing to do with anything and I often wonder where this "material" came from.  I also end up coming back to myself and finding that I have been repeating the mantra the whole time even though I didn't realize it because I wasn't totally focussed on it.  I don't know what this "state" is or how to control it, but I do know now from experience that this is just a stage.  I have gone through it twice in the past 6 months.  Early on in my AYPractices, and then again pretty recently.  I know it is hard to let go of trying to understand what is happening, but in my experience this is what allows the stage to pass.  Once I stop focussing on the fact that this is happening, I usually seem to pass from this stage into another one fairly quickly.  Again this is only my second time hitting this stage so I can't say definitively that this will work again, but this is what helped the first time.

Love,
Carson[^]