Why Am I Falling Asleep When I Meditate?
Photo by Fernando @cferdo on Unsplash
Sheltering in place has many challenges - but an unexpected one has been that some students are finding themselves exhausted during meditation, who never used to be before. We asked WITHIN teacher Devon Pipars - who’s been leading daily online meditation classes since the crisis began - what her advice is for students who are falling asleep when they meditate, or extremely tired afterwards.
First of all, know that nothing wrong is happening. In fact, this is exactly what your entire system is needing. Let me explain why.
As you hunker down during this global health crisis, maybe you have been aware of more ups and downs in your moods throughout the day, as well as vacillating between feeling good one day to feeling overwhelmed the next. Or perhaps you haven’t been aware of this, but have noticed poor digestion, trouble sleeping, inability to focus, or short-term memory loss.
Whether emotional or purely physiological, we are all processing immense stress right now. And it’s not at all personal, it’s biological and universal.
When the mind senses a threat to the survival of the body, even a potential threat like Covid19, it goes into a state of hyper-arousal and triggers an unconscious fight or flight response, effectively preparing the body to escape the threat. When the threat is inescapable, we find ourselves in a sustained, chronic state of fight or flight, which shallows the breathing, speeds up and evens the heartrate, and increases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
As mammals, our nervous systems are not designed to sustain prolonged stress in this way, it leads to disease. The good news is, the science of meditation proves that when we deepen the breath and slow the heartrate, we are overriding the brain and directly stimulating the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system and restoring ourselves back to a state of rest and digest.
So, if we have been in a sympathetic dominant state of fight or flight for a sustained amount of time (as we all have been since being forced to shelter in place during a pandemic), the effect of coming down from that state will be exhaustion.
The body needs to rest, it’s been held captive by a restless and anxious mind, and it’s signaling that to you when you finally relax enough for it to be heard. Thus, the exhaustion appearing in the practice is an indicator of where you’re at during most of your waking hours: under chronic, systemic stress, induced by the automatic fight/flight response.
Perhaps counterintuitively, the way to move through this is by doing more, not less, meditation. Use the practice for even a few minutes several times a day, in order to keep your nervous system in a rest/digest dominant state.
Think of this as maintenance: it’s the same as stretching out your neck and shoulders after a couple hours of sitting in front of the laptop to relieve any built-up tension (or letting some steam out of a pressure cooker!)
By shutting the eyes and resting in silence and stillness, you’re giving soothing relief to an overstimulated nervous system, and allowing the body, mind and emotions to process and integrate this uniquely challenging experience.
Also, now is a great time to build in meditation as part of your bedtime ritual. Use that sleepiness to your advantage! Sleep is so important right now - it’s not only when we get relief from the stress of the mind, it’s when the body heals and rejuvenates. By forming a ritual, you are preparing the mind and body for letting go.
For example, every night you might choose to stretch, shower, meditate, then sleep. Or take a candlelit bath, read your book, meditate, then sleep. It can be anything you want, just keep it consistent each night and the body/mind will become familiar with the unwinding ritual and naturally prepare you for deep rest. As you perform your chosen ritual, bring the tenants of meditation to it - let go of thinking and stay present in the simplicity of experience - seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, and breathing deeply.
This is a very intense time for all of us, whether we are aware of it or not, so let’s normalize that and choose to drop any inner criticism or self-judgement.
Be kind to yourself, meeting yourself where you’re at each and every morning, then adjust your expectations and to-do list, and simply make the best choices for your mind and body on that day. We’re all getting through this together, one day at a time, one breath at a time.
Devon is passionate about helping students develop and deepen their meditation practices, no matter whether you’ve been meditating for years or are just getting started. She teaches daily 30-minute online meditation classes at WITHIN. Join her for a class this week!