Meditating while going to sleep

Vagabond

Is it bad to meditate while going to bed? Knowing you are already tired and that you will fall asleep inevitably?

Keep in mind that I am sort of new to meditating and am nowhere near getting it right.

Jeffrey

If you fall asleep then you haven't completed your meditation. So I guess if it matters to you how often you meditate then you shouldn't. I've encountered many people that say 30 minutes of meditation is the minimum if you are really serious about it. I meditate 30 minutes but I break it up into smaller sessions and add them all together.

lobster

Vagabond said:

Is it bad to meditate while going to bed? Knowing you are already tired and that you will fall asleep inevitably?

Keep in mind that I am sort of new to meditating and am nowhere near getting it right.

Getting it wrong is not possible unless unusually perverse. It is your right to get it more right. As well as morning med, I often meditate myself to sleep. For example rather than counting sheep I may count mantras. Rather than thinking about [insert monkey mind], I contemplate Bodhisattvas. Or I may allow imagined and dreamy demons to feed on my afflictions, always good to feed the lower disorders . . .

Rock a Bye Buddha, on the treetop,
When the mind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come delusions, cradle them all . . .

oceancaldera207

I think lobsters basically right with his first sentence there.
But yeah you should have sessions where you don't fall asleep, definitely.

I tend to sleep better and have nicer dreams if I fall asleep meditating.

ThinGentlement

@Vagabond, I like to split it two ways. When fully awake I enjoy sitting quietly in mindfulness in what might be described as traditional meditating.

However, when falling asleep I search out feelings and sensations in my body and imagine the flow of energy/lifeforce/whatever-you-wanna-call-it moving upwards and outwards from my being. I've been doing the latter for many years, long before I thought if myself as a Buddhist.

I guess that could count as a form of meditation? But then who is doing the counting? What works for you, works for you. If it no longer works, change it, if it still works, continue as you are.

ThailandTom

I use breathing techniques that I use in a formal sitting meditation to get to sleep sometimes, but I do not try to meditate before going to sleep if that makes sense. If you want to explore the mind then optimum times are when you are not so tired but also not feeling too over active.

BonsaiDoug

Vagabond said:

Is it bad to meditate while going to bed? Knowing you are already tired and that you will fall asleep inevitably?

If this is your only meditation for the day, then you might want to reconsider and rethink this method.

If you're simply using meditation techniques to calm your mind before falling off to sleep, then I'd guess this is a pretty decent way to ensure a peaceful night's sleep.

Jainarayan

I've fallen asleep mentally chanting nāma japa, om namo nārāyanāya (my chosen mantra). I look at it this way... if I die in my sleep, the last thing I remember is God. I should do this japa regularly. "Whoever thinks of Me alone even at the time of death, attains to My state on abandoning the body. There is no doubt about this." Bhagavad Gītā 8.5 But this is just me.

karasti

I would, as other said, make sure to meditate otherwise, too, not just before you are falling asleep or it will be hard to bring it into your daily life. Also, be cautious of what techniques you use to fall asleep because often your body will train itself to equate something with sleep and you will find yourself sleepy when you shouldn't be.

I do body scan meditation if I have trouble sleeping, and I rarely get even a third of the way through before I pass out. But sometimes I feel a need to do it otherwise, if I am not feeling well or something, and I fall asleep even in the middle the day because my body and mind has equated body scan with sleep.

Sabre

You can do it but be careful to not make a mental connection between meditating and sleeping. Because if you do, your normal meditation might become sleepy as well. I use a different object of meditation for getting to sleep, focusing on the feeling on lying down. The breath and other things I keep for the normal meditation. If you become more skilled at meditation you will be able to more directly steer the mind to sleep or towards being awake.

Invincible_summer

Like others said, it really depends on what your purpose of meditation is and that you should also be cautious. Sometimes I've meditated before sleeping and found that it actually gave me an increased sense of alertness and awareness which made it difficult to sleep.

ysmael

as long as it aids or helps you in a good way, i dont see anything wrong with that :thumbsup:

Seph

Vagabond said:

Is it bad to meditate while going to bed? Knowing you are already tired and that you will fall asleep inevitably?

Keep in mind that I am sort of new to meditating and am nowhere near getting it right.

That depends.
If your intention was to calm down and eventually drift off into sleep, than no.
I think that's fine. If you fall asleep it's because you're tired and you need to sleep.

how

I have a formal and free range Zen meditation practice.
I practice formal and informal meditation when & where ever I am willing to.
I also meditate when I go to bed at night until I fall asleep
and when I wake up until I get out of bed.
Neither meditation or sleep have yet complained of identity theft.

Intent is the key and most of such warnings apply to those more interested
in avoiding meditation than practicing it.