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Meditation Time... I Can Do It In My Sleep... "Dream Yoga"
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
in Meditation
Some may find this of interest (especially those who have difficulty finding the time to meditate during the day time....)
1
Comments
Alternatively you can dream while you're meditating.
I’ve read about Dream Yoga before, supposedly lucid dreaming is a route into meditating in your dreams.
Although this video seems to be more focussed on delegating your meditation practice to your sleeping mind, lol. It somehow seems like chickening out.
Yoga nidra is a wonderful way to fall asleep. I have a book called "The Tibetan Yoga of Dreams and Sleep" that is pretty good. I lucid dream quite frequently, but I usually "come in" in the middle of a dream, so I can take control of it from there, but cannot create my own entire dream sequence. Most of the time they are just fun dreams. I have a pretty good night time routine, and do reflective journalling and gratitude practice before bed. I rarely have trouble falling asleep, thankfully, but I do have to get up in the middle of the night, every night, with our son. I'm so used it I am barely awake anyways, lol.
I find a bit of conflict at the suggestion that the time we spend sleeping is a "waste" and I'm not sure I agree that we should aim to spend any significant amount of sleep time trying to achieve something. Perhaps for masters it is different, I know many long-term practitioners who simply need far less sleep. But most of us do not and most of us already don't get enough. We are most definitely not "doing nothing" while we sleep, or wasting time, lol. For monks, they probably overall need less "life recovery" time than we do. For the average non-monk, non-master, when you sleep less than needed, your brain actually starts to "eat" itself, similar to how your body will "eat" your muscles if you don't adequately provide nutrition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/05/26/sleep-deprivation-can-cause-brain-start-eating/
I've tried doing this and especially during times where too much lucid dreaming is going on to the point of affecting my well being.
I've yet to remember to do it when the time comes.
I agree that sleep deprivation is unhealthy and dangerous...
However I don't think he is actually saying that sleep is a waste of time @karasti ...
He is just offering a way in which one can enrich one's sleep time through dream yoga...
He is saying that dream yoga practice is a great way of enhancing personal development and spiritual development...One is not losing any sleep time by this practice.... just enriching it...
Perhaps it is something one should do occasionally only?
I get my greatest satisfaction out of sleep when I’ve had some dream that has really influenced me on an energy level, that leaves me feeling satisfied and fulfilled in the morning. It has often made me wonder what is the purpose of sleep, whether it works the kinks out of your energy and mind. But perhaps yoga nidra might interfere with this process.
To start with yes... but I'm under the impression once the mind becomes familiar with the process, it will become the norm
....
I guess it's all about conditioning the mind....
@Shoshin he says right in the video that the practice is to help us not waste the 25 years we spend sleeping. Which to me implied that unless we do this practice, we are wasting time sleeping, which isn't true at all. And only a small portion of our hours spent sleeping are in a dream state, about 20-25%. I of course have nothing against making the most of that, and I enjoy Yoga Nidra myself and have practiced it for several years, but our culture in the US especially is so "achievement" focused that people jump on everything they see that they think will allow them to achieve more, and suggesting that they can do so even while sleeping might get a bit hairy for some people who already struggle with getting adequate sleep.
Like I do, f'rinstance....
@karasti I'm well aware of members who suffer from insomnia, but I'm sure they can make up their own minds when it comes to what this teacher is saying...
Discussions on any type of meditation technique can be 'hairy' for some people...As you are well aware there have been some members here who have had very bad experiences when trying to practice one form of meditation or another...
Personally I don't think the teacher is saying anything harmful or negative...and what I take from the teaching is that he wishes to provide practitioners with an opportunity to practice dream yoga...and is just pointing out how one can utilise part of their sleeping/dreaming time to do so...Nothing more nothing less ....
This was my focus point @karasti ....
My comment was just very general that I disagree with the comment that sleep is somehow wasted time, even when it comes to our practice. That is a very common view, unfortunately. We might have our core group of regulars who comment on most things, but we have a whole host of people who read and never comment. I can assume a lot of things about the core group of active posters, but I can assume nothing of the people who read and never comment or are just passing through and I often respond with them in mind. Not just the choir, so to speak.
Good book on the subject!
The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
True, although advanced dream yoga practitioners also practice during non-dream sleep as well.
I came across this non-spiritual article on lucid dreaming