Why Do I Fall Asleep While Meditating? What It Means and What to Do

Seekers often ask why they sleep during meditation and then wake up, whether it is normal and how to avoid it. The answer lies in three things: tiredness, a high load of energy at the Ajna chakra and a pattern of the mind. Awareness is what separates meditation from sleep.

Is It Normal to Fall Asleep While Meditating?

It is normal when the body is tired. As HH Guruji Sundar puts it in answer to a seeker who sleeps and then wakes up, "If you are tired and do so, it is normal." At the end of a working day, the body needs rest, and the mind, which runs consciously and subconsciously all day, needs rest as well.

The monkey-like activity of the mind never lets the body rest. Only when the mind becomes tired does it go to rest and allow the body to rest as well.

What Happens in the Mind When a Sitting Turns Into Sleep?

A seeker may be asleep while the mind creates the illusion of being awake, and at other times the mind sinks into deep sleep with no awareness at all. In both cases, the seeker loses all knowledge of where he or she is.

What lets a seeker catch the approach of sleep is awareness. The rational mind first dips for an instant and returns, then dips for longer, and its thoughts turn haphazard and illogical, which shows that the mind is entering sleep mode. The dip is so subtle that ordinary people miss it, while a seeker who lives in awareness notices it and kindles the flame of awareness.

Why Does Energy at the Ajna Chakra Bring Sleep?

The chakra on which the seeker meditates stores the energy that gathers when the senses close to the outer world and the activity of the mind pauses for a time. When the energy loaded at the Ajna chakra is high, the body sometimes cannot bear it, and a drugged sleep of another kind follows. This sleep is a type of yoga nidra, and afterwards the body is ready for more.

Can Falling Asleep Be a Habit of the Mind?

Sleep that comes often during meditation is only a pattern of the mind. People are taught from childhood to close their eyes and sleep, and hence it repeats.

Is Sleep During Meditation Ever a Good Thing?

For a beginner at the Ajna chakra, it can be. A beginner who sleeps in a sitting wakes totally rejuvenated and sleeps exceptionally well at night, which makes sleep mode a good way to begin sadhana. It suits most seekers who stay caught up in the outer world, since the mind wakes fully aware after a good sleep, and meditation proper begins from there.

How Is Meditation Different From Sleep?

Every human being reaches the state of samadhi each day in sleep, unaware. A real yogi reaches the same state with total awareness, and this is the one difference Ramana Maharishi drew between sleep and samadhi.

Meditation is complete relaxation and rejuvenation, along with the growth of a quality of awareness, and concentration plays no part in it. The seeker never gets engrossed in the meditation and keeps awareness on the meditator. In the semi-conscious trance that can come with the higher chakras, the seeker enjoys the state, does not allow the mind to become dull and keeps awareness of it.

What Should a Seeker Do When Sleep Keeps Coming?

Rest for the body is enough to relieve physical stress. A lighter meal helps, because heavy food induces sleep. Meditation is done with ease and never with tightness. The forcing of the eyelids shut or the eyes upward that marks a beginner's first sittings only bores the mind, which then talks on many matters and turns to the aches of the body.

When the dip towards sleep is noticed, the flame of awareness is kindled and kept on the meditator. A seeker already initiated into the chakras who feels tired meditates in Mooladhara, and the physical stress recedes.

Key Takeaway

Falling asleep in meditation is normal when the body is tired, and it also comes from a high load of energy at the Ajna chakra and from a pattern of the mind formed since childhood. Sleep mode is a good way for a beginner to start sadhana, while awareness separates meditation from sleep. Resting the body, eating lighter and meditating with ease, with awareness held on the meditator, are the answer to it. The sitting itself begins at home from the first day, while Self-realisation comes through a realised Guru's grace.

FAQs

Is it normal to fall asleep while meditating? It is normal when the body is tired. It also happens when the energy at the Ajna chakra is high, and it repeats as a pattern of the mind formed since childhood.

Why do I fall asleep every time I meditate? Frequent sleep is only a pattern of the mind, since people are taught from childhood to close their eyes and sleep, and hence it repeats. Tiredness or a heavy meal can also bring sleep.

How can I stop falling asleep during meditation? Rest the body, eat lighter, meditate with ease and keep awareness on the meditator. A seeker who lives in awareness recognises the dip of the mind towards sleep and kindles the flame of awareness at that moment.

Does falling asleep mean the meditation has failed? For a beginner, beginning sadhana in sleep mode is a good way to start, since the mind wakes fully aware afterwards and meditation proper begins.

Does energy at the Ajna chakra cause sleep? It does when the energy loaded at the Ajna chakra is high, and the body cannot bear it, since a drugged sleep of another kind follows that is a type of yoga nidra, and afterwards the body is ready for more.

What is the difference between meditation and sleep? Awareness separates them: a sleeper is unaware, while a yogi in samadhi reaches the same state with total awareness.

Can a person who is sleeping in meditation be woken? Yes, a person sleeping in meditation can be woken, as long as it is done gently.