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Honestly, I've been meditating for months now (using the of apps like Calm, Headspace) and all it does is make me feel sleepy. Since I do a lot of algorithms in

Honestly, I've been meditating for months now (using the of apps like Calm, Headspace) and all it does is make me feel sleepy. Since I do a lot of algorithms in my head during my sleep, it keeps me awake but focusing on like my breathing or part of the body keeps me thinking too much. Maybe im just doing it wrong, idk

LifeQuestioner 11y ago
There's lots of different styles of meditation. Tibetan monks I've spoken to have commented on this if it helps : posture is important, of you don't have a good, alert, posture it can make an individual sleepy. Secondly you can meditate with your eyes very slightly open. Also, you can meditate with candles and other things and focus your eyes on the light of those.
b6 11y ago
Here are the most concise and accessible instructions I've found for entering one meditative state of note: http://www.leighb.com/jhana3.htm http://www.leighb.com/jhana3.htm
InclinedPlane 11y ago
Meditation isn't magic, it's just stimulus response. Consider a skill such as hitting a baseball. This is impossible to do consciously, but fortunately it doesn't need to be. You train hitting a ball over and over again, you develop sub-conscious reactions that are triggered by certain things. When you stand a certain way, when you see the pitcher move in a certain way, you react, you spool through a series of actions that your conscious mind only has partial control over, like controlling the reins of a horse. The same is true for, say, typing. You do not consciously go through a process of thinking of a word, thinking of how it is spelled, then recalling the location of each key, etc. You trigger a mostly unconscious series of reactions, which is why it takes much longer to type out an unfamiliar word, regardless of how long it is. Meditation works along similar principles. You practice entering a certain mind state, typically relaxation since that is the most important state and often difficult to achieve when desired, and along the way you sprinkle certain ritual behavioral aspects (breathing, words, movements, etc.) Eventually you can shortcut your way there through one of those associative channels. For myself, I use breathing out and relaxing my shoulders as the cue. If I find myself in need of relaxing or being centered I can just take a moment, breath out, and gain calmness. You can certainly train yourself to feel sleepier during practice, which is quite common, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong, but you might think about changing things up a bit if that's not what you want. However, it's a bit of a general purpose system, it's a matter of training your emotional and mental state the same way you might train your body. You could, in principle, train yourself toward becoming very angry on cue, or any other behavior, with varying difficulty.
kranner 11y ago
You could be chronically sleep-deprived. That's one explanation I've heard of sleepiness during meditation.
sdfin 11y ago
When there's sleepiness, it's recomended to get up and walk until you are awake, and then continue. About thinking too much, it doesn't matter, as long as you observe the thinking, without engaging or rejecting it.

LifeQuestioner 11y ago

There's lots of different styles of meditation. Tibetan monks I've spoken to have commented on this if it helps : posture is important, of you don't have a good, alert, posture it can make an individual sleepy. Secondly you can meditate with your eyes very slightly open. Also, you can meditate with candles and other things and focus your eyes on the light of those.

b6 11y ago

Here are the most concise and accessible instructions I've found for entering one meditative state of note: http://www.leighb.com/jhana3.htm http://www.leighb.com/jhana3.htm

InclinedPlane 11y ago

Meditation isn't magic, it's just stimulus response. Consider a skill such as hitting a baseball. This is impossible to do consciously, but fortunately it doesn't need to be. You train hitting a ball over and over again, you develop sub-conscious reactions that are triggered by certain things. When you stand a certain way, when you see the pitcher move in a certain way, you react, you spool through a series of actions that your conscious mind only has partial control over, like controlling the reins of a horse. The same is true for, say, typing. You do not consciously go through a process of thinking of a word, thinking of how it is spelled, then recalling the location of each key, etc. You trigger a mostly unconscious series of reactions, which is why it takes much longer to type out an unfamiliar word, regardless of how long it is. Meditation works along similar principles. You practice entering a certain mind state, typically relaxation since that is the most important state and often difficult to achieve when desired, and along the way you sprinkle certain ritual behavioral aspects (breathing, words, movements, etc.) Eventually you can shortcut your way there through one of those associative channels. For myself, I use breathing out and relaxing my shoulders as the cue. If I find myself in need of relaxing or being centered I can just take a moment, breath out, and gain calmness. You can certainly train yourself to feel sleepier during practice, which is quite common, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong, but you might think about changing things up a bit if that's not what you want. However, it's a bit of a general purpose system, it's a matter of training your emotional and mental state the same way you might train your body. You could, in principle, train yourself toward becoming very angry on cue, or any other behavior, with varying difficulty.

kranner 11y ago

You could be chronically sleep-deprived. That's one explanation I've heard of sleepiness during meditation.

sdfin 11y ago

When there's sleepiness, it's recomended to get up and walk until you are awake, and then continue. About thinking too much, it doesn't matter, as long as you observe the thinking, without engaging or rejecting it.