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I teach meditation, and in my opinion, what you're doing is definitely a form of meditation. You have an intentional practice of relaxation that doesn't involv

by darshan 17y ago

I teach meditation, and in my opinion, what you're doing is definitely a form of meditation. You have an intentional practice of relaxation that doesn't involve falling asleep. That's meditation. Specifically, paragraphs like this can be found in hundreds of books on meditation: The best way I can describe the feeling of napping is that you lie down or sit somewhere, and first focus on relaxing. Relax your muscle groups one by one, from your neck all the way down to your toes. Take a good minute or two to do this properly. Then finally you relax your thoughts. Let them drift off. It’s important to gently nudge those thoughts towards more relaxing topics – you won’t nap very well if you’re rehearsing a conversation with the boss – but at the same time, they need to largely drift on their own. Keep your eyes closed, your body relaxed, and let your thoughts meander from subject to subject without much order.

swombat 17y ago
Interesting. You may be right... but if I derive all the typical benefits of napping (increased alertness, ability to go for extended periods of a few weeks with a lot less sleep, etc), is it not fair to call it napping? After all, if it quacks like a duck... Also, it does happen, though probably no more than 1 out of 5 times, that I actually drift into a dream state while napping, which I would consider equivalent to being asleep.
- eru 17y ago
  Do you get lucid dreams? I am quite prone to lucid dreaming, especially when napping or getting back into bed after waking up in the morning.
  - swombat 17y ago
    I've only had a couple of lucid dreams in my life, unfortunately (that I can remember). I wish I had more - they were both very enjoyable. I think part of the problem for me is that my dreams are so insane that it's very difficult for me to implement mnemonic-induced lucid dreaming.
    - eru 17y ago
      Habits tend to carry over into dreams. Just make a habit of testing for reality every once in a while (or when something looks remotely fishy). E.g. I found that I can not read in dreams--or at least everything longer than a few letters changes when I read it twice. (Jumping also works different in dreams, but that's too geeky to do while you are awake.)
- darshan 17y ago
  Perhaps -- but your list of benefits matches a list of typical benefits of meditation as well. And falling asleep while meditating isn't terribly uncommon, especially when you're tired. When I first started meditating, it was a lot more than 1 out of 5 times for me. I'm willing to overlook that every dictionary I've checked includes sleep as an essential part of what defines napping, since they all suck at defining meditation. To my mind, if we take successfully falling asleep out of the definition, a nap would still mean lying down, closing your eyes, and not engaging in a specific mental practice, but rather letting the sense of sleepiness overcome you. You might fall asleep, or you might just lie there, consumed in sleepiness for 20 minutes. As soon as you start an exercise to control what your mind/attention does or does not do, however, you're getting into meditation territory: directing your attention to specific parts of your body and willing them to relax, directing your mind to relaxing thoughts, directing your mind away from distressing thoughts, and trying to culture a state where your mind drifts freely all qualify as meditation techniques to me. I think intentions also matter. If you goal is to fall asleep for a while, then you probably napped, even if you didn't manage to fall asleep. If your goal is to let your mind and body relax and refresh, without preference to whether sleep happens or not, then that's meditation to me.
alaithea 17y ago
I agree that it sounds like meditation. In a yoga class I attend, which combines an hour of light flow yoga with about a half-hour meditation (first about 20 minutes prone on the back, and then 10 minutes sitting cross-legged), I often enter a sort of immediate REM-like state. While the teacher was talking about clearing our minds, I was having wild, vivid, waking dreams. It's pretty fun to get into that state, and it definitely makes me feel good afterwards. The OP's "napping" sounds a lot like this.

by darshan 17y ago

swombat 17y ago

Interesting. You may be right... but if I derive all the typical benefits of napping (increased alertness, ability to go for extended periods of a few weeks with a lot less sleep, etc), is it not fair to call it napping? After all, if it quacks like a duck... Also, it does happen, though probably no more than 1 out of 5 times, that I actually drift into a dream state while napping, which I would consider equivalent to being asleep.

eru 17y ago
Do you get lucid dreams? I am quite prone to lucid dreaming, especially when napping or getting back into bed after waking up in the morning.
- swombat 17y ago
  I've only had a couple of lucid dreams in my life, unfortunately (that I can remember). I wish I had more - they were both very enjoyable. I think part of the problem for me is that my dreams are so insane that it's very difficult for me to implement mnemonic-induced lucid dreaming.
  - eru 17y ago
    Habits tend to carry over into dreams. Just make a habit of testing for reality every once in a while (or when something looks remotely fishy). E.g. I found that I can not read in dreams--or at least everything longer than a few letters changes when I read it twice. (Jumping also works different in dreams, but that's too geeky to do while you are awake.)
darshan 17y ago
Perhaps -- but your list of benefits matches a list of typical benefits of meditation as well. And falling asleep while meditating isn't terribly uncommon, especially when you're tired. When I first started meditating, it was a lot more than 1 out of 5 times for me. I'm willing to overlook that every dictionary I've checked includes sleep as an essential part of what defines napping, since they all suck at defining meditation. To my mind, if we take successfully falling asleep out of the definition, a nap would still mean lying down, closing your eyes, and not engaging in a specific mental practice, but rather letting the sense of sleepiness overcome you. You might fall asleep, or you might just lie there, consumed in sleepiness for 20 minutes. As soon as you start an exercise to control what your mind/attention does or does not do, however, you're getting into meditation territory: directing your attention to specific parts of your body and willing them to relax, directing your mind to relaxing thoughts, directing your mind away from distressing thoughts, and trying to culture a state where your mind drifts freely all qualify as meditation techniques to me. I think intentions also matter. If you goal is to fall asleep for a while, then you probably napped, even if you didn't manage to fall asleep. If your goal is to let your mind and body relax and refresh, without preference to whether sleep happens or not, then that's meditation to me.

alaithea 17y ago

I agree that it sounds like meditation. In a yoga class I attend, which combines an hour of light flow yoga with about a half-hour meditation (first about 20 minutes prone on the back, and then 10 minutes sitting cross-legged), I often enter a sort of immediate REM-like state. While the teacher was talking about clearing our minds, I was having wild, vivid, waking dreams. It's pretty fun to get into that state, and it definitely makes me feel good afterwards. The OP's "napping" sounds a lot like this.