Practices to help fall asleep

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This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by  Don Salmon 7 years, 3 months ago.

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  • #1529

    G A
    Member

    The practices described in The Mind Illuminated focus a lot on waking up the mind and getting rid of dullness, increasing the mind’s overall energy level. As someone who is at stage 7-8 right now, I feel quite capable of waking my mind up when I need to. Having an increased level of mental energy is great during the day, but this energy often lingers when I am trying to sleep, making it difficult to fall asleep.

    I was wondering if anyone could suggest practices that would intentionally create dullness in order to help me fall asleep at night. Is this even advisable to do, or would it conflict with my main meditation practice? Does the fact that I have a lot of mental energy when I’m trying to fall asleep mean that I shouldn’t be trying to fall asleep until later in the night / that I should be sleeping less?

    #1530

    Michael Dunn
    Member

    I will say that to introduce a practice to dull the mind for sleep, after working so hard to remove dullness, seems like a bit of a roller coaster. That practice also assumes that dullness is required for sleep, which is questionable.

    Question: Do you need as much sleep as you used to or does the higher energy level in the mind during the day allow for overall less sleep than before?

    You may be able to watch your mind as you fall asleep and then even in some states between waking and deep sleep. This is a great way to pass the night, mindfully aware of the state of your mind. Perhaps it is time to challenge the notion of what sleep means? Can you get “rest” mindfully?

    Experiment, as your mind changes due to your practices, other habits also change. Sleep is definitely important, so be sure to always have the right balance of rest and waking.

    Michael

    #1531

    Blake Barton
    Keymaster

    Hi GA,

    When I focus on the breath before sleep it tends to bring up excess energy making it more difficult to fall asleep. In the past I have done this on retreat and gotten sleep deprived.

    I now use mindfulness of the body, and it seems to help me go to sleep without issues. I just let my attention move freely from one body sensation to another. I also find that it helps to read about the Dharma before going to sleep. This tends to relax and tire the mind sufficiently for sleep.

    Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

    #1677

    Don Salmon
    Member

    http://www.swamij.com/online61.htm

    I’ve used this exercise for many years to help with falling asleep. It may be similar to what Blake describes, as it involves attending to body sensations.

    It may be different for many people, but something particularly interesting I find with it is I can predict with some precision the point at which I’m beginning to fall asleep. It is usually somewhere around point 35-45 – somewhere in the left or right leg. The neat thing about this is, if you are interested in dream yoga, it helps you pinpoint the moment which is most appropriate for enterig the dream state.

    If you don’t fall asleep after doing the 61 points (they’re very easy to memorize and you shouldn’t need the guided audio after about 2 or 3 times) you might continue with Blake’s method, just moving freely through the body. You will likely find that you’re very very relaxed after doing the 61 points and only a little more mindfulness of the body will get you into dream or sleep land.

    I’d love to hear how you do with it.

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