Meditation’s about “waking up” to reality, but can it help us get a good night’s sleep? Bodhipaksa indulges in some pillow-talk about four ways meditation can help with insomnia.
Like most people I’ve sometimes had periods when I’ve found it hard to sleep (or to get back to sleep). In a word: insomnia. It’s not that anything external is keeping me awake, but simply that I’m wide awake with my mind both tired and over-active.
Over the years I’ve tried various things, like reading, getting up and making a cup of tea, etc, that have been useful in breaking into any unhelpful mental patterns that I may have. And often those things work well. Insomnia (in my case at least) generally involves being caught up in a loop of thinking that stirs up emotion, and that cycle of thinking in turn stirs up emotion which causes more thinking. That cycle needs to be interrupted for sleep to take place. Even getting up and making a cup of tea (a stimulant!) can be enough to interrupt the cycle and allow the natural sleep process to kick in. And I’ve found that reading provides an alternative thought-stream (I have the author’s words in my mind rather than my own thoughts) and can help lull me into unconsciousness.
But I’ve also found some meditative techniques that have never failed to work, and I mostly prefer to use these. The times when I’ve chosen not to use them are when I’ve been on a creative streak and I haven’t actually wanted to sleep because my preference has been to “go with the flow” and do the writing (or whatever) that’s been buzzing around in my mind.
The reason that I decided to turn to a more meditative approach is that sometimes wanting to get to sleep will actually keep you awake! What happens is that you lie there awake, but wanting to sleep. At some point you start to drift off, and some dream imagery may start to well up into the mind. Then the part of your mind that’s still awake gets all excited because it sees signs of sleep, and this excitement wakes you up again! This is classic craving, or grasping, in which your mind tries to grab hold of something it wants. But sleep by nature involves letting go, and so the act of grasping will prevent sleep from arising. This happens in meditation too, of course. When we try to recreate enjoyable meditative experiences we often find that we prevent them from occurring — the reason they occurred previously was that we’d stopped grasping and had simply relaxed into our experience.
There are four different meditative approaches that I’ve found to be useful in dealing with insomnia.
1. Mindful breathing
This is as simple as you can get. Basically, just meditate! But there are a few caveats. Not all meditative techniques will help you to sleep. Some will actually cause further stimulation and keep you awake.
So, lying in bed, keep your awareness focused on the sensations of the breath in your belly, observing the rise and fall of the abdominal muscles. It’s important to keep your awareness focused on the belly rather than any other part of the breathing process, because this is the most calming place to observe your breathing. The sensations in the chest, throat, and head are actively stimulating, and so observing the breath in those places would be counter-productive.
Also, pay more attention to the out-breath rather than the in-breath. The classic way to do this is to count at the end of each out-breath. You could also say the word “out” as you exhale. The out-breath is more relaxing, while the in-breath is more stimulating.
The other methods I use are based on an observation that there are three things that keep me awake: thinking that is comprised primarily of “inner chatter,” thinking that is composed mainly of vivid mental imagery, and physical arousal where there is restlessness in the body.
2. Dealing with inner chatter
Sometimes we can’t sleep because we’re talking to ourselves so much — internally, of course. There may well be some inner imagery (see the technique below) but mainly we’re caught up in hearing inner discussions.
If you have a lot of inner self-talk, try making the voice or voices in your head become very s-l-o-o-o-w a-a-a-n-d d-e-e-e-e-e-p, like a vinyl record that’s been unplugged. The trick is to notice the stream of inner chatter and to take control of the flow, slowing it down. You may have to do this a few times, but you’ll notice that as the voices slow down you’ll almost immediately start to feel more sleepy.
3. Dealing with vivid inner imagery
Sometimes our stories are primarily visual. There will of course be an inner soundtrack that accompanies the movie we’re showing ourselves, but it’s the images we’re mainly caught up in and that are keeping us awake.
I’ve found that the most effective approach under these circumstances is to make the imagery go dark, and then to fade in some images of natural scenes. I prefer to visualize leaves on trees, moving slowly in a breeze. The slowness is important. It’s also important that the images be of something relatively unstimulating and restful, which is why nature images work. But a mundane scene, like rain dripping off of leaves, is more effective than inspiring mountain scenes, which are likely to keep you awake.
I often make the weather bad. As I mentioned, rain dripping off of leaves is effective. The fact that it’s raining means that the imagery is duller than usual, and the lack of stimulation is the key to getting back to sleep.
With the techniques of slowing down mental chatter or calling to mind calming (and even dull) imagery, what you’re doing is taking charge of your mind. Rather than letting an uncontrolled stream of images and dialog run through your mind, keeping you awake, you’re deciding what you’re going to think about.
4. Dealing with physical restlessness
Lastly, one of the things that can keep us awake is physical restlessness. This can happen to me when I’ve been exercising too late in the evening. Even though my mind is tired my body is very much awake. If you find that you have a lot of physical energy, then imagine that your body is becoming very heavy, and that you’re being pressed down into the mattress. I sometimes pretend to myself that gravity is variable, and that someone has turned the gravity dial up to “high.”
This uses the same principle as slowing down your inner chatter or making your mental imagery dark and restful. When you’re naturally tired the body feels heavy. When you reverse this process, imagining that the body is heavy, you become tired.
You may have to use all four methods. I use method one to start with, and then the others as required. It has always worked! Sometimes I’ve been lying there thinking, “Nope, it’s not going to work this time,” and then suddenly it’s time to get up and I realize that I’ve slept the whole night through.
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Thanks, I will try this. It has made me think about meditation technique also, how "focused" should you be? Is it about being intensely focused on whatever occurs within and outside of you before immediately letting go, or intensely focused on a particular thing (like your breath or a visual stimuli), or more being vaguely focused on these things if you know what I mean... shall I turn down the intensity of my focus? I guess one could mix these different approaches. From what I understand some schools suggest that one should have a very intense focus and be very alert when meditating while others argue for a more relaxed approach (which is similar to relaxation techniques). This raises the issue of the distinction between meditation and non-buddist (?) relaxation techniques. I would love to hear your take on this. Thanks for listening and replying!
Hi, Ron.
That's a good question about focus. I think it's clear that the Buddha advocated a variety of meditative styles. I've found that these styles are mutually complementary, and so there's a value in practicing them all. There's (1) jhana meditation, which builds up to an intense one-pointed focus (one-pointedness). There's (2) formless meditation, which people usually call "formless jhana," although the Buddha never once called these states jhanas, but referred to them as ayatanas, or spheres. This style of meditation is much more open. While in jhana you're cultivating more and more focus on a smaller and smaller set of experiences, in the formless ayatanas you're paying more and more attention to a wider and wider field of awareness, without discrimination.
There's a complication here that means I have to back off before talking about a third style. Most commentators will say that you have to go through the four jhanas in order to get to the four formless spheres. And that's why they call the formless spheres jhanas, even labeling them as jhanas 5 through 8. But in fact the ayatanas can be approached from any experience of equanimity, which can arise in fourth jhana, in brahmavihara meditation, in reflection on the six elements, through kasina meditation, and in other ways too.
Another style of meditation is (3) insight meditation, where (traditionally) you take the concentration you've developed through jhana practice and apply it to observing the impermanent and not-self nature of experience. Of course a lot of modern vipassana practitioners are disparaging about jhana meditation, which is a shame. The Buddha got enlightened by practicing jhana and then applying that focus to reflecting on his experience.
When we practice just one of these three forms of meditation, it is like a car that's not running on all its cylinders. The different forms are, as I've said complementary.
So this isn't Buddhist versus non-Buddhist styles of meditating, but drawing on the full range of meditation styles available that the Buddha himself taught.
I'm sure it's useful, though, to have gained some proficiency in one form of meditation before taking up the others in any serious way. This doesn't mean complete mastery, but it does mean a solid body of experience with (ideally) jhana meditation before taking up either ayatana or insight meditation.
I'm not sure where you learned meditation, or what style. Is it insight meditation you were taught?
When I said "phases" I meant that it comes and goes. There are always ups and downs, balances and imbalances, in our practice. It's a long time since I've had a sleepless night, but I'd imagine it could still happen.
Another question: when you say phases do you suggest that it is a beginner's thing or that it comes and goes (perhaps with longer intervals and being less of a problem)?
What a great and learned response, it will surely be of help to more people than me. Thank you! I am self-taught - through reading books by Jon Kabat Zinn and others - I have to admit and have practiced more or less daily for about one and a half year. I vaguely know about different variations of mediation and I guess I change between them - sometimes I'm focusing on my breath sometimes I try to be aware about whatever goes on inside and outside of me (thoughts, feelings, bodily states, sounds etc.) without getting caught up in these things. I have not really started yet to reflect on the nature of the self or practicing compassion meditation.
Thanks, Ron. Kabat-Zinn is a fine teacher, and I have a lot of respect for what he does. You might want to spend more time on following his body scan instructions in order to move your focus away from your thoughts. Mindfulness of our thoughts is an important part of practice, but it needs a foundation of mindfulness of the body. We tend to be very focused on our thoughts in the west, and not so much in touch with our bodies. And our meditation practice needs to counteract that imbalance, and not become part of it.
All the best with your practice!
Hello,
I've been successfully using visualisation meditations to help with insomnia for some time, but am glad to have discovered this site and your suggestion for focusing on rain - looking forward to trying it tonight!
I was wondering if you have any suggestions for teaching myself to sleep on my back. I have always been a side-sleeper, but would like to be able to sleep on my back for camping trips and long flights. I can reach a very restful state on my back, but can never nod off completely.
I sense that my resistance to fully letting go when supine is because of a feeling of exposure - curled up on my side feels a lot safer, and I've always preferred being the little spoon!
Is there anything that you'd recommend?
Many thanks in advance,
Colin
Hi, Colin.
I hope that you did try this and that it was helpful. It's worth persevering, even if these things don't immediately seem to work, since it takes time to learn new habits and to unlearn old ones.
I'm afraid I don't know anything about learning to sleep on the back.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
thanks for all your advice so far. i am going to try these techniques tonight as i intend not to take any sleeping pills. i ve also ordered a cd from your site, the sleep yoga one (which you recomended). fingers crossed that i can get my sleep problems under control.
Hi, I'm so happy to find that my problem exactly matches what you have mentioned. "Then the part of your mind that’s still awake gets all excited because it sees signs of sleep, and this excitement wakes you up again!". Please help me overcome this.
Thank you!
I've found that the most effective thing, Ganesh, is to give the mind something boring to do, like visualizing unstimulating imagery. My favorite is the sight and sound of rain falling on leaves. If your mind is busy observing this imagery then it doesn't notice sleep approaching.
Thank you very much for your response sir. It has been two weeks since I slept well in the night. It is a nightmare literally! I will definitely try this technique tonight and provide you the feedback. Thanks again.