Can meditation replace sleep?

On average, people sleep for about 8 hours a day, and one third of their life is spent sleeping, so you can imagine how important sleep is for people. And can meditation, a seemingly restful exercise, replace sleep? Can meditation replace sleep?

Can meditation replace sleep?

Meditation can replace sleep partially. Sleep cannot be completely replaced by meditation. Some people need to sleep 8 or 9 hours a day or even more, but the average person only needs 5-6 hours of sleep to satisfy the body's needs. So when it's time to sleep, you should still choose to sleep, but after meeting your body's basic needs, you can use meditation to rest and nourish your body. Because sleeping is also part of the neural activity of the brain. And in meditation, with the practice of concentration, although the activity of the occipital lobe of the brain decreases, the activity of the frontal lobe in the front area of the brain increases. The frontal lobe is associated with human intellectual activity, so in meditation people often burst into inspiration, generate new ideas, recall forgotten things, and become clearer and sharper with prolonged meditation. This is the reason why meditation can replace part of sleep.

Why meditation is not a complete substitute for sleep

Meditation cannot fully achieve the effect of sleep

Sleep is a habitual behavior in human activity, and sleep serves the brain and is essentially part of the brain's neurological activity. Only a really deep sleep allows the brain nerve cells to be completely restored, an effect that cannot be achieved by meditation. And there is no guarantee that the mind will be free of distractions when meditating, so the effect will naturally be discounted. Therefore, meditation cannot be used as a complete substitute for sleep.

Meditation can create a drowsy state

In addition, if you use meditation to replace sleep, then it will form an inertia, a meditation will fall into a drowsy state, so that the brain after a certain period of time is easy to make the effect of meditation weakened, the effect of meditation weakened can not achieve the effect of rest, naturally can not be compared with sleep.

Meditation is prone to physical discomfort

If meditation is used instead of sleeping, then there is a possibility of falling asleep meditating, and if you fall asleep meditating, the posture is inevitably low and chest, such a posture to maintain a period of time, not only damage to the spine, but also the role of rest.

The difference between meditation and sleep

The state of brain consciousness is different

When a person sleeps, especially when sleeping, the brain is reorganizing memory, and can transmit the memory of the hippocampus back to the cerebral cortex. The distractions that occur during meditation are the inertial action of playing images, and the brain will inertially reorganize and play the daytime experience, knowledge, and memory information. The difference between the two is that there is no consciousness when sleeping, while a meditating person is conscious and can still perceive what is happening in the outside world.

The difference in posture

Sleeping is done lying down, while meditation is usually done sitting with legs crossed. In comparison, lying down is more comfortable, especially for people who are new to meditation and also prone to leg numbness.