by joeblast » Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:50 pm
Its not too hard to supplant a measure of sleep with meditation, if you are well practiced and can focus well. Up to an extent its pretty beneficial; I normally meditate for a couple hours at night instead of getting right to bed. In my experience it is a great compliment to sleep as well as good physical exercise, when your meditations are very good, very efficient, you can definitely feel a deeper measure of regeneration from it - but at the same time, your awareness needs to be maintained and this is an aspect where you will hit a brick wall if you dont gradually work your way there. Trying it a week is pointless, you simply will not be used to maintaining awareness for that long and the foundational mechanism wont be properly cultivated.
Totally supplanting sleep can be achieved, one of my teachers suggested I try it (e.g. work towards it) but really...for most of us its going to be too much, me included at this point - your meditations need to be sincere, your focus unwavering, effective, well practiced, reached with a gently gradual curve there...otherwise you will just wind up tired. Its not something you can just try to do, you have to work towards it - meditate until you get tired but not to the point where you are totally losing focus, gradually you will be able to supplant more as your meditations get more effective. I would absolutely recommend getting proficient with embryonic breathing if you're going to attempt this long-term; it is a great re-charger of a practice!