How to stay awake during long periods of meditation?

[Tiny]

Ok after having overcome all those challenges trying to obstruct me in the practice of meditating, such as: entertainment, news checking, sex etc. I find myself facing one big challenge.
The longer I meditate, the stronger the sleep-impulse grows (usually towards the 1-hour mark). Eventually I just give in to this comfy impulse and melt into my warm, cozy pillow...No matter if I make the place more uncomfortable, I would then simply go to bed.
After the nap I usually feel quite messed up and unable to meditate. My goal is to spend about 6 hours in meditation/trance per day total, for now.

What is your experience - is it possible to overcome this problem or is it a natural barrier? Have any of you long-time meditators found a way around this?

[CFTraveler]

I have, by starting short, and adding time to the meditation time.  If you find that you can't stay 'there' longer than a specific maximum amount of time, use a distraction- if possible have someone phone you at that time (alarm clocks are too jolting and then you have to get up.)  But a phone call, if you have the phone with you, will snap you out of it lightly, and you can go back to your trance fairly quickly.
The trick is having someone that can do this for you in a reliable manner, and don't make it very long starting out.

[Tiny]

I have, by starting short, and adding time to the meditation time.  If you find that you can't stay 'there' longer than a specific maximum amount of time, use a distraction- if possible have someone phone you at that time (alarm clocks are too jolting and then you have to get up.)  But a phone call, if you have the phone with you, will snap you out of it lightly, and you can go back to your trance fairly quickly.
The trick is having someone that can do this for you in a reliable manner, and don't make it very long starting out.

Creating artificial interruptions, oh that's clever!

[OBEvanCHERNOBIL]

Don't close your eyes.

[no_leaf_clover]

I drink a lot of caffeine before I go to lay down,  but I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it...

[Serpentarius]

Find someone who will smack you on the head with a bamboo stick if you doze off.

[kurtykurt42]

Often when I meditate for long periods I raise my energy using the 'full body circuit' technique. You have to be careful that other beings don't try to steal your energy, which will make you tired. Be sure to put an energy shield around you that will stop other entities from taking your energy. And 6 hours is a long time, it's best to start out slow, raising your energy gradually each day.

[Tiny]

Often when I meditate for long periods I raise my energy using the 'full body circuit' technique. You have to be careful that other beings don't try to steal your energy, which will make you tired. Be sure to put an energy shield around you that will stop other entities from taking your energy. And 6 hours is a long time, it's best to start out slow, raising your energy gradually each day.

I often experience moments of sudden energy loss when going deep into meditation. It happens very suddenly, sometimes after a split moment of loss of consciousness.
I thought this was caused by an unwanted projection etheric/astral projection, as my etheric body would then pour less energy into the physical and more energy into the projected bodies.

[Stillwater]

Hi Tiny,

Why are you interested in meditating that long everyday? That is seriously a monk-length period. Even Hindu gurus and Samanas spend time eating and doing chores, lol- that is about how long they go at it. Long-period meditations can be insightful, but needn't be practiced often at all to experience their effects.If you are interested in becoming the Buddha, lol,it will take more than 6 hour meditations to do it

A couple hours is decent span for a "normal" sort of person, and you needn't even spend that long starting out, before you learn to breathe at the proper rate. For me, when I would fall asleep meditating, it was always either because I was too tired to begin with, or that I was was breathing in too shallow or slow a manner.

[Tiny]

A couple hours is decent span for a "normal" sort of person

Dear Stillwater,

there you have it. I think you just answered it for yourself  

6 hours stretched over the day is just a beginning step for me. if you're really curious - i am beginning to retract myself from the material world.

[Tiny]

Find someone who will smack you on the head with a bamboo stick if you doze off.

Got 8 or so of those laying around here.

I usually don't doze off. Instead, my body would raise the want-to-go-to-sleep signal, for which I usually fall.

[Xanth]

Find someone who will smack you on the head with a bamboo stick if you doze off.

I wonder what that kind of job pays... >.>

[Stookie]

IMO, meditation and AP shouldn't be used as an escape. If anything, it should make physical reality a better experience and create a balance to all aspects of life. It's about the quality of the experience, not the amount of time spent.

[Stillwater]

Seconded. We can have attachments to non-physical goals just as we can have attachments to material things, and each can be equally damaging.

I feel it is healthy to want to expand our experiences and perspectives to include other levels of our self and reality, but we should remember too that the physical itself is a place of challenge and growth which could not probably be attained as easily in other places. If we decide we are done with physical existence because of boredom with it, perhaps we are missing out on all of its intricacies.

[Tiny]

Dear friends,

please let's not topic slide the thread, afterall this is not Astral-society.org  or a spiritual discussion.


I keep having troubles not wanting to go to sleep (remember it's not the same as falling asleep) whenever I go deep into trance.

Well you know, when you want something and your mind, the way it is programmed, is not fine with that - you have to force it, like you would tame something beasty nasty, I always say hehe.


peace

[Stillwater]

Well you know, when you want something and your mind, the way it is programmed, is not fine with that - you have to force it, like you would tame something beasty nasty, I always say hehe.

Yes, that is similar language to that used in several sutras on meditation: the mind is described as a monkey that wanders. The response that usually follows in these sutras is that we should be aware of its wanderings, and allow it to roam a bit, then come back on its own, rather than merely forcing it back on task, as it will only wander again. We need to really let go of all of its attachments fully in the course of the meditation, not just distract our mind from them, or we will never be successful.

That is this traditional response at least.

[Xanth]

Practice, practice, practice... and when you think you've got it... MORE PRACTICE!