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Stress release outside of meditation; falling asleep

March 5 2008 at 8:59 PM
David Spector - NSR/USA  (Login david_NSR)
English-Forum-Moderator


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Nina,

You are not doing anything wrong. What happens is that the regular practice of NSR meditation brings new and deeper rest to the body over the first few days of practice. This deeper rest causes an increased pace of stress release. While stress release is a good thing, it is possible to have too much of it, resulting in discomfort. When there are signs of stress release such as feeling spacy or sleepy, or muscle twitching outside of meditation, there is definitely too much stress release going on.

The simplest way to reduce the rate of stress release is to reduce meditation time. If you are practicing for 15 minutes, reduce your regular time to 10 minutes. If you are practicing for more than 15 minutes, reduce to the recommended maximum of 15 minutes.

In addition to reducing meditation time, it can help to take a few minutes to come out of meditation slowly. Sit or lie down for 3-5 minutes with the eyes closed, then open the eyes slowly, close them again, yawn or stretch, whatever you naturally feel like doing to come out of meditation slowly and very comfortably.

The reason you are falling asleep so much is that you have a sleep deficit (most of us do). The best way to deal with a sleep deficit, naturally enough, is to sleep. Sleeping during meditation is very good for you (it's deeper rest than sleep at night); it's even okay to sleep for several hours at the end of meditation if your schedule permits. Always meditate for a few minutes after falling asleep during meditation to regain alertness, even if you've fallen asleep for a long time.

Once the sleep deficit has been eliminated, you will stop fall asleep during meditation.

Please follow this advice and check back here in a few days or weeks to give us an update.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

 
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