Can meditation replace sleep?

In the last decade, the practice of meditation has become mainstream. With the growing and more widespread acceptance of meditation, there is a growing debate about the possibility of meditation completely replacing sleep. To fully understand the relationship between meditation and sleep, we must examine each to determine if it is possible for meditation to supplant the body’s need for sleep.

Many people mistakenly confuse the restful benefits of meditation with those of sleep. Although complementary, they are very different. To understand the synergy between sleep and meditation, we must first understand the differences.

Our bodies need sleep to rejuvenate and repair themselves. During sleep, we release hormones that help us grow, form white blood cells, prevent anemia, fight disease, strengthen the immune system, maintain proper body weight, produce skin cells, and prevent premature aging.

Meditation, from a layman’s perspective, is simply a period of altered consciousness when the brain slows down to a relaxed state. Using meditation, you can experience a sense of peace, deep physical relaxation, and mental clarity in just a fraction of the time required for a nap. Meditation produces a blissful state of mind and helps the mind relax, leading to the physical benefits associated with stress reduction. However, because a meditative state is a state of “mental wakefulness,” it does not help perform the tasks related to physical repair and rejuvenation that occur only when the mind is asleep. Attempting to replace sleep with meditation would eventually lead to memory loss, confusion, high blood pressure, weight gain, even a compromised immune system that leaves the body vulnerable to disease.

Used correctly, meditation and sleep will complement each other. If you sleep well, you can meditate more deeply, and conversely, if you meditate regularly, you can sleep much better. Meditation allows the mind and body to experience deeper sleep and rest because the mind prepares the body to plunge into deep sleep without a “cooling down” period. This helps prevent tossing and turns and increases REM sleep, which is essential for maintaining good health and facilitating the growth and rejuvenation of the physical body.

In a fast-paced society where people look for time shortcuts, meditation cannot and should not replace sleep. However, if practiced regularly, meditation will greatly improve the quality of sleep and decrease the amount needed by the body.