Can meditation replace sleep?

In the last decade, the practice of meditation has become mainstream. With the increasing and more widespread acceptance of meditation, there is a growing discussion about the possibility that meditation replaces sleep altogether. To fully understand the relationship between meditation and sleep, we must examine each to determine whether meditation can supplant the body’s need for sleep.

Many people mistakenly confused the benefits for the rest of the meditation with those obtained from the dream. 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. With meditation, a sense of peace, deep physical relaxation, and mental clarity can be experienced in just a fraction of the time required for a nap. Meditation produces a state of mental happiness and helps the mind relax, which generates the physical benefits associated with reducing stress. However, because a meditative state is a state of “mental wakefulness,” it does not help to perform the tasks related to physical repair and rejuvenation that occur only when the mind is asleep. Trying 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.

If 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 dive into deep sleep without a “cool down” period. This helps prevent jerky movements and increases REM sleep, which is essential for maintaining good health and facilitating growth and rejuvenation of the physical body.

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