Why Meditating in Bed does NOT work!
 

Finally a scientific explanation. Many people meditate in bed and then wonder why it doesn't work. I always advise people to meditate during the day but I didn't know why that was better.

When you meditate when you're still normally awake you move from Beta brainwaves (the normal waking day state) to Alpha (slower more coherent brainwaves) and you can get into Theta (paradise for meditation!) When things can happen, your brain takes over and you're no longer influenced by the body. You got to understand that in essence our bodies function as our egos and subconscious mind so they hinder us from getting to that free place of deep meditation where wonderful things and healing can occur. So you have to get out of that so the body no longer interferes, BUT the mind is still working!!
That it was happens when you meditate during the day.

When you meditate in bed you get the following: You move straight into Delta.
Delta is when both the body AND mind fall asleep and become inactive.
It's a restorative phase.
No juicy nothing can happen if you meditate then. It won't bring you anything.

So it's best to meditate during the day or evening.
I have experienced this to be true myself, but like I said, I never knew why. Now I do.
Hope it can help you!
:hug3:

I've been trying the lotus pose and it seems that it's a something else from meditating while in bed. I usually meditate in bed and it feels like going too deep, eventully leading to sleep, every time I stop, I feel like sleeping, this is my method to go to sleep in a fast way. :biggrin:

When you meditate on the lotus pose, your awareness increases, so to say, but when you meditate in bed, your awareness decreases and you find yourself falling asleep.

But.. this is just me.

I agree.I've done successful contacts even on bed,or while walking.Depends on who you are you're and your goals.

From what I've fetched it seems people can 'achieve' mystical experiences in all walks of life. And it can be spontaneously when lying in bed and others do it by ''following the exact monastery guidelines''. Such a standardized approach will of course be easier to study so it would not really surprise me if any research ((which you haven't referred to here)) is biased towards it. However, those that don't follow the standardizations can still have similar experiences at other moments.

What if you have a bad back and can't sit straight? What if you can't do the practice during the day? If you're really interested in these kind of things I'm sure your 'system' will figure something out.

And who's to say it's all about having brain parts active or inactive? Or about not having an active mind? According to some traditions and definitions of spirituality, but it doesn't mean they are necessarily correct. You can get bliss/ecstasy while still have your thinking mind in place.

Exactly.

Some of us cannot sit on the floor in padmasana for any extended period of time... especially those who have osteoarthritis in their knees and hips...does that mean we cannot meditate?

For me personally, meditating in bed has another name....Yoga Nidra.

The only pitfall about meditating in bed, is that there is a tendency to become so relaxed that one can easily fall asleep...which is what the body and mind probably needed anyway.

If the practitioner can remain aware while the body and mind sleeps, this leads into the state called Turiya, which is neither waking consciousness nor the dreaming state.

Yes, I fully realise and understand that meditating in bed is "not recommended" by the majority of meditation teachers and practitioners, but if there is anything life has taught me (especially lately) it is to question all of those recommendations with regards to personal necessity and experience and yes, to even go against what the majority says if it simply "does not apply"....then one is pretty much on their own and yet one can find their own answers within instead of accepting the advice and recommendations of others at face value this way.

I have most of my psychic experiences laying in bed, at night; some of them while walking outside.

In my experience, the theory about dream cycles and brainwave frequency isn't entirely correct. I have a couple of dreams in the first 20 minutes when I fall asleep at night, while the theory says I can't have them.

Also, there are at least two different variables involved in this kind of experiences: the trance level, and the brainwave frequency. They aren't proportional. For each type of psychic experience there is an optimum trance level and brainwave frequency. Deeper trance and lower frequency don't mean better experiences. The trance level is the most important.

I have most of mine in the shower.. sometimes, I will go into the shower, then an hour later, I will emerge looking like a human prune.

Occasionally, I will go into that deep trance state in bed, instead of sleep...and while that may not give rise to any real mystical experience, I do feel an overwhelming sense of peace and calm...which can be just as productive, in that it enables my ego to be able to surrender and let go.

Those real life shattering and life changing experiences of joy, bliss and love tends to happen like a bolt out of the blue...when I am least expecting it...like a lightning bolt striking my cranium and I don't need to be in meditation for that to happen...but I do find that meditation is a prerequisite for it happening.

Sometimes, it will happen when I am in a position where I would prefer that it didn't... especially when I need to be focussed on daily activities and especially when I am in a group of other people when it does.

I actually go the other route. Whenever I start an activity, I take a few seconds to ask my subconscious to optimize my trance level for that specific activity. Sometimes I don't even check what level is that, as I trust it to know better. I can immediately feel the adjustment.

Surely if I forgot to do that, or if I feel that the activity isn't going as I wanted, I can request the optimum level of trance at any time: be it driving, reading, workout, shower, anything.

I can request a specific level of trance from 1 to 100, or a specific brainwave frequency, but I learned that asking for an optimum I get better results.

I use a chair for formal practice. Lotus and even half lotus is too harsh on my right knee. When I was pursuing lucid dreaming the last two practices while lying in bed just before sleep was five or ten minutes of mindfulness of breathe followed by a silent mantra to set the intention to become lucid and that would send me off to sleep.

Informal practice is any position engaged in any activity at any time with any technique including no technique. I suppose if one can always be meditative without any technique one is there. When everything, both external and internal including sense of 'I am", is but a seamless series of forms arising and subsiding in the field of awareness.

That last part is true non-dual awareness. The awareness even the observer is merely a passing form in the field of awareness. Escaping the observer trap.