Introduction
It is an undeniable fact that people have become anxious, depressed, and stressed during this global disaster. The latter has really taken its toll on people not just on their physical health but also on their mental and emotional well-being. As a result, a lot of people can’t concentrate on their day-to-day activities. They have become more and more restless.
Rest
Rest is very important since it allows not just our bodies to recharge but also our overall well- being. When we talk about rest, it isn’t confined within sleeping.
There’s a type of rest which sleep could never really give. For example, you just broke up with your boyfriend so now you’re broken-hearted.
Even though you sleep all day, you still feel tired, right? You’re emotionally and physically tired because of all that crying.
In that case, sleep doesn’t really make you feel rested because once you wake up it all comes back again. It becomes a cycle. So what then is the solution?
The solution would be to attain emotional rest. This emotional rest can be achieved through meditation.
Meditation
We often hear the word meditation. How does a person meditate? What’s its purpose? What will I get from meditating? How will meditating help gain inner peace?
Meditation is the process where a person tries to achieve inner peace by staying calm and quiet. It is a technique people use to relieve stress and let go of negative thoughts.
While meditation provides some form of rest, it cannot be a substitute for sleep. Sleep is indispensable because the lack of it would cause a lot of problems to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health and might even lead to death.
No substitute for sleep
There can be no substitute for sleep. Our bodies are also programmed to have that doze of rest, especially when we feel tired and in order to recharge ourselves. Doing this, we can have the energy to face the battles of tomorrow.
Our bodies need at least eight (8) hours of sleep to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Having a decent amount of nap makes us healthy. It allows us to perform our daily activities efficiently since our bodies are well-conditioned.
When a person gets a good sleep, you will notice that “glow” that person has, right? The person looks fresh and feels better.
There are a lot of advantages when people sleep at the right time and with the right amount of sleep. This includes enhancement of memory, strengthening of immune system, and it makes you even more productive.
Is 20-minute meditation equal 4 hours sleep?
A 20-minute meditation can never replace the indispensable role sleep plays in our lives. It will never be equal to four (4) hours of doze.
There can never be a substitute for sleep. Despite the fact that meditation can help us relax, it can never really provide the benefits sleep has to offer.
Meditation only serves as an additional avenue for a person to relax and release stress. A person can live without mediation but he can never survive without a well rested nap.
Once a person robs himself of a good night slumber absolutely and constantly, he will surely end up hibernating well but this time he will never see the sun rise again. Thus, depriving oneself that needed sleep will be pernicious to health.
Sleep and meditation should go hand in hand. However, meditation without sleep is not promoted and not advisable.
Sleeping is one of the many forms of rest a person needs to recalibrate himself and regain his energy and momentum especially after a very exhausting day.
A lot of people resort to sleeping as a solution to their problems and to temporarily escape the harsh reality they are into.
For example, when a student can no longer understand what he’s reading, the best thing to do is to sleep or have a power nap and after that he can go back to studying since his mind is already rested.
Another example is that when a person is facing problems and he could not think of a solution as of the moment, he can try to sleep to clear his thoughts so that he would be able to come up with a rational solution to such problem.
There can be no substitute for sleep since we are biologically engineered to do so, unless we intentionally deprive ourselves of it. Our bodies are programmed to hibernate at a certain period of time especially when it is exhausted.
Are being sleepy and tired the same?
People often interchange being sleepy and tired. They think that they’re drowsy when in fact they’re only tired.
These two words are not synonymous with each other and is a separate and distinct concept. Despite the fact that sleepy and tired both indicate the need of the person to rest, they are different from one another.
A person is sluggish when he or she was not able to get enough sleep because of certain factors. Some of which are:
- the person studied up all night,
- the person had to render overtime in his work, or
- the person is suffering from insomnia.
On the other hand, a person is considered tired when such person after performing some activities or tasks, and after exerting a lot of his energy to a particular thing, he feels weak and exhausted.
To cut it short, being sleepy does not require a person to do a particular task to feel such thing while being tired requires an exhaustion of a person’s energy in doing a certain task.
Thus, sleepy and tired are two different things and should never be interchanged.
Meditation: Alternative form of rest
Meditation is an alternative form of rest where a person tries to calm his thoughts and emotions. It is an avenue where people could release all the negativity they feel.
In performing this, they can acquire positive energy so that, in their perspective, they can handle all the problems life throws at them with grace.
There is a plethora of benefits that a person can get from meditation. Those benefits include attainment of better mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health.
It allows you to concentrate well in all your dealings, and it gives you a better perspective about life and a clearer vision on how to handle life’s games.
Unable to sleep after meditation
When someone is unable to sleep after meditation one of the reasons might be the person was not able to release all the stress he has when he conducted such meditation. When meditating, we should not have any reservations.
We should cast all the things that we think are weighing us down or making us feel down. Otherwise, such meditation will be rendered useless if we don’t release these things.
Moreover, if a person is unable to sleep even after meditation, this might lead to bigger problems since lack of sleep has a lot of bad effects to people and it might even lead to them being buried 6 feet under the ground.
It has been said that meditation provides a plethora of benefits to someone. It reduces depression and it improves one’s emotional and mental health.
Because of such improvement, a person tends to function well in each aspect he ventures into. Since we now have an overview of what is meditation, its benefits, and its effects, the question is how do we meditate in order to attain those benefits mentioned?
There is actually no hard-and-fast rule for meditation. The formula for a perfect meditation doesn’t exist. Meditation is self-paced and should depend on the person trying to meditate. Meditation can be done in the comfort our homes or even outdoors.
What is essential in meditation is that you do it in a place where it is quiet and free from distraction. Otherwise, you would just end up even more stressed because of the noise outside.
How to meditate?
Meditation requires a person’s concentration. A person should be able to concentrate in releasing all the bad energy he thinks that is inside him.
This can be done by closing your eyes and start thinking about happy thoughts. By doing this, you tend to attract positive energy which would help you attain a better mindset.
The bottom line is, that meditation should only be used as a tool to aid sleep. It should not in any way be performed to dethrone sleep.
The benefits that meditation could give to someone can never outweigh the benefits an appropriate sleep can give. The former is not a substitute for the latter and will never be considered as a replacement.
These two things should work together in order to achieve better results and a healthy body and a sound mind.
Final Thoughts
This pandemic made it hard for people to sleep and meditate because of the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty it brought to us.
However, we should learn how to fight these things; otherwise, we’ll be on the losing end. We should try to keep ourselves sane during these trying times by getting a good amount of sleep.
At the same time, we can learn to meditate in order to get some sense of inner peace and clarity amidst the chaos that’s happening around us.
The global disaster has already taken a lot from us including lives. Let’s not allow it to take ours. We should love ourselves even more right now and we could show that love for ourselves by sleeping on time and meditating once in a while.
After all, self-love is the best thing we could give ourselves especially we’re in isolation and all of a sudden the world stopped right before our eyes. Sleep and meditation are the key to reach self-love and self-care.
