Both meditation and sleep have powerful restorative powers to not only rest the body and mind, but revitalise and energise all parts of ourselves. However, sleep is a mandatory part of life, while meditation isn’t. So the question remains – can meditation be a substitute for, and at least partially replace sleep?
Meditation has been shown to be associated with a decrease in total sleep time, particularly in long-term meditators – so yes, it can partially replace sleep. Generally, this relationship is directly correlated – that is, you can replace 30 minutes of sleep with 30 minutes of meditation. However…
There is a caveat to this – this relationship only exists to a certain point. Human beings need an effective minimum amount of sleep, and cannot completely replace one for the other. To understand why, let’s dig a little deeper into this relationship by first looking at a common misconception.
Is it True that 10 Minutes of Meditation is Equal to 4 Hours of Sleep?
False. The fact is, human beings generally need a minimum of about 4-6 hours sleep, after which the amount of meditation done can be equivalent to the remaining amount of sleep needed to reach the 7-8 hours required for optimal functioning. It also depends on whether a person has been a long-term meditator.
So 10 minutes of meditation is roughly equal to, and able to replace 10 minutes of sleep. This relationship holds fairly linearly up to about 2-3 hours of meditation. After this, the average person starts to experience difficulty functioning normally during the day when they sleep less than 5-6 hours, even if they meditate more (with the exception of long-term skilled meditators).
Studies performed in this area have looked into replacing some portion of sleep with meditation, and measuring whether participants can still perform well on psychomotor vigilance tasks (PVT). They found that those who meditated improved their PVT scores, and if they had less sleep and also meditated, their PVT scores weren’t significantly affected. They also found that long-term meditators who meditated for at least a couple hours daily could function well on 5-6 hours of sleep.
The general conclusion is that humans need a basic core amount of sleep of about 7-8 hours (for adults) for optimal functioning without accumulating sleep debt. Replacing 30 minutes of sleep from this minimum with thirty minutes of meditation is able to be safely done without significantly affecting performance, and sometimes even improving performance. For the average person, it is possible to function optimally with 6 hours of sleep, if you are able to meditate for 1-2 hours daily. Only long-term meditators can afford to go below this threshold.
A combination of studies, personal experience and the experience of many other fellow meditators has led me to propose the following table as general guidance for adults:
| Sleep target | Meditation replacement required |
| 7-8 hours | Feel free to replace sleep with meditation with a like to like relationship, up to about 2-3 hours. That is, 30 minutes of meditation can replace 30 minutes of sleep, for example. |
| 6 hours | Recommended minimum amount of 1 hour of meditation per day to maintain physical and mental health. |
| 4-5 hours | To maintain your physical and mental health, you will have to have meditated for several years for a minimum of 2-3 hours a day. |
| 2-4 hours | Only some of the world’s most accomplished monks and yogis, who are in almost constant meditation, can function normally with 2-4 hours sleep.* This is generally the minimum rest required for the body to restore itself. |
To understand why meditation can have similar effects to that of sleep, we need to look at what happens during both meditation and sleep.
How and Why Does Meditation Reduce Sleep Need?
Both meditation and sleep are deeply restorative for both the mind and body. However, we can live with one and not the other. To understand why, we need to look at the following:
- What actually happens during sleep?
- What actually happens during meditation?
- How do these two relate?
Similar to meditation, there is still a lot unknown about how sleep works. However, it is generally accepted that sleep is required to restore the body and mind in terms of various processes including:
- Muscle repair, tissue growth and hormone release;
- Reorganisation of neurons, or nerve cells;
- Clearance of glymphatic waste through the central nervous system, including the clearing of unneeded information that would clutter the nervous system; and
- Memory formation, learning and emotional regulation.
The similarities between meditation and sleep start at the level of these processes through meditation’s relaxation effects. During meditation, we see a very similar process occurring in our bodies to that of sleep. Our central nervous system starts to slow down, along with our heart rate and the frequency of our inhalations and exhalations. We also start to see the reorganisation of neurons, with large increases in grey matter (particularly over the long-term), in addition to improved memory formation, learning and emotional regulation.
Similarities between the state of meditation and sleep also occur at the level of brain waves that are produced during each activity. There are four main types of brain waves:
| Beta waves | High frequency brainwaves (13-30Hz) produced when we are wide awake and our brain is stimulated or engaged (can also occur in short spurts during REM sleep). |
| Alpha waves | Medium frequency brainwaves (8-13Hz) produced when we are relaxed, lucid, calm and generally when we are awake (but also occurs during sleep, particularly REM sleep). |
| Theta waves | Low frequency brainwaves (4-8Hz) produced when we daydream or fall into a light sleep. |
| Delta waves | Ultra-low frequency brainwaves (0.5-4Hz) produced in deep sleep. |
During sleep, the body cycles through four stages, generally associated with each of the four levels of brain wave activity, as the body and brain slow down.
- Stages one and two generally involve first falling asleep along with light sleep where the body and brain waves start to slow down, from beta to alpha. About 70% of the time we spend asleep is actually a very light sleep (including REM), flickering between alpha and theta waves.
- Stage three is a deep sleep, where delta waves are the dominant brain wave – your body restores its energy and repairs cells, tissues and muscles. We typically only spend about 20% of our total sleep time in deep sleep.
- In stage four, we see an increase in brain activity along with eye movement, heart rate and breathing – called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep – where brain waves often shift between beta, alpha and theta. Dreaming also occurs in this stage, along with information being processed, making it vital for memory and learning.
Just like sleep, meditation has the effect of lowering the frequency of the dominant brain waves, usually from beta to alpha. As we proceed deeper in meditation, we enter a state where we fluctuate between alpha and theta waves – a restorative state where the body has a chance to repair itself. You may realise by now, that this progression is a very similar to sleep, and why meditation can be used as a potential replacement for some portion of sleep.
It is only with serious deep and long meditative states, similar to those experienced by accomplished monks/yogis and life-long meditators, that lead one to experience ultra-low frequency delta brain waves during meditation. These experiences have the potential to replace even portions of deep sleep. There are anecdotes and reports of highly revered monks that only sleep 2-3 hours daily while functioning normally on a daily basis. However, this is quite difficult to achieve for the average person and is why most people will need a minimum of 5-6 hours of sleep, even if they meditate 1-2 hours a day, to feel fully functional.
So we now know that meditation can partially replace sleep. But what about a nap? Is a short 30 minute meditation more effective than a 30 minute nap?
Can Meditation Replace a Nap?
Meditation can replace a nap, and in most cases, is more effective at restoring the mind and body than napping. If one is tired, various studies have proven that meditation is the better choice and has more powerful performance enhancing an restoratives effects than a nap, even in novice meditators.
That is not to discount the restorative effects of naps which have been use in various cultures for thousands of years to counter sleepiness in the middle of the waking cycle. Naps do indeed also relax the central nervous system, lowering cortisol (reducing stress), blood pressure and boosting immunity. They can also partially make up for some sleep debt.
With this in mind, there are two important points that should be noted:
- Amount of sleep debt – if one is experiencing large levels of sleep debt, a nap is probably preferable to meditation, where it is possible. If you try to meditate on significant levels of sleep debt, you will probably just fall asleep. Fulfil your body’s minimum basic sleep needs first – then meditate.
- Length of the nap – studies have shown that naps in the 20-30 minute range are ideal. Anything longer may lead to increased levels of drowsiness following the nap, due to the body entering a deeper state of sleep and being woken in the middle of this deep state.
Can Meditation Cause Insomnia?
Meditation does not cause insomnia and can, in fact, be used to treat insomnia. Over the longer term, meditation has been shown to improve sleep quality and increase overall quality sleep time in practitioners.
Over the short term, however, it is possible for individuals to experience an increase in thought activity increases as awareness slips into more subconscious areas of the mind. This is completely normal and fades over time as the meditator trains themselves to observe their experience without reaction. If one continues to meditate in this way, thought activity eventually decreases and the mind starts to slow down and quieten, moving into a low frequency theta state.
On the other hand, many individuals can also feel very sleepy or drowsy in this state, especially beginners. This is because the mind hasn’t adjusted to the practice of meditation. However, even experienced meditators go through this quite often, and one must train oneself to be aware during these drowsy periods, even if you are just aware of the fact that you are drowsy. Over time though, the mind adjusts and can mostly sit very comfortably in a theta wave state – an incredibly deep state of relaxation, but total awareness.
The Power of Rest
Throughout our evolutionary history, our body and mind has developed a highly efficient way to restore itself, through the process of sleep. It is difficult to deny the power of millions of years of evolution. However, science has recently helped us recognise something that many have known for thousands of years – that meditation can also be an extremely effective way to rest and reinvigorate both the body and the mind, and bring them back into equilibrium.
Stay aware, equanimous and don’t worry – everything is fine!