Sitting Meditation + Sleeping

**illianquinn** · 02-21-2011 12:48 AM

I've been considering for several years now about embarking on this nightly retreat into the depths of my mind. I'm even willing to go so far as to get rid of my bed to replace it with a custom fitted meditation cushion.

What I want to know before I take this extreme is:

1. Has any one done this?
2. what were the effects chronologically from start to finish?
3. How did it effect your health and mood?
4. What did you meditate on?

To clarify, I'm suffering from several terminal illnesses and before I go any further with modern medicine, I want to see if I can fix myself through the power of meditation (8 hours per night) before going under the knife. The reason why I think this might work is that a while ago I heard a story on the radio about a child who was near death from cancer and that the way he was able to combat it was by him telling himself every day for 15 minutes for it to go away...and it worked despite all hope being lost by those around him.

Any references and/or personal experiences you can point out would be greatly appreciated. =]

**StonedApe** · 02-21-2011 03:37 AM

Do you have much experience with meditation already?

I don't think i could do that. Meditating for more than an hour is difficult for me, I start to lose focus.

If you do decided to try this I recommend you incorporate walking meditation into this somehow, sitting for that long would probably be uncomfortable.

**illianquinn** · 02-21-2011 04:24 AM

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I do have extensive experience in various forms of meditation. I guess now that I'm really starting to think about it, I would have to sit down with an anatomical chart as an aid in precisely focusing in on key areas and then to gradually layer on the hours. I suppose it would also be wise to take careful notes after each session to see how it affects me emotionally and to of course pay regular visits to my doctors to see if it's having any affect on me physically.

But I do agree, adding in different styles of meditation may be the key to carefully balancing all of this out and to maximize the results....

[edit]

I do know the Vagus nerve will play a big roll in me tapping into gaining control over my organs and many regulatory functions...It's poped up time and time again in scientific studies on people who do unthinkable stunts such as nearlly freezing themselves to death in a tub of ice and then through the power of meditation, controlling their body heat to keep themselves from freezing to death. I believe I saw something about that on the discovery channel? I guess a google search will yield more answers...

**tommo** · 02-21-2011 11:23 AM

Are you talking about replacing sleep with meditation?

If so, no, don't do it. Sleep keeps you healthy. You will most likely die if you don't sleep for more than 2 weeks or so (although it hasn't been proven conclusively) but you will be very sick anyway.

Meditate during the day (well, night too as long as it isn't when you should be sleeping), and as stonedape said, try different types of meditation if you're doing it for long periods, or at least take a short break between 40-60 minute sessions.

**StonedApe** · 02-22-2011 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by illianquinn

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I do have extensive experience in various forms of meditation. I guess now that I'm really starting to think about it, I would have to sit down with an anatomical chart as an aid in precisely focusing in on key areas and then to gradually layer on the hours. I suppose it would also be wise to take careful notes after each session to see how it affects me emotionally and to of course pay regular visits to my doctors to see if it's having any affect on me physically.

But I do agree, adding in different styles of meditation may be the key to carefully balancing all of this out and to maximize the results....

[edit]

I do know the Vagus nerve will play a big roll in me tapping into gaining control over my organs and many regulatory functions...It's poped up time and time again in scientific studies on people who do unthinkable stunts such as nearlly freezing themselves to death in a tub of ice and then through the power of meditation, controlling their body heat to keep themselves from freezing to death. I believe I saw something about that on the discovery channel? I guess a google search will yield more answers...

let me know what you find about the vagus nerve, I'm thinking about using that to try to treat/cure my tinnitus.

**tommo** · 02-22-2011 05:03 AM

I've been getting tinnitus too lately, so yeah would be good to know also if there's any reason to believe it would work.

**StonedApe** · 02-22-2011 05:11 AM

I've read a few articles about how stimulating the Vagus nerve is being researched as a potential cure for tinnitus. This is huge because millions of people have it and there is(supposedly, I've also heard some MD in Germany has cured around 30 people) no known cure. There was a study published about a month ago that said that they successfully used Vagus nerve stimulation to cure tinnitus in rats. It looks really promising.

**tommo** · 02-22-2011 07:24 AM

Interesting. I heard a similar thing with Vagus nerve shunts or something to cure/diminish MS.

I feel a bit selfish though discussing tinnitus further when illianquinn is suffering life threatening illnesses, so I might stop here.

**illianquinn** · 02-22-2011 06:18 PM

Bah, don't feel that way, I'm glad to see the topics being discussed here are opening eyes to new possibilities. =]

AT stonedape

From what I've gathered, since the vagus nerve is involved in sending signals (including the chemical signals for emotions) to so many parts of our body, both consciously and subconsciously, that just simply being *aware* of it and knowing what it is used for is enough to begin to learn how to control it.

**StonedApe** · 02-23-2011 12:18 AM

The studies i was reading about talked about stimulating it in some way to kind of reset signals sent out, but I haven't had time to really figure it out.