Why Do We Sleep? A Buddhist Meditation View on Rest, Consciousness, and the Mind
- Agama Meditation Centre
- Jun 30
- 11 min read
阅读中文原文
Introduction
The following article is adapted from a dialogue between Ven. Dianwu and his students, prepared for the Agama Meditation Centre blog.
Rather than treating sleep and dreams merely as biological events, this teaching invites us to look more closely at the body, consciousness, habit, memory, and the restless movements of the mind.
Question to the Master:Why do human beings need to sleep? And why do we dream?
Ven. Dianwu’s answer:
Why do we sleep?
It is because this body is formed by the coming together of countless living conditions. In traditional Buddhist language, we may say the body is made up of “eighty-four thousand households of tiny beings.” This is why sleep happens.
When you feel sleepy, it is not really that “you” want to sleep. There is no fixed “self” that is sleeping.
It is the body that becomes tired. This living body, made of many causes and conditions, has become fatigued. Because the energy channels are not open and smooth, many areas and parts of the body are blocked, weakened, or not
functioning well. Some muscles, tissues, and cells are not working properly. This can make you feel discomfort and suffering.
So you search for comfort. You feel that lying down is comfortable.
But for people who truly practice meditation, some are able to sit for long periods without lying down, and they are still comfortable. They may even feel more free, more stable, and more peaceful. Therefore, the belief that one must lie down in order to rest is a serious misunderstanding.
Most people are simply used to lying down to sleep, often flat on the back. After falling asleep, as soon as they wake up, they say, “I just had a dream.”
Actually, you are also dreaming during the day. The dreams at night are only smaller dreams.
A true meditation practitioner, after thoroughly understanding the truth, no longer holds superstitious views. Such a person clearly understands why dreams happen.
Dreams arise because the body is out of balance and cannot enter deep, settled sleep. The body and mind are not at peace. Then consciousness continues to stir and move. In the middle of this movement, you wake up. Sometimes you cannot remember anything, and you only feel that you had a dream but have forgotten it.
Sometimes, after waking, the dream is very clear.
But whether it is clear or unclear, it is still an illusion. Do not believe it as something real. It is consciousness. It is the subconscious mind continually appearing.
What is the “subconscious”?
Mind, intention, and consciousness are not separate from one another.
When a person is deeply asleep, lying down, there is a kind of self-numbing. The person moves toward comfort and wants to think of nothing. “I am too tired. I should enter with comfort and ease.”
Because there is this direction, this wish, and this desire for a certain feeling, the person falls asleep. He becomes drowsy and sleeps as if unconscious.
When he wakes up, he may say, “I did not even dream.” But this too is consciousness. Consciousness has still been appearing all along.
The subconscious mind, or the mind-root, has a special quality and function: it can store things.
It is like a warehouse. It stores what has been collected. Its capacity is as vast as limitless space.
It keeps recording and remembering. As long as our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body keep contacting forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, the mind keeps storing impressions.
Whether we like something or dislike it, whether we react out of habit or through a chain reaction, the mind records it all. It is like a recorder. It gathers these impressions and places them into the warehouse, storing them again and again.
When certain causes and conditions appear, different mental phenomena appear.
They continue to arise, continue to be remembered, continue to return, and continue to emerge from within the mind.
Sometimes what appears is pleasant. Sometimes it is unpleasant. This is the stored memory of the subconscious.
For example, sometimes we meet someone and immediately feel, “This person seems familiar. Where have I seen them before?” At first we forget. Then we think about it, and finally we remember. This belongs to what has been stored in the subconscious.
The function of the subconscious is that whatever has been stored can be retrieved and used when conditions arise. It was all created by you, stored by you, and placed there by you. You have simply forgotten it. There is too much, it is too mixed, and it is too disordered. So you have to search for it. This is what is called the “subconscious.”
What is “discriminating consciousness”?
The mind knows mental objects. It keeps distinguishing, examining, and recognizing. It has this quality and this function.
It discriminates. It says, “Let me think about this again.” After it distinguishes more clearly, it knows: this is wholesome, this is unwholesome; this should be done, this should not be done; this should be said, this should not be said; this should be acted upon, this should not be acted upon.
This is discrimination.
When discrimination leads to correct understanding, correct recognition, and correct wisdom, this is consciousness functioning as discernment. It may be called “discriminating consciousness.”
What is “solitary consciousness” or “independent mental consciousness”?
Every sentient being has this kind of consciousness. It is the hardest to cut off.
In the system of practice, there is a phrase for it: “illusory thoughts like turtle hair and rabbit horns.”
All kinds of afflictions may be cut off. Many kinds of suffering may be cut off. But this subtle illusion, like turtle hair and rabbit horns, is not easy to end. Even someone who has attained meditative concentration, even the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, may still find it difficult to cut off.
It is also called the “stealing mind.”
Many ancestral teachers described it this way. In simple and ordinary language, they said: “The stealing mind is hard to die.”
Some people say, “When the thought-mind is beaten to death, the Dharma body is allowed to live.” This points exactly to this stealing mind.
Actually, this is a way of describing it that arose in China where the full technical transmission was not always understood. In a system with proper doctrinal transmission, it is not called the “stealing mind.” It is called the “dividing mind”(voṭṭhabbana-citta), the “measuring and inferring mind”(santīraṇa-citta), or the “swift-running mind”(javana-citta).
Editor's Note: Meditation, Reduced Sleep Need, and Restful Awareness
Modern contemplative research is beginning to give scientific language to something long reported by serious meditation practitioners: as practice deepens, the body-mind may become more efficient in rest, and the need for ordinary sleep may naturally decrease. This is different from forced sleep deprivation. The point is not to resist sleep, but to recognize that advanced meditation may allow profound restoration while awareness remains present.
One of the clearest studies on this subject found that experienced long-term meditators slept less than matched non-meditators while showing no apparent decline in psychomotor vigilance, a standard test of sustained attention. The same study also found that brief meditation improved vigilance in novice meditators, even after sleep deprivation. The authors specifically examined whether meditation may improve performance and decrease sleep need.¹
Other research suggests that meditation may change not only waking attention, but also the sleeping brain. A high-density EEG study of long-term Buddhist meditators found increased parietal-occipital gamma activity during non-REM sleep, suggesting that meditation practice can produce measurable, long-lasting changes in brain activity even during sleep.² Research on elderly expert meditators has also examined how long-term meditation affects resting-state wakefulness and sleep in older adults, pointing to meditation's possible role in reshaping sleep physiology across the lifespan.³
Yoga Nidra is one example of this wider phenomenon. A polysomnography and EEG study found that Yoga Nidra practice was electrophysiologically an awake state, yet showed signs of localized slow-wave activity, often described as "local sleep." This suggests that parts of the brain may enter sleep-like restoration while the practitioner remains aware.⁴ A later neuroimaging study of Yoga Nidra found that experienced meditators showed distinctive default mode network changes during practice, which the authors described as a state of being "restful yet aware."⁵
Taken together, these studies support an important direction for serious practitioners: meditation may reduce ordinary sleep need in some experienced practitioners, deepen the restorative quality of rest, and allow awareness to remain present across states that are usually divided into waking and sleeping. In this view, sleep is not merely unconsciousness, and rest is not merely lying down. Deep practice can become a conscious form of restoration.
This note is for educational and contemplative purposes only. It is not medical advice. Practitioners should not forcefully reduce sleep; reduced sleep, where it occurs, should arise naturally from stable practice, bodily ease, and a clear, rested mind.
Endnotes
1. Kaul et al., "Meditation acutely improves psychomotor vigilance, and may decrease sleep need," Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2010.
2. Ferrarelli et al., "Experienced Mindfulness Meditators Exhibit Higher Parietal-Occipital EEG Gamma Activity during NREM Sleep," PLOS ONE, 2013.
3. Champetier et al., "EEG Brain Rhythms During Resting-State Wakefulness and Sleep in Elderly Expert Meditators," Journal of Sleep Research, 2025.
4. Datta et al., "Electrophysiological Evidence of Local Sleep During Yoga Nidra Practice," Frontiers in Neurology, 2022.
5. Kumar et al., "Functional connectivity changes in meditators and novices during Yoga Nidra practice," Scientific Reports, 2024.
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中文原文开示
请问滇悟禅师：人为什么要睡觉，为什么会做梦呢？
滇悟禅师答：
为什么要睡觉？
因为身体是八万户虫和合而成，才是为什么会睡觉的缘故。
困，不是你要睡觉，没有一个“我”在睡觉。
是身体发困，是你身体上众缘和合的生命体疲劳了。因为气脉不通，很多地方、很多部位是坏死的，很多肌肉、组织、细胞是坏死的，是不工作的，它能够令你感到苦受。
你寻找舒服，觉得躺着舒服。可是静坐之人，有很多人常坐不卧，照样更舒服，照样更超越、更安稳，所以这是严重的错误的认知。习惯性躺着睡觉，仰面朝天。睡着了，一醒过来就说：“刚才做了个梦。”
其实你白天也在梦中，晚上只是小梦而已！
真正的一位禅修者彻底地了解真理以后，就不含有迷信，彻知了为何会做梦？原来做梦，是因为你的身体失调而不能熟睡，身心不安！然后，这个“识”，继续躁动，你在躁动的这个过程之中醒来，有时候记不得了，感觉做
了个梦，但是忘记掉了。
有时，醒来以后很清楚，不管清楚不清楚，始终都是“幻”。都不要去相信，因为这是“识”，是潜意识时时地浮现出来。
什么叫“潜意识”？心、意、识它是不分离的。人在熟睡的时候，躺着的时候，我们就要自我麻醉了，要自我地趣向于舒服、什么都不想，太累了，应该要进入那种舒服、安乐当中。
一直他有这么一个趣向、这么一个想法，他想要这个感觉，想要这个感受，结果就熟睡了，昏昏欲睡，睡得不省人事。醒来说，做梦也不梦，这些都是“识”，识一直都是浮现出来的。
潜意识，我们的意根，它有一种特质、有一种功能，它能储存。就像仓库一样的，它能存所存，储存量就像无量的虚空一样大。
它不断地记忆，只要我们的眼、耳、鼻、舌、身，对色、声、香、味、触，不断地接触，喜欢的、不喜欢的，习性反应、连锁反应的，它都会记忆，就像个收录机一样地记忆，把它采购到仓库里边，不断地储存。
任何的因缘、不同的因缘它就显现不同的法，它就不断地显现、不断地忆起、不断地回忆、不断地从内心里边显现出来。
有时候是喜欢的，有时候是不喜欢的，这就是记忆的潜意识。
在潜意识，有时候我们见了一个人，一见面有点熟，在哪里见过呢？忘记掉了，让我再想想。经过了想，终于想起来了，这是属于潜意识里边储存的，这是属于潜意识。
潜意识的功能，叫随取随用，都是你自己造的，都是你自己储存的，都是你自己摆放的，只是你忘记掉了。太多、太杂、太乱了而已，找找看，这叫“潜意识”。
“分别意识”呢？意知法，它就不断地在分辨、不断地在洞见，它具有这样的特质，具有这样的功能。分辨，让我再思考思考，他不断地分辨清楚以后，就知道这是善、这是恶，这是可为不可为，这是当说不当说，这是当做不当做。这就是分辨，分辨而有正确的认识、正确的认知、正确的智慧。这就是识，叫“分辨识”。
“独头意识”，独头意识任何众生都有，这个独头意识是最难断的。在修学体系里边有一个代名词，叫“龟毛兔角的幻念”。
任何的烦恼都好断，任何的苦都容易断，就是这龟毛兔角，就连得了禅定，得了四禅八定都不容易断，它叫“偷心”。
有很多祖师他是这样来描述的，说得普通一点、朴素一点，他说：偷心难死啊！有很多人说：“打得念头死，许得法身活”，它指的就是这个偷心呀！
其实，这是我们中国此方不懂得传承的一种描述。只要有教理阿阇黎的传承，它不叫“偷心”，叫“分心”、“推度心”、“速行心”。
编者按：禅修、睡眠需求减少与清醒的深度休息
现代禅修研究也在开始用科学语言说明一种长期以来被资深修行人所观察到的现象：随着修行的深入，身体的休息效率可能提高，对普通睡眠的需求也可能自然减少。这不同于强行剥夺睡眠。重点不是抗拒睡眠，而是通过高级禅修，使人在保持觉知的同时，进入一种深度恢复性的休息状态。
关于这一主题，一项较为明确的研究发现：长期禅修者比对比组的非禅修者睡眠时间更短，同时在心理运动警觉性测试中并未表现出明显下降。心理运动警觉性是衡量持续注意力的一项标准测试。同一项研究还发现，即使是初学禅修者，在禅修之后也会出现短期警觉性提升，包括在睡眠不足之后。该研究特别探讨了禅修是否可能改善表现并减少睡眠需求。¹
其他研究表明，禅修不仅可能改变清醒时的注意力，也可能改变睡眠中的大脑活动。一项针对长期佛教禅修者的高密度脑电图研究发现，受试者在非快速眼动睡眠期间，顶枕区域的伽马波活动增加。这提示禅修训练可能在睡眠中也产生可测量的、长期性的脑活动变化。² 针对年长资深禅修者的研究也考察了长期禅修如何影响静息清醒状态与睡眠，指出禅修可能在整个生命过程中重塑睡眠生理。³
瑜伽睡眠是这一更广泛现象的一个例子。一项使用多导睡眠图和脑电图的研究发现，瑜伽睡眠练习在电生理上属于清醒状态，但同时显示出局部慢波活动的迹象，也就是常被称为“局部睡眠”的现象。这说明大脑的某些区域可能进入类似睡眠的恢复状态，而练习者仍然保持觉知。⁴ 后来一项关于瑜伽睡眠的神经影像研究发现，经验丰富的禅修者在练习期间显示出独特的默认模式网络变化，研究者将这种状态描述为“休息而清醒”。⁵
综合来看，这些研究为严肃的修行人指出了一个重要方向：禅修可能使某些有经验的练习者减少普通睡眠需求，深化休息的恢复质量，并让觉知在通常被划分为清醒与睡眠的状态之间保持连续。依此来看，睡眠并不只是无意识，休息也不只是躺下。深度修行可以成为一种清醒的恢复方式。
本编者按仅供教育与修行参考，并非医疗建议。练习者不应强行减少睡眠；若睡眠减少，应当是在稳定修行、身体舒适、内心清明且充分休息的基础上自然发生。
尾注
1. Kaul et al., "Meditation acutely improves psychomotor vigilance, and may decrease sleep need," Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2010.
2. Ferrarelli et al., "Experienced Mindfulness Meditators Exhibit Higher Parietal-Occipital EEG Gamma Activity during NREM Sleep," PLOS ONE, 2013.
3. Champetier et al., "EEG Brain Rhythms During Resting-State Wakefulness and Sleep in Elderly Expert Meditators," Journal of Sleep Research, 2025.
4. Datta et al., "Electrophysiological Evidence of Local Sleep During Yoga Nidra Practice," Frontiers in Neurology, 2022.
5. Kumar et al., "Functional connectivity changes in meditators and novices during Yoga Nidra practice," Scientific Reports, 2024.
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