Is meditation meant to lull you to sleep?

Meditation has become somewhat of a buzz word in recent years, aided in no small part by the proliferation of apps that offer guided meditations. As more people get introduced to meditation via these apps, the understanding and misunderstanding around the practice appears to be growing.

Some meditation teachers are concerned that the apps offer a limited or skewed understanding of meditation. A case in point: Many apps offer guided meditations to be done at bedtime that can help people get a good night’s sleep.

I visited the App Store listing pages of Calm and Headspace – two of the most popular meditation apps. The pages have featured images where developers communicate their apps’s best features to users.

On Calm, the second featured image reads, ‘Sleep more. Stress less. Live better.’ Ditto Headspace, whose second featured image says, ‘Sleep soundly. Stress less.’ Clearly, these apps are presenting a good night’s sleep as a key value proposition to potential users.

There is nothing wrong in presenting or following the apps’s ‘bedtime’ offerings. But according to me they are not meditation practices. They are relaxation techniques.

(Note: I do not claim to be a meditation master. My understanding is based on my own practice, reading books, and listening to talks by meditation masters such as Sam Harris, Mingyur Rinpoche, Jack Kornfield, Diana Winston and Tara Brach.)

The purpose of relaxation techniques is to, well, relax your mind and body.

On the other hand, the purpose of meditation practices – and yes, there are multiple practices – is to develop a clarity in understanding the nature of reality.

A good way to achieve this is to develop a better understanding of our minds and hearts. We must also understand the nature of suffering. In the process, we feel calmer and more grounded. These are all positive emotions – but none are meant to lull you to sleep.

I want to clarify that I find relaxation techniques extremely useful in my own life. However, what I do want to point out is that the scope of meditation practices is much wider.