{"id":5988,"date":"2026-09-16T17:09:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intromeditation.com\/Wordpress\/?p=5988"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:29:52","slug":"lying-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intromeditation.com\/Wordpress\/lying-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditating Lying Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Lying down is a posture that greatly reduces the need for muscular effort – it is, generally, the most relaxing posture we can take. So, for many beginner meditators, who may believe the main or only goal of meditation is relaxation, getting horizontal may seem like the perfect meditation posture. But there are reasons not to meditate lying down, as well as reasons to do so, and some best practices.<\/p>\n

Many meditation teachers discourage lying down for practicing, considering it not appropriate for serious practitioners. The biggest reason for this is that it is so common when doing so to fall asleep and lose the meditation altogether. Our brains naturally associate lying flat with sleeping.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness meditation generally aims for not just deep restfulness, but that combined with bright alertness, both at the same time. For many people, meditating in horizontal posture has us lose that balance and come too heavily on the side of calm. Even if we don’t outright fall asleep, we may lose the mental clarity, vigilance, effort, intentionality, energy, wakefulness, and general brightness that are vital for mindfulness practice, and instead become mired in dullness, lethargy, collapse, mental fog, and avoidance of anything difficult.<\/p>\n

When we lie down to meditate, relaxation and comfort often simply happens to\/for us, rather than being something we intentionally cultivate. This leaves us with less opportunity to develop the skill of intentionally cultivating ease on demand during the rest of our lives. Also, when sitting upright, we have to find a posture of balance and symmetry before we can deeply relax, and that process is itself worth going through. And, in general, if a person gets too used to meditating while lying flat, the effort of meditating sitting upright may start to feel more difficult over time.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are legitimate reasons why a meditator may want to practice horizontally. One important reason is chronic or acute injury, pain, or reduced physical functionality that makes prolonged sitting upright difficult or impossible.\u00a0 People with such challenges can often be helped by individualized adaptations and modifications to a lying posture. Similarly, people may sometimes feel psychologically so badly that they say to themselves, \u201cI am simply not willing to sit and face myself meditatively right now – but, I think I can do it if I lie down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people find that meditating horizontally is especially useful for specific meditation techniques. They may find, for example, that contact between the body and whatever one is lying on provides a richer and more tangible field of sensations when doing various forms of body awareness. Lying flat can be helpful for meditation on objects other than the sensations of the body (the breath, thoughts, sounds, sights, etc) because the body may ache less, require less attention, and be less of a distraction while lying down than when we are seated. And some people find that lying flat helps them to notice subtle energetic shifts, or to allow challenging emotions to move and release.<\/p>\n

In general, when we are horizontal, noticing when we have drifted towards sleep and returning to alertness can be a fruitful practice, like noticing our mind wandering into thoughts and coming back. Exploring the pull that dullness and sleep sometimes have on us, and bringing mindfulness to the weird edge states between awareness and slumber, can be useful work. And, of course, people sometimes meditate intending to fall asleep, in which case lying down makes sense too.<\/p>\n

If a meditator does want to practice lying down, here are some suggestions:<\/p>\n