Meditate to Increase Awareness

Last week on my biphasic sleep update, Steve Laz left a comment that peaked my interest.

People who meditate typically need much less sleep than those who don’t. Chew on that for a while…

Well Steve, not only will I chew on that, but I’ll google it to see if you’re right.  After a little digging, I found a new scientist article covering a study on meditation.  The experiment tested meditation benefits for restoring mental alertness.

Ten volunteers were tested before and after 40 minutes of either sleep, meditation, reading or light conversation, with all subjects trying all conditions. The 40-minute nap was known to improve performance (after an hour or so to recover from grogginess). But what astonished the researchers was that meditation was the only intervention that immediately led to superior performance, despite none of the volunteers being experienced at meditation.

New Scientist

Not quite the scientific proof I was looking for but that was about the best research I could come up with.  After a little more investigation I began to understand the futility of my quest.  We don’t really understand the purpose of sleep.  There are a few theories revolving around topics like restoration, preservation, and memory processing, but no school of thought seems to agree.  Without a proper understanding of the function of sleep, perhaps Bruce O’Hare’s aforementioned study was on the right path in testing the effects of meditation vs napping.