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Comment by lukasb | Hacker News Reader

I have mixed feelings about the article - a lot of that has to do with the fact that over the ~10 retreats I've been on, with dozens of people that I interacted with after the retreat was over, I haven't really observed the negative affects they're talking about.

However, I do agree that if you meditate for an hour a day or more (or sure, 40 minutes) having a good teacher is important.

Dr. Britton put together something called a "Meditation Safety Toolbox" that looks really interesting, looking forward to diving into it: https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/meditation-safet...

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The experience for me has been just like most others. Take weight lifting for example, you don't go into the gym and try dead lift 200 kilograms with poor technique or your liable to get hurt.

What a wise lifter might do is work their way up to the point they're ready and might enjoy lifting 200kgs and then attempt it.

Like most things, start small and work your way up. I'd imagine the same should apply to meditation.

Indeed, it wasn't mentioned in the article from what I can tell but I wonder if she had any prior meditation experience. Even a weekend retreat would seem like a lot for me and I've done daily 30 minute sessions for a while. 10 days? That's pretty extreme

The report points out that even moderate meditation (more than 30 minutes per day) can have an objective negative effect on sleep quality, contraditionary to the fact that subjects often report a positive effect. (I have not found the scientific report where the statement is based on yet.)

https://www.brown.edu/academics/contemplative-studies/sites/...

I think this is the study. "Amount of MM practice was correlated with increased PSG arousals, awakenings, stage 1 and decreased SWS, in a linear dose-dependent fashion."

Hypothesis: Meditation substitutes for sleep to some extent. They sleep less because they need to sleep less.

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