One of my favorite online fitness influencers is Elliot Hulse on YouTube (Yo Elliot!) because he doesn’t pussyfoot around, has fantastic knowledge and combines spirituality along with his health philosophy.

A couple of years back I received one of his emails from the newsletter and he was talking about how meditation actually increases growth hormone release and can cause the same amount of rest as deep, restful sleep.  At the time I sort of raised my eyebrows but that was it.  I know enough about physiology not to think that what he said was wrong, intuitively it makes sense.  But I had never thought of the idea or to do meditation for that reason.

After all, the brainwaves of deep sleep and deep meditation are in some ways similar.  

So scientifically, why would that effect happen.  If you’re still awake and in some ways active during meditation how would your body *rest and recover* in the same way as if you were out cold on a bed snoring?  Besides, they’re not really the same thing, because when you meditate one goal is *not* to fall asleep, because sleeping is not meditating!

The answer lies with the different states and gears of our nervous system.  Many people probably do not put much thought into their nervous systems and How like any other system it can be alert or inert, hyperactive or more or less inactive.  

There are two primary settings or states for our nervous system and they are the **parasympathetic** and **sympathetic** states.  That’s actually not completely correct because both are constantly operational but at any given one is in the dominant position and is **absorbing more of the body’s energy**.  

The sympathetic system is the “flight or fight” mode.  It primarily kicks in in times of physical or emotional stress.  If something happens in the environment and we need to react quickly, possibly run, or fight, or just make quick decisions, then we are in sympathetic mode and we can feel this with an instantly spiked heart rate, heightened adrenal activity and release of stress hormones like cortisol which mobilizes stored energy for quick fuel.  

The parasympathetic state could be seen as the polar opposite.  It is the rest / regroup / regenerate state.  When you are sleeping you are in a parasympathetic state and blood (and energy) move to organs like the digestive tract to break down and store food, as well as slow heart rate and breathing rate.

One of the benefits of sleep is the effect on growth hormone release which spikes between 11-2 while sleeping.  Growth hormone helps to recover muscle tissues.  There are many different hormones released while sleeping, and I don’t think it needs to be said how important it is to get sleep as any living creature knows.  Our bodies recover and rebuild and assimilate nutrients while we sleep as well as regulate hormone release.

Why would meditation have a similar effect as sleep?  Looking at the nervous system modes should clear it right up.  The idea is reduced thinking and consequently less stress which means less sympathetic state.  Many people, especially those with depression and anxiety, are literally saturated on the inside with cortisol.  It is not meant to be released all the time, but our stressful lives have caused this to happen.  Cortisol is a reason why stress breaks the body down and makes people appear years older.

When you get into a deep meditation several things usually happen.  First, your thoughts become more free flowing and less random and stressful.  We enter a state of relaxed awareness.  Second, the breathing slows down and blood pressure and heart rate should be dropping, just like sleep.  All of these things contribute to a healing of the body through a manual entering into the parasympathetic state!  Meditation is voluntarily switching the nervous system around while causing blood flow to go to the internal organs and centers where regeneration happens.  The decrease in cortisol will also spare muscle tissue, since cortisol *breaks down tissues*.  

It really reminds me of scenes in Star Wars movies when the Jedi are constantly meditating between action scenes.  They are regenerating for the next battle.  

![4F51A10D-7B09-4309-A199-A96C438BA1CE.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmP4N8dqQJYWG7hC98kNFAvnazQi3Nwbd86PubKBgwEEdR/4F51A10D-7B09-4309-A199-A96C438BA1CE.png)

This may seem like a farfetched idea to the average person in real life, and you may not take a knee and bow your head for an hour like Obi Wan Kanobi but you can control your breathing and get into a sort of waking, aware meditative state.  

Just one more reason why meditation is one of the most useful tools in nearly anybody’s arsenal who is willing to use it.

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