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We have some meditators here that are very good technical long meditators - it would be good to mention techniques for staying awake during what I refer to as "hitting unconsciousness". I use breathing techniques but I no longer know from what tradition they came (if any). Ya Mu mentioned a comparison between Zen and Qi people meditating, wherein awareness was quite different and the creative part of the brain was stimulated in the Qi people. I am not sure what the main differences are between a Zen meditation and a Qi aspect but I use a mix of teachings that I have learned over the years and also invented on my own, and staying in an aware state and not sleeping or going unconscious has never been a problem for me during meditation but it may be that Raja Yoga meditation is good at this which was my original early path or? I do not want to imply that I don't hit walls of unconscious energy - I definitely have but I move through them - they usually only last a few minutes but sometimes they are quite tenacious - in any case, I do not stop the meditation. In some 40 years of meditation I can count on one hand the number of times I have fallen asleep or konked out from hitting a wall and I don't think I need all of the fingers. I would say that in those 40 years I have very rarely stopped a meditation short because my body clearly needed sleep and meditation was pointless, probably also something I could count on one hand. I bring this up because one should start meditating with a reasonably good bank of sleep already in ones space so that falling asleep should not be a technical problem ( you don't start if you are exhausted). My point is that I agree with the general notion that it is highly beneficial to sit for long periods - certainly at least 1 hour. But quite a few appear to have problems with the Unconscious Energy Walls and do not sit for more than 40 minutes and usually less than that. If you can offer clear concise techniques that you have experience with for moving past the various walls to long meditation, please offer them up.