Well meditation is better than sleep, right?
Once in a while for me it's just the opposite, yawning overpowers meditation attempt.
Oh yea, not just the need for sleep but food, desires and sexual energies arise at varying degrees for each individual reminding us we are still functioning at the physical level. It's quite a process dealing with this physical apparatus.
But we can't always think of being in some other dimension, home, heaven, causal, astral or what ever you choose to call it when we still are tied somewhat to this realm where we need to find happiness in the moment and not begrudge this temporary condition.
Sometimes I have found it more important to sleep rather than being tired the next morning and unable to do our service correctly because you were forcing yourself to stay awake and meditate. If all else fails we can always think of God and practice the presence. At some time the divine will give us the time to continue are techniques at meditation. We must have faith in this because it is true. We just have to do our part to the best of our ability.
