When sleepiness is strong, it is very hard to vanquish it.
A few days ago, I woke up very early to have the long Xmas meditation. I do that every year, 7 hours net total when I'm on my own.
This time I chose to fight sleepiness the hard way: I had an espresso just before meditation. I sacrificed maybe a slower heartbeat and lower breath rate to the altar of wakefulness. The coffee didn't make me that restless after all and I only had a single bout of sleepeness.
Yes. I asked a monk about using caffiene to stay awake while I was working long hours. He said that you may have to do this but to continue using the energization exercises as well.
I meditate at least a couple of hours each day. The long meditations for 6 or more hours have stopped since leaving Southern California. But I am not so certain they helped me because they were more an act of will. I do enjoy 3 hour meditations with other meditators and miss them since I now live in the country. I can more easily get long periods of meditation in when it is warmer weather here. But it is nice to jump in a nearby lake swim and then get out and energize and meditate longer.
Lately I have meditated outdoors when it has been near 0 in temperature and a wind chill even colder. Much lower then freezing. I have used a handwarmer to avoid frostbite. This will keep you awake! LOL Nevertheless I still get several hours of meditation in per day. There is a time for everything and in many ways I feel my daily meditations have improved.
I am happy to hear you developed the discipline to meditate so long alone. We are very fortunate to have so many meditation techniques and spiritual practices given by our gurus!
It is best to get proper rest if at all possible. I have found short cat naps helpful... if there is time. Then I can wake refreshed and stay awake during meditation. It is better to have a short meditation awake then a long one nodding off regularly. For me I have found there is no better condition then proper sleep. This has been a hard lesson I have learned for years of trying to meditate exhausted. All it did was led to bad meditation practices of being in no man's land between sleep and wakefulness: a passive state and blankness of the mind.
