Paramahamsa Swanee River

Someone sent me the following meditation hint:

Important! Try this method in the morning, not at night...

It turns out the synchronization between mind and body isn't as close as we might expect. The body doesn't know exactly when your mind has fallen asleep, and for survival reasons it would be dangerous for the body to go to sleep before the mind has.

So the body tests the mind to see if it's asleep. If you lie with a relaxed mind very still for about 25 minutes and are nicely relaxed, your body eventually will send a very strong signal to your mind saying "I'm uncomfortable, please shift your position in bed."

But this is just a ruse! The body is not really uncomfortable; it's just testing to see if it can get a response from the mind. If you ignore this signal, your body waits a few seconds and says "Hmm, the mind must have gone to sleep. Time for me to do the same."

At that point you will literally feel a wave of heaviness come over the body. This wave takes about 5 seconds to complete, and when it's done your body has fallen asleep. This wave is a very odd feeling and distinct - it's something you can't miss. Before you get the uncomfortable sensation, you may also feel a little dizzy as if there's a balloon in your upper body and head that's expanding against the inside of your skull and skin.

It's not very much pressure but it is there.
There will be no doubt that your body has gone to sleep...

So the trick is to lie still until out of nowhere you get a sudden and strong urge to shift your position. It will not be easy to resist it, the body will be somewhat adamant. But if you persist in your deception and fool the body into thinking your mind is asleep then it will follow, and then there you are in mind awake/body asleep!

Tips
* You'll have the best luck with this on somewhat less sleep than you usually get then do your attempt in the morning or during your afternoon REM cycle at about 2:00 or 3:00. The first time I got this to work I had only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, maybe half my usual sleep time.

* Remain completely still, including your eyes.

* It's very easy for the mind the fall asleep doing this; you may benefit using a self-repeating timer as a safety net to keep your mind awake.

'Very easy for the mind to fall asleep' is an understatement. I'm very familiar with the 'wave' feeling, and always identify it as the overwhelming urge to drop off. For this reason it may be better to try this sitting up. Funny how we talk about 'falling asleep' and 'dropping off,' because the sensation for me is definitely one of falling off the 'edge' of consciousness.
I'm also convinced that the higher states of absorption in meditation ('jhana' states in Pali Buddhism) all have to do with the body 'falling' deeper and deeper into sleep while the mind remains alert and conscious. Alpha to delta to gamma waves - and now the EEG folks are talking about epsilon also... "wayyyy down upon the Swanee River..." Hm... 'swan' in Sanskrit is 'hamsa' that becomes part of the term 'paramahamsa' applied to those like Sri Ramakrishna who achieve the ultimate state. The Wikipedia defines the word as follows:

Paramahamsa, as a religio/theological title, is applied to an adept class of Hindu renunciates, liberated, realized masters who, having attained the supreme yogic state, or nirvakalpa samadhi, can always distinguish between the Real (sa) from the unreal (ham).

The hamsa mantra indicates the sound made by the exhalation ("ha") and inhalation ("sa") of the breath.

Also related to "Soham"("I am That") and in English "I AM," all excellent mantras.
My own simplistic approach to 'falling asleep while awake' is to
copy what my darling life partner does in deep sleep, and that's a gentle snore. I lie there copying her, although gradually drifting into longer breaths. I find after five or ten minutes that my ability to snore equally 'from the same place' on the in and out breaths sinks further into my chest, putting me into my heart region (instead of in my head).
As I type at this moment, I'm doing this, and once again for the zillionth time wonder why I ever STOP because it feels so amazing. I think the reason I stop is that I hit my 'bliss tolerance ceiling' and then tend to 'plateau' - or 'space out' laterally instead of continuing to push the ceiling higher. Does that make sense? As an explanation, yes. As an excuse for not achieving nirvakalpa samadhi this very instant... well, I'm fresh out of excuses!
(Singing) "Wayyyyy down upon the Paramahamsa Sooo-wah-neee River..."