I'll go backwards on this: "I've heard of getting awareness so sharp that a person can be aware of the breath before falling asleep, and on waking up." Yes, I've read that, too. (pause) Yes... I've read it, too... But what does it matter, even if you are aware of the breath as you go to sleep and the minute you wake up. What does it actually matter? Does it have anything to do with your level of anger, does it have anything to do with your level of compassion? No. It has to do with an ability to be mindful. That's all. The ability to be mindful.
Now is Mindfulness the most important thing we teach? No.
Is Concentration the most important thing we teach? No.
Is Compassionate Understanding the most important thing we teach? Yes.
To be aware of your breath as you're going to sleep, to be aware of your breath when you wake up, does that help you in any way to develop your compassionate understanding? It helps your concentration, it helps your mindfulness, but we can't say for sure it's going to help your wisdom at all, or your compassion at all. So, let's not worry too much about idealistic abilities, of, in this particular case, being super-mindful.
A sideline to this is that according to definition, only the Buddha was 100% mindful. That's right, only the Buddha., Every other Arahant was not 100% mindful, which means they made mistakes. For example, assume that I'm fully enlightened, and when we're done here, I get up and go up to do my interview, but leave my bag here. I'm not being mindful, I've left my bag here. But that has nothing to do with my level of compassion, it has nothing to do with my level of wisdom, it has nothing to do with the Ten Paramis. It's just that I wasn't mindful, I left my bag here. They say that Arahants can do that, they're not perfectly mindful, but it's not a negative mental state. It's not a defiled mental state. They have purified their mind, but they may not be totally mindful. So it actually doesn't matter if you're aware of your breath falling asleep, waking up, or in between.
As to falling asleep and how well you can fall asleep, people with a busy mind normally take longer to fall asleep. That's very normal - the mind's active. Even some people who sleep very well normally, while in a retreat here, all of a sudden find out they can't fall asleep easily, because they're so excited about the meditation techniques, it's something brand new, for so many of them. So, even people who normally have a nice, easy sleep will find, here in this retreat, they don't. Then we have other people, who find they sleep fine in the retreat. This is all different, for different personalities.
What is the problem of having difficulty falling asleep? Is it actually a problem? So it takes you an extra 30 minutes to fall asleep, is there actually a problem with that? There will be if you get angry with yourself. There will be if you get super-worried you won't be able to function the next day. There will be, if you add on to the experience, your reaction that is negative.
In the interviews, I get a lot of men come in and they "can't sleep, the guy next to them is snoring, etc., etc." One of the things I ask them is, "Is the snoring the problem, or is it the anger at the snorer that's really the problem?" Is it the sound that's the problem, or is it the description, "that guy is snoring"? The story we put around the sound. All these things are related to our reaction. Our reaction.
If you can let go of worry, when you're lying down going to sleep - your worry about falling asleep - if you can let go of that worry, then that's fine. You fall asleep in two minutes, you fall asleep in 20 minutes or it takes you an hour. It won't really matter if your body's relaxed, the body will get the rest.
So, if you feel its difficult to fall asleep, try to turn that word "difficult" off, and try to think, "It just takes me a bit longer to fall asleep". If you're lying there comfortably, your body will get the rest. The minute you worry, it's going to take you longer to fall asleep and, of course, the worry makes agitation in the body. But if you've really got a bigger problem, talk to us about it in the interviews and we'll give you some more techniques.