If meditation means simply to let go of concerns about past and future and rest completely in the present moment, then every human being practices meditation every night, from birth to death.
Think about it - what do you do when you meditate, and when you go to sleep:
(1) Arrange to have a quiet, darkened, calming environment
(2) get your body into a very still position
(3) relax the body and allow your breath to gently slow down into an easy, natural rhythm
(4) Slowly release thinking about past and future (admittedly, insomniacs and beginning meditators have trouble with this one but it is the same essential step
Folks, you may be shocked to realize this, but everyone reading this is a meditator.
If you want to go much much deeper, you may reframe “sleep” as simply the practice of dramatically shifting consciousness.
When you first lie down, your brain waves are most likely at the speed of “beta waves,” characteristic of waking consciousness.
As you relax, they tend to slow down to alpha waves.
On the verge of sleep, you may not generally notice it, but hypnagogic or dream like images and sounds start to arise. At this point, if you’re an ‘Advanced” sleep practitioner, you have the choice to remain aware, and you’ll find yourself shifting from feeling like you’re in bed to being consciously in a dream environment.
If you’re REALLY advanced, you can stay aware as the dream world fades and you’ll find yourself immersed in a sea of profound, blissful Light - otherwise known in ordinary language as “sleep.”
We all go through these transformations of consciousness every night - beginning with the basic meditation of relaxing, slowing the breath, letting go of thoughts of past and future, and just be-ING, as you drift off into ordinary sleep.
If you start to be even just a tiny bit more alert to what’s going on, you have the opportunity for hours of meditation practice every night, and sleep, rather than something you have to do that takes away from your vaunted “productivity” becomes an extraordinary, magic journey every night, far far more fulfilling and profound than any psychedelic could ever be.