Hacker News Reader

Zazen is just one form of meditation. According to The Mind Illuminated[1], some traditions (eg. shamanic) cultivate dullness as a source of visions.

[1] http://themindilluminated.com/

Anecdotal evidence: meditating in the evening helps me fall asleep. Don’t know if it’s the breathing part or clearing my mind but it works really well 90% of the time.

The trick is that I do it laying down instead of a more conventional meditation position.

i believe it's pretty easy to fall asleep after step 1 . I suspect the uncomfortable sitting position is made to help you stay awake. In the course i took, people could even ask for someone to hit them on the shoulder with a stick, to help them keep themselves awoken.

there are many meditative techniques, and some of them promote sleep

see http://marc.ucla.edu/mindful-meditations "Body Scan for Sleep" for example