Clarity During Meditation I'm wondering about clarity within meditation. I seem to have diminished greatly the agitation I experience, but there is a degree of mental sinking, of mental tiredness which I have a hard time eliminating. This tiredness seemingly makes the meditation session a meditation on the feeling of lethargy and laxity, and I am having a really really hard time ridding myself of this dullness. I've tried antidotes of uplifting thoughts, I've tried having equanimity towards the sensations, and remaining with them. I've tried tightening the breath, focusing sensations more closely on a specific area close to the nostrils. Yet, I've not managed to rid myself of this dullness, and I wonder if I should keep meditating while it is within my mindstream. Any advice would be appreciated.
It sounds like you might be experiencing the third hindrance for meditative progress, i.e. &quot;Sloth and Torpor&quot; (thina-middha). This hindrance is a mental tiredness that arises and makes the mind cloudy and unwieldy.
The Five Hindrances are briefly:

&quot;Sensory desire (kāmacchanda): the particular type of wanting that seeks for happiness through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and physical feeling.
Ill-will (vyāpāda; also spelled byāpāda): all kinds of thought related to wanting to reject, feelings of hostility, resentment, hatred and bitterness.
Sloth-torpor (thīna-middha): heaviness of body and dullness of mind which drag one down into disabling inertia and thick depression.
Restlessness-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to calm the mind.
Doubt (vicikicchā): lack of conviction or trust&quot;.

There is some information about Sloth and Torpor and how to overcome it here.
Other solutions given could be to splash cold water in the face and then return to meditation or getting up and do walking meditation instead. The thing is that one has to balance the meditation practice meaning that if sloth and torpor arises then one must do the opposite in order to counter act it. In this case it would be to energize the mind.
Lastly, here is a great dhamma talk on the five hindrances by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi - Part 1 and Part 2.
This talk is highly recommended it gives a lot of information and antidotes to all of the hindrances.