The Benefits of Sleep Meditation
When you’re laying restless in bed, nothing feels farther away than a good night’s sleep. But is meditation for sleep really the answer?
Let’s be clear: Sleep meditation is not simply sitting quietly in bed. Sleep meditation requires you to focus on the present moment to bring therapeutic relief by quieting your restless body. Through repeated practice, you can learn sleep meditation and improve your sleep.
Read more about what sleep meditation entails and what it means to have a truly restful sleep.
Why can’t I sleep?
There is an entire field of medicine dedicated to this complicated question.
Somnology, or the study of sleep disorders, tells us that insomnia means you’re struggling to fall asleep and stay asleep. You may feel daytime tiredness, may make errors, or have difficulty paying attention at work if you’re experiencing insomnia. If your sleep problems become dangerous for yourself or others, we recommend you speak with your doctor about them.
But why you’re unable to sleep can be difficult to deduce. There may be too much noise. Your mind and body may be restless. You may not be comfortable.
Any one of these three problems, or more, could be the culprit you’re looking to relieve.
What do I need to feel rested?
Resting isn’t as simple as closing your eyes. To sleep through the night, there are several things the CDC recommends:
Consistency — Sleeping at the same time every night helps your body stay on its circadian rhythm, also known as your wake-sleep cycle.
A quiet, comfortable bedroom — Dark spaces that are quiet with a comfortable bed are essential parts of falling asleep and staying asleep.
Turn off electronics — There have been many studies that link electronic usage — like TV, smartphones and computers — to difficulty sleeping.
Daily exercise — Exercise is linked to many health benefits, including improved sleep.
One interesting note is that sleep meditation can address all of these for people who are trying to improve their sleep quality.
What is sleep meditation?
Sleep meditation — academically known as mindful awareness practice — means practicing mindfulness to quiet natural interruptions and get a good night’s sleep. As opposed to people who enter their bed, get under their covers, and expect to rest, sleep meditation is the practice of quieting your mind and body for the purpose of sleep.
Learning how to meditate is easy. There are a few characteristics of sleep meditation that are universal. For example, simply close your eyes, focus your mind, and inhale and exhale.
These simple steps, when done correctly, will start your sleep meditation journey.
Why does sleep meditation work?
You may think of meditation as a hokey practice done by mystics, however there are many academic studies supporting the benefits of meditation practice. Meditation before bed aims to reduce your heart rate and calm parts of your mind and body.
In doing so, meditation addresses sleep experts’ requirements to improve your sleep like reducing stress and feeling comfortable.
What types of sleep meditation exist?
There are a few different types of sleep meditation that can improve your sleep. We recommend concentrating on slowing down your breathing and closing your eyes for many of these meditations.
Guided sleep meditations
Guided sleep meditations are helpful for first-time and veteran people learning how to meditate.
Guided sleep meditations are like normal guided meditations that involve listening to audio, video or an in-person instructor. These guided sleep meditations aim to help you escape interruptions, find comfort and fall asleep.
During these guided meditations, the instructor will verbally walk you through a series of mindfulness exercises to reduce stress in the parts of your body.
Gratitude meditations
Oftentimes our negative thoughts are the most intrusive.
Gratitude meditation centers around pushing those negative thoughts aside and surrounding yourself with thoughts on a more elusive topic — gratitude. By reminding yourself of what you’re grateful for, you will find yourself calming down as your thoughts wander through positive topics.
You can be grateful for a person, your bed, your clothes, a sensation, or really anything that makes you happy or safe. Just be sure that if you sense your thoughts straying to negative spaces, you escape that space with your next topic of gratitude.
Body scan meditations
If you find your mind restless or your body uncomfortable, body scan meditations have been found to be particularly helpful.
Body scan meditations work by focusing your brain on different parts of your body — from your toes, feet, ankles, and calves all the way to your head. One at a time you will scan your body, focusing on relieving the tensions and stress that can be held in each of these muscles, joints and parts of your body after a long day.
As your mind wanders through your body, you can escape the cyclical thoughts of your restless mind.
What’s the right way to meditate for sleep?
If you follow the steps outlined above and continue to practice, you’re likely not going to fail.
But we recommend ignoring this larger question as you concentrate on the present moment or any guided instruction during your meditation practice. By being critical of yourself, you’re bringing stress back into your body.
When we conduct sleep meditations, we need to become passive toward our annoyances, restlessness, and any noises. By focusing on the present moment and letting our thoughts wander without judgment, we allow ourselves to release our anxieties. Through this process, these interruptions lose their power over us.
For some people, this sleep meditation guide will not be enough. If you find yourself wishing you had more help, consider trying Dr. Khalili’s plant-powered sleep aide alongside your sleep meditation.