Guided Sleep Meditation for Beginners
If you’ve recently developed an interest in meditation, then there’s a good chance you might have come across “guided sleep meditation”. What is it and why is it important? Guided meditation for sleep is a method that, as the name suggests, will help you improve your sleep quality by teaching you to let go of anxiety-inducing thoughts.
Many people who suffer from anxiety and have a habit of overthinking dread going to sleep which only worsens their anxiety and makes it harder to sleep. If you’re one of those people, then you should be practicing guided sleep meditation regularly.
What is it?
Guided sleep meditation involves switching your attention from your thoughts to the sensations in your body. In the simplest of words, it means meditating before jumping into bed at night. With the help of guided sleep meditation, you allow your body to relax and you shift your focus from your thoughts that make it difficult for you to fall asleep.
It’s common for people to practice sleep meditation on their own, but guided sleep meditation involves listening to an audio recording that takes your hand and walks you through the whole process.
How do you do it?
There are lots of audio recordings that you can use to practice guided sleep meditation. Here are a few that you can download for free from UCLA’s website. A typical recording will help you direct your attention away from your burdening thoughts and towards your body. This process is called “body scan”.
A body scan will help you relax your body which can become tense because of the negative emotional state you’re in. Sometimes, you might not even be aware of the tension your body is experiencing. With the help of a body scan, you will gradually become cognizant of bodily sensations – all the way from your feet to your head. The objective of a body scan is to observe any discomfort you might be feeling in your body so you can learn to manage it better.
The audio recording will help you move through different parts of your body and help you identify sensations like tension, temperature, tingling, etc. You will be told to relax and let go of the tension in your body with the help of breathing exercises and other techniques.
The recording will instruct you to detach yourself from your anxiety-inducing thoughts and worries. As you let go of your thoughts, you will begin to notice that your body is becoming soft and relaxed.
Guided sleep meditation usually involves the following techniques:
Breathing exercises – There are different breathing exercises involved in guided sleep meditation. For example, some recordings will ask you to breathe in through your nose and hold your breath for a few seconds and then exhale through the mouth.
These breathing exercises will help you relax and if you do them correctly and regularly at night, your body will learn to associate them with sleeping.
Gratitude – Many audio recordings will teach you to be grateful for being alive. Remaining positive in the face of stress and adversity is a great way to get rid of stress and anxiety. You will learn to be compassionate and kind to yourself. Some recordings might even ask you to make a mental list of things and people you’re grateful for.
Visualization – Some recordings will ask you to imagine a happy and peaceful scene that will help you relax. Visualization is similar to daydreaming in that both are achieved through the power of your imagination. It’s a great technique that’s used to overcome panic attacks and anxiety.
In a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, meditation was proven to be more effective at improving sleep quality than other methods in 49 older adults. The study also showed that meditation helped reduce the negative effects of sleep deprivation.
Guided sleep meditation, when used with other sleep hygiene practices, can be a powerful tool in helping you improve your sleep quality. Here are some other practices that you should follow when practicing guided sleep meditation:
Put all of your electronic gadgets (except the one you’re using to listen to the audio recordings) in a different room. If you’re listening to the recordings on your phone, make sure the notifications to your social media accounts are all turned off.
Darken your room and make it cold. A colder room will lower your body’s temperature which will help you sleep better.
Don’t nap during the day if you have trouble sleeping at night. Taking short naps is fine, but try not to sleep for more than 30 minutes.
Keep yourself hydrated. Drink at least 8 glasses of water every day.
Write about things you’re grateful for in a journal. This will help you reduce stress and anxiety which will help you sleep more easily at night.
What’s the goal?
According to the American Sleep Association, about 30% of adults suffer from insomnia and 10% have chronic sleep disorders that make it nearly impossible for them to sleep or staying asleep. Most adults report getting less than 7 hours of sleep. A healthy adult needs at least 8 or 9 hours of sleep every night to function properly.
With so many people suffering from sleep disorders, it’s only natural for methods like guided sleep meditation to gain traction. The purpose of guided sleep meditation is to help you sleep better at night. Better sleep means less stress and less stress means an improved immune system. It’s supposed to help people who are suffering from anxiety so they can quiet their minds and relax their bodies at night.
Allowing your body to relax will trigger your parasympathetic nervous system which will lower your heart rate and help you breathe more deeply. These things will help your body get ready to sleep and you’ll notice yourself falling asleep in the middle of the meditation session. You’ll feel much better during the day once you’ve fixed your sleep habit since your sleep quality directly impacts your mental state.
In conclusion, guided meditation for sleep is a great method to help you sleep better at night. If you suffer from anxiety and spend a lot of time lying awake in bed at night, then guided sleep meditation is perfect for you.
With the help of audio recordings that will instruct you on how you can release tension from your body, you’ll be able to reach a state of mind where you’ll be completely relaxed which will help you sleep peacefully at night. By combining guided sleep meditation with other sleep hygiene practices, you’ll be well on your way to becoming mentally and physically healthy!
