What is meditation for sleep?
Meditation trains us to be less in our head and more aware of the present moment. The mind’s tendency to get caught up in thoughts is perhaps strongest at bedtime, when we suddenly stop and be still. Meditation for sleep is a specific, guided experience that offers a natural sleep aid all on its own, allowing us to let go of the day—everything that’s happened and everything that’s been said — so that we can rest the mind while simultaneously resting the body. In scientific terms, meditation helps lower the heart rate by igniting the parasympathetic nervous system and encouraging slower breathing, thereby increasing the prospect of a quality night’s sleep.
While working through a sleep-based guided meditation, you may discover new tools and techniques to help relax the body and mind and let go of the day, easing into restfulness.
Sleep is as critical to our well being as food, water or shelter. Yet, as a society, we don’t always treat it this way. Research shows that Americans lack proper sleep: Most adults function best when they sleep 7-9 hours per night, but over 40% of Americans sleep fewer than 7 hours nightly, according to a recent Gallup poll. 30% of people report difficulty falling and staying asleep at least a few times per month; 6% experience insomnia on a near-nightly basis. This problem has even birthed an entire industry: In 2014, people around the world spent $58 billion on sleep-aids, a figure projected to rise to $76.7 billion by 2019.
Some people feel pride or resilience in their ability to function well without sleep. We can see this reflected in phrases like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or “You snooze, you lose.” More recently, however, sleep has emerged in research and culture as an essential component of a healthy lifestyle.
The benefits of sleep meditation
Regularly sleeping fewer than seven hours per night increases the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, unhealthy eating habits that can lead to other chronic illnesses. Sleep deprivation can cause impairments in short and long term memory), decision making), attention), and reaction time).
People who are sleep deprived also tend to make more errors at work-and drive more dangerously on the road.
Increased and better sleep, on the other hand, can lower levels of stress, and improve mental clarity) and memory). Improved sleep also affects our immune systems), encourages better eating habits and weight management.
Better sleep has even been linked to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s. Studies regularly connect improved sleep with providing a greater sense of well being.
Why might you choose to meditate before bed? Especially if you have insomnia or difficulty falling asleep, meditation has been shown to improve the quality and efficiency of sleep, how quickly you fall asleep, and how long you can stay awake during the day.
Completing a meditation for sleep before bed can help you to fall asleep faster; once asleep, you’re likely to sleep more soundly, too.
Deep Sleep Guided Meditation
Are you in need of a calming and relaxing ritual, so that you’ll sleep deeply all night? Then this blissfully calm guided meditation is made for you. Sleep allows your Soul to travel out of your body back “home” to recharge, cleanse and bring back into your body pure cosmic life-force. As well as bringing more balance, clarity, and alignment to your coming day. May these tones and frequencies nourish your body, mind, and Soul – and lull you into the deepest rejuvenating and healing sleep yet.
To do lists for deep sleep
Sleep is one of the top priority factors in the health care. A deep and full sleep will help you relax your mind. Here are tips for enjoying a great night of sleep
Shower
Body temperature plays an important role in regulating sleep. Shower before going to bed is to help the body adjust the temperature effectively. Warm water provides energy, make the body relaxable and comfortable prior to sleep.
Yoga
Performing meditation and taking a deep breath in a few minutes before bedtime has brought health benefits. This makes you sober and eliminate the noise of a busy day. Meditation is an effective spell to take you to the beautiful dream.
Write a diary
You have gone through a hard day? Stress job? Write your thoughts in the form of a diary or free article. The writing helps clear your mind and arrange everything better. Experts study said writing a diary is one way you talk to yourself and improve your mood before sleeping.
Drink a glass of water
Many people turn to alcohol as a sedative dose when they feel stress. However ,alcohol is not absolutely good for your sleep. Instead, you should drink a glass of warm water, which helps the body to return to the balance state .
Exercise
Sweating helps the body eliminate toxin and relax more. Many scientific evidence shows a few simple movements before bedtime will help you have a good sleep
6. Stay away from electronic devices
The light from electronic devices such as TV, telephone, computer will interrupt the sleep cycle. Please remove the electronic devices out of the bedroom so that your sleep is not affected.
7. Night meal-night meal is not good for your health, but it’s better if you eat intelligently at night. Some healthy snacks helps to regulate blood sugar and enhance sleep quality .
8. Keep pets out of the bedroom-the experts emphasize that sleeping with pets can make your sleep interrupted. Pets can wake you up or cause unexpected allergic from fur, waste. Ideally, you keep your pets out of the bedroom to have a peaceful night. With the above bedtime habits for good health you can apply and follow with yourself. This helps you create beneficial and good habits for your body health, help you have a good and deep sleep.
Breathe Your Way To Deep Sleep Tonight (+ A Guided Meditation) Posted March 8, 2020 • Read Time: 6 minutes Facebook Twitter Pinter est Emails-ms Everything you do, you’ll do better with a good night’s sleep. – Adrianna Huffing ton, author of “Sleep Revolution” Thanks to chronic anxiety, I’ve battled insomnia and sleep deprivation since my early teens. I’ve had my fair share of sleepless nights, tossing and turning until the sun came up. If I was lucky enough to eventually fall asleep, chances were I wouldn’t stay asleep for long. I’d wake up feeling mentally and physically exhausted and out of it the next day no matter how much I seemed to “sleep.” My body’s rhythm was all out of whack, and I couldn’t find relief or solutions regardless of what I tried. And I tried everything I knew at the time – sleeping pills, wine, weed, sleep mask, etc. Nothing worked long-term. It turns out I was doing it all wrong. I didn’t know it then, but many of the things I was doing were actually making my sleep situation worse… Sleep Hygiene & The Sleep Problem Epidemic I learned about the concept of sleep hygiene, which the American Sleep Association defines as the “behaviors that one can do to help promote good sleep using behavioral interventions.” It turns out my sleep hygiene was pretty lousy. So I ditched the sleep aid, weed, and wine before bed and instead researched all the ways in which I could improve my sleep quality naturally. Of all my research, the most surprising proven sleep hack had been under my nose all along… Studies show that regulated deep breathing can help lessen the symptoms of insomnia while improving sleep quality. (1) This is really promising considering that 50% of the adult U.S. population experiences insomnia, with women and the elderly more at risk. (2) What’s even more concerning is that 9 million of us are having to resort to prescription sleep medication because we feel there is no other way. (3) So we take these pills that come with a slew of detrimental side effects like: (4)
Memory and focus problems Burning or tingling in the hands, arms, feet, or legs Changes in appetite Constipation/ Diarrhea Difficulty keeping balance Dizziness Daytime drowsiness Sleepwalking/ Night terrors
Sleep Meditation: What’s Happening in Calm Sleep Stories?
I started my month-long sleep meditation adventure using the Calm app, which has a feature called “Sleep Stories.” Essentially, it’s a library filled with soothing bedtime tales for grown-ups, narrated by the dreamiest of voices (think Matthew McNaughton, Leona Lewis, Stephen Fry, and Calm’s very own, Tamara Levitt).
“We integrate mindfulness elements into sleep stories in a very deliberate way, giving the stories a grounding, calming quality,” says Christian Slalom, Calm’s community manager and a yoga and mediation instructor. “Instead of an elaborate buildup, Sleep Stories are a gradual unwind.”
1. Find an Anchor
Slomka says the sleep stories are geared to helping listeners focus their attention on an anchor—usually the breath—to quiet the mind and help shift the listener away from overactive thoughts. As the character in the story travels along her journey, she is fully immersed in the present moment. The thinking is that the listener will experience this immersion along with the sleep story’s character.
2. Practice Body Awareness and Relaxation Techniques
Another mindfulness element that sleep stories touch on is body awareness and relaxation. When a story opens, the narrator walks the listener through a brief body scan exercise to help quiet the mind and relax the body. Throughout the story, the character also scans through her sensations, and the hope is that the listener does the same.
3. Sensory Awareness
The way the scenes in each sleep story are described cultivates a sense of sensory awareness. Mindfulness involves perceiving ordinary moments with curiosity, a beginner’s mind, and a sense of wonder, says Slomka. One way to experience this is by coming into contact with nature. The idea is to observe the beauty of nature in all its exquisite detail: the colors of a flower, the movements of a bird, the sounds of a river, the smells of a forest. This attentive observation keeps the listener in present moment awareness.
Week 1 of Sleep Meditation: Am I doing this “right”?
I wake up at 5 a.m. on the regular, teach yoga in the morning, work out, plow through a full work day, and sometimes even teach yoga again at night. So, you’d better believe that when my head hits the pillow at night, I’m out like a light. When I began this challenge, I decided to make a conscious effort to not only try to go to bed early, but to actually start winding down before leaping under the covers (a.k.a. not scrolling through Instagram or watching Netflix before bed). Sounds dreamy, right?
The first week of my sleep meditation was extremely frustrating. Maybe it was because I’m impatient and didn’t notice a difference after a few days. Or maybe it’s because this sleep meditation challenge just felt like another task on my long to-do list at first. Also, I would fall asleep within the first 5 minutes of each 25-minute sleep story, which, looking back, was a good sign. But during the first few days, I was annoyed at my inability to stay awake and listen to more of the story.
But around day 5, I discovered that Calm’s sleep stories were designed to mimic the kind of bedtime stories most of us experienced when we were kids, which means the whole point of them was to lull me into a deep, restful sleep—not keep me awake, on the edge of my seat.
At the end of my first week of sleep meditation, I stopped judging myself for whether or not I was doing it “correctly” and focused instead on how grateful I was to be able to fall asleep.
Soak your feed in the warm water
In our body, the foot is the farthest part from the heart, therefore, it is provided the least blood and oxygen levels. Soaking your feed in the warm water before bedtime will promote the blood circulation and enhance metabolism.
Drink honey milk
Tryptophan in the milk helps you sleep easily while honey is useful for balancing sugar level in the blood, avoiding being woken early, so drinking a glass of milk with a little bit of honey for an hour before bedtime can help you have a deeper sleep. In addition, you can also eat bananas, because it contains a high rate of tryptophan, too.
Wash your face with warm water
Radiation is everywhere in our daily lives. Therefore, washing your face before going to bed is very important. It helps wash away the dust and radiation in the skin surface, and of course, a clear skin will help you have a good sleep.
Comb hair with your hands
There are many blood vessels on your head, so combing has massage and blood circulation effect, improving memory and thinking ability as well as eliminate fatigue and help you sleep easier.
Walk 15 minutes
Before sleeping, a 15 minute walking will make the blood circulate to the foot and the whole body, helping you fall asleep early.
Open the windows
Open windows will allow the air to circulate in your bedroom and make you feel more comfortable. However, if it is cold or windy, you can open the window for a while before sleeping and then close it. And remember not to wrap the blanket over the head.
Keep good mood
A good mood before bedtime can help you fall asleep sooner and improve your sleep quality. To maintain a good mood, you can listen to music or read books and the most important thing is not to think of the sad story.
Adjust the room’s temperature
If the temperature in the bedroom is too high or too low, it will cause you difficult to sleep. Therefore, you should set the room’s temperature around 16to 18 Celsius degrees.