Those with sleep troubles know how difficult it can be to fall asleep at night. You can be so tired, but as soon as your head hits the pillow, you find it extremely hard to fall asleep. People with insomnia or anxiety might have even more trouble since they often struggle with “shutting off” their brain to go to sleep.
While there are many ways to aid in falling asleep and staying asleep, many people are turning to more natural means to help them get into bed at night. One way that people are fixing their sleeping is through sleep meditation. In this article, we will look at several ways to meditate throughout the day and before bed to help you fall asleep and rest better during the night.
Sleep Meditation To Fall Asleep In Less Than 15 Minutes
A Mindful Meditation
One of the biggest culprits of troubled sleepers is their mind wandering as they try to go to sleep. The stresses of the day or the week keep crawling back, and they might find it hard to shut off those stressed thoughts to fall asleep. One way to stop these thoughts is mindfulness or sleep meditation.
When it comes to sleep meditation tips, there are several things you can do. While laying in your bed, focus on one part of your life that you want to look at and deal with. Consider the issue for a few moments, then let the issue go. The act of focusing on something and then setting it free is complete sleep meditation mindfulness, and it is one of the many sleep meditation benefits.
Some people choose to keep a journal where they can write down all of their thoughts and stresses from the day, letting go of them through writing. This is the same as sleep meditation mindfulness, and it is an effective way to relax the mind and fall asleep. Processing things before turning the light off can also help calm down your mind since you can’t do anything else after the light has turned off.
Abdominal Breathing Techniques
Much like yoga, this act of breathing is a calming experience that relaxes not only the body but also the mind, and it provides more of those sleep meditation benefits. Start by paying attention to your breathing, or the rise and fall of your chest. Next, transfer the rise and fall mentally to your abdomen, paying attention to the rhythm of your breathing.
Close your eyes if you want or even listen to relaxing music. This technique is also helpful in a dark or dimly lit space. You can incorporate this breathing technique with a few yoga stretches to help truly work out the kinks in your body before bed.
Just the simple act of focusing on the movement of your breaths and your hands on your abdomen can help calm the stressed-out mind. You can even do these breathing techniques during the day, or anytime you are feeling overwhelmed and stressed out.
Mental Imagery
If you’ve ever pictured your happy place in your head, you’ve already tried something called guided mental imagery. While laying in bed, imagine something calm and peaceful like the gentle ocean waves or a gentle rain shower in the mountains. Some even picture the clouds moving across the sky.
No matter what you picture, the act of picturing a place that feels comfortable, relaxing, and safe to you is important. This imagery in your head helps calm your mind from the stresses and allows you to relax mentally and physically for bed. Someplace comfortable or peaceful is ideal for helping people fall asleep.
Count Sheep
It sounds cliché, but counting sheep or counting down can help you fall asleep. Just like with mindfulness or meditative breathing, counting down helps put the mind’s focus on something else besides the stresses of the day.
You can start by lying in your bed, staring at the ceiling. Next, take a deep breath, allowing your body to relax fully. Then, you can start counting in your head. It doesn’t matter if you count up or down from various numbers, and some even picture themselves walking up and downstairs as they count.
As you count each number, take deep abdominal breaths, relaxing your body a little each time you say another number in your head. The act of counting provides a focal point for the mind, preventing it from spinning out of control, which is something that anxious and insomniac people experience quite a bit.
Final Thoughts
These are incredible sleep techniques and sleep meditation tips that are proven to help relax the mind and help anyone get to sleep. You can even try doing several of the techniques together to create the perfect relaxation technique for your needs.
If you ever find yourself having trouble sleeping, feeling a little more stressed than normal, or simply struggling to shut off your mind, the mindfulness, sleep meditation, and more can help you relax fully mentally and physically. You might even find yourself doing these techniques during the day to help you calm down and tackle whatever life throws at you.
