We’ve all been there. A restless night with too much tossing and turning. Maybe stress from work is keeping you up or you just can’t get comfortable. No matter the reason, sleep deprivation is a leading cause for most of our classic bad days. In fact, sleep deprivation can lead to all-day bouts of irritability, anxiety, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, poor decision making capabilities, and even a lowered sex drive. Thanks to science, there is a solution that can be used anytime and anywhere to induce sleep that lasts all night to help create a more refreshed, better you. The answer is sleep meditation.
By meditating to fall asleep, your body is treated to a natural process that avoids medications and leads to feeling recharged and rejuvenated. Studies by leading medical research institutions have confirmed that sleep meditation benefits directly lessened insomnia, fatigue, and even depression in their test subjects. So, what are some sleep meditations to try?
Some simple and quick sleep meditation methods to try out for yourself
Guided meditation
Because guided meditation allows you to follow along to an audio recording of a professional, it means no worries when trying to figure things out on your own. Simply follow the directions on the track. It will be ideal to find a guided meditation audio track or CD that comes from a reputable source and to test it out once.
This way, you can ensure that there are no advertisements or broken audio before attempting to meditate with it. Finally, set your devices sleep mode or power saver to turn itself off after a set amount of time, relax, and enjoy!
Progressive muscle relaxation meditation
This technique is great way to enjoy more control in the process as you begin to spread your sleep meditation wings. During this process, you will repetitively tense and relax muscle groups in your body to promote relaxation and enhance your awareness of how your body feels.
This method is typically done by starting with muscles in your head and working downwards over your body. Tense your muscles without bringing on pain for about five seconds and move on to another one. Make sure to revisit any muscles that still feel sore. Enjoy your relaxed body and drift off to sleep!
Mindfulness meditation
This meditation technique requires a little more thought and focus, but the sleep meditation benefits can still be easily achieved. To begin this sleep meditation, start taking several long breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. People will typically imagine events and worries of the day leaving the body with each exhalation. While breathing, reflect on every sensation in your body and every feeling in your mind. After allowing yourself to focus on the sensations of your body and the feeling of the bed or the room around you, begin to imagine “switching off your body.”
The way this works is to picture each individual part of your body, starting with your toes, and giving it “permission” to switch off. The feeling of your body at rest should allow your mind to enter into a state of deep relaxation and restful sleep should soon follow.
Congratulations! You now have some of the most successful sleep meditation tips at your disposal. Although, you may still be wondering how does it actually help? Throughout studies done by Harvard and the University of Massachusetts, it has been found that sleep meditation can enhance and activate the brain waves that promote deep sleep. Anxiousness, depression, or general alertness lead to an excess of something called beta brain waves.
This brain activity is associated with preventing you from achieving the needed relaxation to fall asleep. With meditation, the brain waves that promote calmness and deep sleep are activated. Even better is that these relaxation promoting brain waves actually cancel out beta waves, insuring that you stay asleep throughout the night.
Meditation has also been proven to boost melatonin, the chemical in our bodies that brings on sleep and usually peaks just before we go to bed. Research has found that those who engaged in these sleep meditation tips had significantly higher melatonin levels than those who didn’t. So, daily sleep meditations can be a great way to kick your melatonin into high gear and provide the sleep you need. Now, go forth and never fear sleepless nights again.
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