Guided Meditation for Sleep: How to Get Started

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsResearchBenefitsHow to PracticeTips

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Research

Benefits

How to Practice

Tips

Guided sleep meditation is a method for helping you to let go of worrying thoughts and relax your body before bed. Like other forms of meditation, this practice involves moving your focus away from your thoughts to sensations in your body.

In simple terms, guided sleep meditation involves meditating before sleep, typically while you are laying in bed. While you can practice sleep meditation on your own, guided practice usually means that you listen to an audio recording that directs you through the steps of the guided sleep meditation.

The goal of guided sleep meditation is to reduce the impact of worrying thoughts and tension in your body on your sleep. By learning how to shift your focus and relax your body, you will start to notice improvements in your ability to fall and stay asleep.

Regular practice of guided sleep meditation has been shown to improve sleep, meaning that this method is an important strategy that you can use to help reduce problems falling and staying asleep.

What the Research Says

According to the American Sleep Association, around 30% of adults have short-term problems with insomnia, and about 10 percent have chronic difficulties with falling and/or staying asleep.What’s more, around a third of adults report typically getting less than seven hours of sleep per night.

Given that adults need seven to nine hours of sleep to function best, and teenagers need even more (eight to 10 hours), it’s not surprising that methods for improving sleep are becoming more well-known.

In a 2015 study published in JAMA, it was shown that mindfulness meditation was more effective for improving sleep than a sleep hygiene intervention with 49 older adults.The mindful awareness practice (MAP) intervention that was used took place over six weeks for two hours each week.

It was also found that the effects on sleep carried over into daytime issues, with fatigue and depression being reduced. While this is a small initial study, it suggests that guided sleep meditation may be more effective than sleep hygiene practices alone (e.g., going to bed at a certain time each night, not using electronics before bed).

Benefits of Meditation for Sleep

Meditationhelps you to rest in the present moment. When you lay your head on the pillow at night, it’s likely that you begin to focus on the thoughts you were suppressed during the day. Without any outside distractions, it can be hard to control runaway thoughts that may lead toanxiety and depression.

Guided sleep meditation allows you to let go of the thoughts that are swirling and to rest your mind. In turn, this activates yourparasympathetic nervous system, which helps to lower your heart rate and slow down your breathing rate. All of these changes prepare you for sleep—you may even find yourself drifting off to sleep in the middle of the meditation practice.

It’s important to note that guided sleep meditation is not about forcing yourself to sleep. Sleep should be a side benefit of the practice, which is aimed at relaxing your body and slowing your mind.

You should also notice daytime benefits of doing guided sleep practice, since getting enough sleep at night is related to how you feel during the day.

Over time, you should find it easier to jump into the meditation and follow the prompts. So, don’t give up too early if you find at first that you can’t calm down or relax when doing the meditation.

How Meditation Impacts Your Mind and Body

How to Practice Guided Meditation for Sleep

Sleep meditations can come in many different types, depending on how you’d like to unwind your day. Below are some techniques that can be included in common sleep meditations. Here are five sleep meditations to try and tips on how to get the most of out of them.

Yoga Nidra: The Sleep Meditation for Restorative Rest and Relaxation

Body Scan

32:00A Night Meditation to Help You Unwind and Let Go