Do you have difficulty falling asleep? Do you have restless nights in bed? Did you try to find out the reason behind it? If no, then you would never get a sound sleep. Your sleeping patterns are related to your daily routine. Unhealthy lifestyle and too much stress cause irregular sleep patterns. You will sleep for hours and hours but still, you will not feel fresh. There would not be quality sleep because the quality of sleep does not depend on the number of hours. For better inner conditions and a restful night, you need guided meditation for sleep.
Meditation for sleep may sound a bit weird but it’s something that people with insomnia and sleep deprivation need. Meditation will settle the mind and you will feel relaxed which means it will be easier to have a satisfied sleep.
What is the guided meditation for sleep?
Meditation is very essential to correct both our body and mind conditions. It trains you to focus less on your thoughts and more on the present moment. Our mind focuses more on the thoughts when we are still that is they are powerful at bedtime. This causes difficulty in falling asleep and distracts our natural sleep. Meditation will guide you on how to get natural sleep. It will allow you to focus less on whatever happened throughout the day. The less you think about your day the more rest your mind will get. This way both your mind and body will get rest.
Let us understand the guided meditation for sleep in scientific terms. When we meditate our heart rate lower down and this happened due to the activation of our parasympathetic nervous system. It encourages slower breathe which increases our quality night prospect. The guided meditation for sleep has various new techniques and tools to give relax to your mind and body which eases into restfulness.
Reasons behind restless sleep
What keeps people restless at night? Let us understand the reasons. Almost half of the people of the world are deprived of a sound sleep. It is because of the lifestyle choices and few biological forces. Falling asleep is not simple like you go on the bed and fall asleep. It takes some time and there will be thoughts in your mind that will keep on distracting you.
Other than the random thoughts in your mind, the technology is also a reason behind the sleep problems. Using mobile phones or laptop during sleeping hours or just going before to the bed is the common reason among it. Many of us use gadgets all day and even sleep keeping them right under the pillows.
These screen and technology have negative effects on our sleep. According to a study the more we use devices, the more we will face difficulty in sleeping. One can see these effects in the people who use the gadgets throughout the day. These effects are also seen in people who keep alarmed clock or use phone ringers.
People experiencing insomnia also face problems in sleeping. It is a medical and psychiatric condition which is caused due to certain biological factors. According to researchers, insomnia is a problem caused when either the wake cycle or sleep cycle is irregular. Both cycles don’t work simultaneously but when there is a problem with any one of it, one may face insomnia.
The medical conditions for insomnia include these:
- Arthritis
- Chronic pain
- Asthma
- Nasal/sinus allergies
- Endocrine problems
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Low back pain
- Neurological conditions
Insomnia when combined with anxiety, depression and bad lifestyles cause more difficulty. Therefore, to treat depression and anxiety one needs the help of guided meditation for sleep. Meditation will let you understand and notice the sleeping pattern. Once you are aware of it you can deal in better ways with it. It is a calming and relaxing practice that will create better conditions to get healthy sleep.
Benefits of guided meditation for sleep
Sleeping for less than seven hours daily increases health risks. These include the risk of diabetes, chronic illness, and heart diseases. It also causes impairments in long and short term memory, attention, reaction time and decision-making ability. It ultimately leads to errors at work.
Meditation has many benefits for you.
- It increases better sleep
- lowers the stress levels
- Improves memory and gives mental clarity.
- It also improves the immune system
- It encourages better eating habits
- Helps in weight management
- Reduces the risk of Alzheimer
Ultimately, it leads to a better sense of wellbeing. The best time to meditate is before going to bed. It leads to falling asleep faster and you can experience sound sleep.
Techniques involved in a guided meditation for sleep
Meditation for sleep involves various techniques. Some of them are as follows:
Breathing exercises–
Regulating your health improves sleep. Simply count your breaths and gradually slow down your breathing to give an indication to your brain that your body is going in sleep mode.
- Mindful body scanning– it involves the notice of your body part efforts and breath. It starts with your toes where you have to think of switching off your each body part.
- Visualizations– in visualization, you have to imagine a scene and slowly take your mind into the state similar to hypnosis.
- Counting– it involves the release of your mind from unnecessary thoughts. You have to count slowly from 10 to 100 or more and then backward to 10.
- Silence- silence is also one of a kind of meditation. Stay silent for a few minutes and it will provide you a little guidance for the next day.
- Movement-based meditation– it is also a guided meditation for sleep where you will be participating in activities such as light stretching, low impact postures or tai chi.
- Retracting your day– here you have to review your day. Begin from the morning to shower and then breakfast.
Using these simple meditations techniques one can surely improve their sleeping patterns. If you sleep well, you feel well. The healthy mind and body is the secret of good and restful sleep. Start your day fresh and end it with a sound sleep with this guided meditation for sleep techniques.
As the Outreach Manager for The Sleep Advisor, I wanted to see if you were interested in including a link to our Sleep Hacks guide. I think our link is a great fit as your article shows natural ways to increase your sleep and ours shows life hacks that can be used to maintain those.