Does it take you an excessive amount of time to fall asleep? Do you have trouble turning your brain off and just relaxing when it’s time to wind down? Do you find yourself even waking up in the middle of the night due to anxiety, stress or worries? Then guided sleep meditations may be right for you. According to VeryWellMind, guided sleep meditations are 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.” With regular practice and use, guided sleep meditations have been proven to reduce one’s trouble with falling and staying asleep.
Achieving a rejuvenating sleep experience is extremely important for lowering stress, and can even improve one’s immune system. According to the American Sleep Association, thirty percent of adults have suffered from short-term problems with insomnia, ten percent have chronic difficulties with falling or staying asleep, and a third of adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep per night. These numbers are extremely troubling because adults need at least seven to nine hours of sleep to fully function at their best.
Guided sleep meditations target one’s thinking process at night.
Its goal is to “reduce the impact of worrying thoughts and tensions in your body on your sleep.” To achieve this, you will start by listening to an audio recording that will direct you through each step. The guided sleep meditation that you choose will employ the use of a “body scan.” This is the process of “directing your attention away from the thoughts to noticing the sensations in your body without trying to change them.” As the meditation commences, the guide will direct you through various parts of your body, challenging you to notice the “heaviness, tension, tingling, temperature, and tightness” of each body part. It will then direct you to relax and release that tension by “breathing into that part.” The meditation will also target your thoughts, instructing you to let them wander away from you as if they were clouds or leaves floating by. It may also employ the use of breathing exercises, visualization, and even the practice of giving gratitude. Ultimately, you will feel your body soften as you begin to breathe more deeply.
Guided sleep meditations are able to be a huge relief to sleeping issues and ailments because they activate the parasympathetic nervous system which helps one to lower their heart rate and slow down their breathing rate. It’s so effective that you may even notice that you’re falling asleep during the exercise – and what’s even better is that you’re sure to see improvements during your day; regular users of guided sleep meditations reported feeling less fatigued and depressed.
One thing’s for sure, guided sleep meditations are definitely worth the try.