Sleep Meditation:
6 Practical Tips on How Meditation Helps Fall Asleep Faster and Easier

In the face of a packed schedule, the first thing we usually sacrifice is our sleeping hours. Many of us forgo sleep on weekdays and try to make up for it on weekends. Unfortunately, this doesn't work. In fact, that habit is probably going to kill you.

So, let's say that you've now decided to let go of this bad habit and want to go back to a normal sleeping schedule. Fast forward to nighttime and you find yourself staring up at the ceiling past midnight.

Don't be too disheartened. Getting back into a normal sleeping pattern is hard. But, there are methods that can help you, and one of them is using meditation for sleep.

It might seem that meditation is prescribed as a cure for a lot of things. But the science is robust. Meditation has been proven to decrease anxiety, improve attention, and even help you treat other people better.

However, can meditation improve your sleep quality? Absolutely, but only if you do it correctly. Let's talk more about what you can expect in your sleep meditation practice.

Research has found that there are some things you can expect to happen when you start practicing sleep meditation:

1. You won't feel as tired. Since sleep meditation improves sleep quality, you will be less likely to experience the dreaded 'waking up tired' affliction. After all, there's nothing worse than sleeping for eight hours straight and waking up feeling like you've stayed up all night.

2. It will decrease the occurrence of insomnia. Sleep meditation can help supplement or even supplant medications in certain insomnia types. Sleep meditation especially benefits primary insomniacs or people who have difficulty falling asleep due to non-medical causes.

3. Some long-term effects of sleep meditation include improving your physical health. How? Meditation helps you get better sleep, not just more sleep. Improved sleep quality will make certain inflammatory pathways flare up less and will greatly decrease your risk of chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Choosing how long to meditate is entirely up to you. But, we recommend doing it for around 10-15 minutes. Here are some sleep meditation techniques you can try:

Body scan meditation is a type of meditation where you slowly review each part of your body in your mind. It is usually done while lying down, which makes it suitable for a bedtime routine. Here are some things that you should do:

• Find a comfortable place to rest your body and start paying attention to your breathing. Do not try to slow it down or speed it up.
  
• Begin your body scan. You can start from the tips of your toes or the top of your head.
  
• Continue going through each part of your body from the starting point. Observe what is happening to each of your body parts. If you can't feel anything, don't worry, just continue to the next body part.
  
• Don't get fixated on any sensations that you feel in one body part. Once you're finished, start again.
  

Guided sleep meditation is a type of calming meditation for sleep where you listen to someone who guides you through a meditation session. It commonly comes in a recording, either in the form of a podcast or a mobile app. Here are some things that you should pay attention to:

• Prepare yourself for bed. Finish all your bedtime routines before starting your guided meditation for sleep session.
  
• Lie down. Try not to move too much while meditating.
  
• Spend at least one minute to pay attention to your breathing prior to the guided sleep meditation session. This will help you clear your mind.
  
• Pay attention to your guide's voice and follow their instructions. Headphones are recommended if you're having trouble concentrating.
  

Mindfulness meditation has one focus: the present moment. It requires that you leave behind your recurring thoughts of past and future. Though not strictly a sleep meditation technique, mindfulness meditation can help you sleep better. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Use your breathing to center your mind. It can be easy for your mind to drift away when it is not being constantly barraged with things that require its attention. To avoid this, focus on the inhale-exhale pattern of your breathing.
  
• When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to focus on the present. Don't be too hard on yourself, as this will probably happen a lot at the beginning of your practice.
  
• Observe the feelings and thoughts that arise, but don't delve too deep into them. Understand that they exist, but don't ascribe meaning to them.
  

Mantra meditation is perfect for you if you're dealing with a restless mind. Though it might be counterintuitive, mantra meditation can be useful to prepare your mind for sleep. Mantras can be sentences, phrases, or even just hums. Here are some things to note:

• Mantras can be uttered out loud or silently. Be aware that some mantras are most useful when spoken strongly because of their positive vibration effects.
  
• Repeat your mantra throughout your meditation session. Do not use more than one mantra per session.
  
• Focus only on your mantra. Other meditation styles require you to focus on your breathing or the sensations in your body. Not this one. Do not divide your attention.
  
• Alternatively, you can also choose to synchronize your mantra chanting with your breathing pace. This will help you focus better and make you more relaxed.
  

Unlike the other meditation techniques in this list, candle meditation allows you to open your eyes during the session. In exchange, you must focus on the candlelight. There are some things that you should pay attention to when practicing candle meditation:

• Sit up straight. While doing candle meditation, you should not lie down or slouch.
  
• Scented or scentless candles are acceptable. If you're choosing scented candles, make sure that the smell is soothing to you.
  
• Focus on the flame. Don't pay attention to anything other than the flickering of the candlelight.
  
• Stop when you're feeling drowsy. Candles are a fire hazard, so before you accidentally fall asleep, it is best to end your candle meditation session.

Now that you know several meditation techniques, you should also know that there are other things you can do to boost the effects of your sleep meditation practice:

1. Play some meditation music. Don't choose songs that are too distracting since your mind will end up dancing to the tunes instead.
   
2. Use breathing exercises for sleep. Meditation and breathing exercises tend to be conflated with one another, but they are two different practices. Learn some breathing exercises for sleep, such as lion's breath or alternate nostril breathing.
   
3. Eat before you meditate. If you don't, your mind will definitely wander to thoughts of food. Of course, it is always better to eat healthy foods, like vegetables and fruits, especially since you're going to bed afterward. If you've been struggling to maintain good eating habits, you can read our guide here.
   
4. Find a secluded space. Any sleep meditation techniques are best done in a distraction-free space. By doing this, you can reap the full benefits of a session.
   
5. Turn off your phone. If this is not possible, make sure that there are no interruptions from your device. Make sure you turn off all non-essential notifications while practicing sleep meditation.
   
6. Be gentle with yourself. It might be hard in the beginning, especially when it comes to stopping your mind from wandering, but you mustn't chastise yourself too much. Remember, the purpose of your sleep meditation is to make you more relaxed and ready for sleep.
   

To be better at something, you must practice it often. Thus, to gain benefits such as better physical health and decreased insomnia and tiredness, you must be consistent with your sleep meditation practice.

With so many choices of sleep meditation techniques, it can be easy to get too focused on determining which one is better than the rest.

Focus on one. Whether it's body scan meditation, guided sleep meditation, mantra meditation for sleep or some other form, all that matters is that you stick with it. If you're struggling with your sleep meditation practice, make sure that you have already eaten some healthy food before your session.

When you're starting to get into the habit of sleep meditation, boost your practice with some meditation music and breathing techniques.

Be patient and persevere, and you will return to your normal sleep pattern in no time.