Sleep is a health-and-wellness topic we have an insatiable demand for: how to get more of it and how to get more out of it. We’re willing to try gimmicks and questionable practices in its name.
But legitimate natural aids are out there. On the list: meditation.
Meditation and Sleep: Why They’re Intricately Linked
Why meditation helps with sleep
Depending on the source and duration, estimates for how many adults in the United States battle with insomnia vary widely, from upwards of 40 percent to a relatively low 15 percent. Regardless, plenty of us deal with insomnia at some point or just generally don’t sleep well.
Stress and anxiety are among the primary causes of insomnia.
Meditation’s aim is to calm the mind. It also calms the body. You need both in order to fall and stay asleep.
Your mind and body are connected on a two-way street, but you don’t need meditation to tell you that.
Consider: When you’re angry, which is very much a condition of the mind, your body feels it. It amps up adrenaline and cortisol production, along with the sympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system. These physiological shifts increase your heart rate, and make you more alert and reactive.
Meditation conditions you to learn a relaxed response to stressful thoughts, feelings and circumstances. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system, so it can counter your sympathetic nervous system, helping you dial down.
“The sympathetic part, the action part, doesn’t have a built-in shut off mechanism. It just goes up,” says Inna Khazan, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “It is the job of the parasympathetic branch to come on, to put the breaks on appropriately.”
Research shows meditation can improve:
Sleep onset: your ability to fall asleep in a timely manner
Sleep efficiency: your ability to sleep while trying to do so, as opposed to being awake
Sleep quality: your ability to fall and stay asleep enabling you to can gain maximum benefit from sleeping
Meditation Techniques to Help With Sleep
Developing a regular meditation practice — no matter its type or when you meditate — helps you regulate your nervous system throughout the day, making restful and regular sleep within reach. Put another way, deep relaxation during the day translates into better sleep at night.
Guided meditations are a popular way to meditate before sleep because they require little effort or experience. You can find many online and through bona fide apps such as Breethe, Calm, Chopra and Headspace.
But meditating on your own is empowering and more effective long-term. This makes sense given meditation in its purest form is an independent pursuit, and for good reason: The whole point is mastering your mind, which is unique and something best discovered on your own, not through someone else’s recorded audio template.
Below are 4 meditation practices you can do on your own, whether during the day or before bedtime.
Before you start:
- Give yourself at least 10 minutes for whichever technique you choose.
- Sit or lie down — but if you practice right before bed, lie down in bed.
- Unless noted, your eyes can be open or closed, though closed eyes are best before bed.
1. Mindfulness meditation
Why it works: Mindfulness anchors you in the present, which means you can’t worry about the past or future.
The method: You bear witness to whatever is unfolding, internally or externally, without reacting to it or becoming attached to it. This means you might notice everything from your emotions to physical sensations to your surroundings.
Try it:
Close your eyes.
- Notice the surface that’s supporting you: the bed, for example. Notice the sensation it creates against the points of contact it has with your body.
- Notice the sensation of whatever is against your skin: clothing, sheets, air, etc.
- Notice sounds around you: the hum of a fan, for example.
- Repeat the above steps and linger on each as long as you’d like, or move on to different points of observation.
2. Visualization
Why it works: Visualization means intentionally envisioning something that prompts a relaxation response.
The method: You focus on certain actions or outcomes, such as joy, or focus on the unfolding of an imagined scene, such as floating over a lake on a sunny day.
Try it:
Close your eyes.
- Draw to mind something you find relaxing. Don’t overthink it. If you’re stumped, here are suggestions: an animal you love or a place you visited.
- Engage with your vision. If your vision is a lived memory, trace your way through it. If it’s an object, place or being, linger over it or create a story about it.
3. Muscle relaxation
Why it works: Muscle relaxation counters physical tension, putting your body in an appropriate physical state for relaxation.
The method: You release areas you’re clenching, and do so in a systematic progression that culminates in relaxation throughout your body and mind.
Try it:
You can sit, but lying down is more effective.
- Inhale and draw your attention to your temples. Exhale and soften your temples and forehead.
- Inhale and draw your attention to your jaw. Exhale and let your lower jaw release from your upper jaw.
- Inhale and draw your attention to the sides of your neck and top of your shoulders. Exhale and release your shoulders down and away from your head and chest.
- Continue with a similar pattern until you reach your toes.
4. Breath-work
Why it works: Breath-work immediately and directly balances your autonomic nervous system, helping you be less reactive to thoughts or external stimuli.
The method: You inhale, exhale and sometimes hold your breath in various patterns meant to alter your physiology by manipulating your gut-brain axis and autonomic nervous system.
Try it:
- Notice your breathing: the cadence of your inhales and exhales and the pauses between each. Stay with this for at least a few breaths, longer if you like.
- Inhale to the count of 5.
- Hold your breath to the count of 5.
- Exhale to the count of 8.
- Repeat the 5:5:8 inhale-hold-exhale pattern for as long you like — or until you drift off to sleep.
If the 5:5:8 pattern isn’t comfortable, reduce each step by as long as you like — just be sure your exhales are longer than your inhales.
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