A good night’s sleep is essential for optimal health. This is the best-guided meditation for better sleep to achieve deep, restful slumber.
Introduction
While preparing to sleep, our minds often bombard us with thoughts of things that happened during the day, planning and preparing for the next one or random streaming of thoughts and images through our minds. This happens more to people with busy lifestyles, people dealing with anxiety and those involved in huge projects requiring organizing and scheduling.
Sleep is the moment when we regenerate, cleanse and regain energies. It is very important to have a regular and balanced sleeping pattern and know how and when we sleep best. To help us prepare for bed and maintain a healthy sleeping rhythm, we could go for a guided sleep meditation to help us rewind and calm down.
Intro to Guided Meditation
Guided meditation is a practice where we follow the voice of a teacher or guide who leads us through meditation using various practices and techniques. This is recommended for anyone starting their meditation journey or looking for a supported and more relaxed meditation session.
There are many types of guided meditation, but they all have certain common elements in their structures. For example, they usually begin with body relaxation and the calming down of the breath. After this, they may g,o through different focus points, such as the breath, the body, visualization movements, mantra repetition and more.
Guided Meditation For Better Sleep
A guided meditation sleep relaxation practice supports and prepares the body and mind for a good night’s sleep. In contrast to a regular meditation practice, a guided sleep meditation is done to help us fall into a deep relaxing sleep and create an ambiance of fading away in a sense of calmness and security.
A meditation sleep guide will often be leading the practice using a soothing voice, often accompanied by relaxing, sleeping, music, singing bowls or nature sounds.
The practice could be just a few minutes long, but you could find 30-minute guided sleep meditation scripts or even longer. It is important to remember that when relaxing and finding your space in a guided meditation, there is no right or wrong. You can experience and go through the practice in your unique way, and the guide is there to light up the path to relaxation.
Preparing For Guided Sleep Meditation
As the name suggests, a guided bedtime meditation is best done in bed, just before you go to sleep. Make sure to do all you must before lying down to stay relaxed and immediately go to sleep after the guided sleep meditation ends.
It is recommended to turn off the lights, have a cup of water next to you in case you need to hydrate yourself and get into the most comfortable sleeping position to begin the meditation.
Picking the Right Script
There are plenty of sleep-guided meditation scripts available online and through apps, as well as free YouTube sleep-guided meditation. Since there are various techniques and scripts, finding the right one for you may take some time.
Depending on what you would like to focus on before falling asleep, you may go for guided sleep meditations, which use techniques such as:
- Breathwork-guided sleep meditation
- Body scan relaxation guided sleep meditation
- Mantra-guided sleep meditation
- Calming sleep affirmation guided meditation
- Visualization-guided sleep meditation
- Story-telling guided sleep meditation
When to Do
Guided sleep meditation is beneficial if you want to deepen your sleep and relax your body and mind before bed. Sometimes when we lie down after a full day’s work, instead of resting and preparing to regenerate during sleep, our mind goes into these seemingly infinite whirlpools of thoughts. This is when deep sleep-guided meditation comes in handy.
It is important to distinguish a guided sleep meditation from a regular meditation session. Meditation, in general, is an active and awake practice that is done while consciously focusing on a certain meditation focus point – such as the breath, the flow of energy, a deity of choice or another. This is done to reach a meditative state called Samadhi, also known as a moment of stillness and absorption.
Guided sleep meditation, on the other hand, is meant for anyone looking for support and relaxation before bed. It is performed and listened to specifically to relax and calm the body, mind, and emotions. This soothing process will help us fall asleep and find a deeper relaxation state during the night.
Benefits of Guided Sleep Meditation
Guided sleep meditation sessions can be easily listened to online and are a great way to prepare the body to enter a resting state. By lowering the heart rate, listening to a calming voice and relaxing the body, a recorded guided sleep meditation will invite you to let go and enter your moment of sleep.
Meditation, in general, is not a sleeping practice. On the contrary, it is done while staying active and consciously focused. However, it might be used to enter a relaxed and calm state, which will later make it easier to fall asleep.
Some of the benefits of a guided sleep meditation include :
- Improved quality of sleep
- Lower stress hormone levels
- Reduced muscle tension
- Deeper sleep and regeneration
- Pain and headache reduction
- Lower heart rate
The Bottomline
When looking for a practice before bedtime which will help you find peace and calm down the whirlpools of the mind, a guided sleep meditation might be worth a try. It reduces stress hormone levels, relaxes the body before bed, and can pave the way for a deeper and more relaxing sleep so you will get up more energized the next morning.
If you wish to learn more about meditation and how it can improve your sleeping pattern and benefit your health and well-being, we invite you to join our online meditation course Calm Your Spirit, Soothe Your Mind followed by our 200Hrs TTC Course.
