Benefits of Meditation Before Sleep
Adopting sleeping meditation techniques provides not only greater ease in falling asleep, but also superior quality rest time.
We often go to bed with our heads full of thoughts. We nurture worries about the next day, creating a mental schedule of to-do items.
Or we resume actions and conversations from the past day.
The fact is that these internal dialogues do nothing to contribute to the delivery that sleeps demands of us. Even when we’re exhausted, sleep can be a big hurdle as the mind remains agitated.
Effects of Meditation
Sleeping meditation is effective in quieting inopportune thoughts at the moment. It provides deep relaxation and leads to the ideal state for invigorating sleep.
The best way to attest to the effects of meditation is to experience it in practice. So, in this post, we’ve gathered all the information you need to know to insert the habit into your routine.
Results can be collected as early as the first session. In the medium and long term, they cause significant impacts on health and disposition.
Sleeping meditation vs. medicines
Anyone who has ever had a bad night’s sleep knows how the body and mood react.
The feeling of tiredness is persistent.
It becomes difficult to stay focused and think clearly.
Headaches, muscle pain, and appetite disturbances often manifest themselves.
Also, appearance delivers the absence of adequate rest.
Not to mention the irritation, which is exacerbated!
When healthy sleep—from 6 to 8 hours, without significant interruptions or disturbances—becomes an exception to the routine, the problems get worse.
The body’s balance, in all its metabolic functions, depends on the quality of our rest.
Investing in the excellence of rest, therefore, is one of the smartest things to do when seeking complete health—both for body and mind.
Unfortunately, the trivialization of sleep-inducing drugs appears as the only apparent solution.
Undoubtedly, for certain serious disorders, such as chronic insomnia, the use of medication may be, at least for a while, advisable.
However, due to the ease of access to “black stripe” medicines — such as Rivotril — prescribed without clear criteria, a good part of the population adopts pills, with the risk of dependence, when it would not be necessary to do so.
Side effects
Any chemical device presents serious possibilities for side effects. If we are concerned about our well-being, we need to analyze our choices and investigate alternatives.
The meditation strategy to sleep well, in a natural way, offers us much more autonomy, adding advantages rather than losses – typical of the continuous consumption of medications.
You don’t have to drastically change your lifestyle or embrace religious beliefs to experience the effects of meditation for insomnia—whether it’s occasional or persistent.
Some people shy away from the idea of meditating precisely because they consider it a mystical ritual.
In its origins, meditation was always linked to issues of spiritual development.
However, once its effects caught the attention of academic researchers, the techniques gained adaptations, detaching any esoteric character from the activity.
Thus was born mindfulness, the most popular form of meditation today.
Widely recommended by doctors and psychologists, it abstains from any religious conviction, seeking support in scientific evidence to support its validity.
So, if your excuse for not being interested in meditation is associated with understanding the practice as exclusive to practitioners of any religion, review your concepts! It is health professionals — committed to the methodical search for resources that promote a better quality of life — who recommend it as a solution.
Benefits of Sleep Meditation
Some lie down in bed and only manage to fall asleep after hours, changing their position several times, looking at the clock, with anxiety over the passing time.
The more common this situation becomes, the more worried we are, already waiting for the difficulty.
We are creatures of habit. Therefore, if the moment of putting your head on the pillow becomes tied to life reviews or future planning, it will be increasingly difficult to break the habit.
Note, for example, if you have a habit of getting up, in the middle of the night, to go to the bathroom or have a glass of water. The process tends to repeat itself daily because we are conditioned.
Adopting meditation techniques before bed breaks our patterns. This is because we reorient our thoughts, replacing the imperative of worries with instructions that lead to relaxation.
Even people who don’t have trouble falling asleep can benefit from meditation. In addition to inducing sleep, it gives quality to hours of rest.
Remember: the better you sleep, the better your enjoyment of waking time!
Sleeping well can be the answer to a series of obstacles you face daily, but you never thought they could result from unresolved sleep.
Check out some proven impacts that the practice of sleeping meditation brings to your health:
- Controls appetite (as sleep is essential to regulate hormones when we sleep poorly or little, we are more likely to feel like eating high-calorie and fatty foods);
- improves metabolism performance (in addition to the previous item, for those who want to lose weight, for example — and don’t find out why they find it difficult — adequate rest can be the solution);
- reduces stress (one of the main enemies of productivity and happiness);
- decreases depression and anxiety;
- increases levels of melatonin (an essential hormone for us to fall asleep and wake up in a good mood, in addition to being a powerful antioxidant);
- favors the immune system;
- combating hypertension and cardiovascular problems;
- promotes the synthesis of the GH hormone (which contributes to physical performance, prevents osteoporosis, and inhibits the accumulation of fat in the body);
- contributes to the health and beauty of the skin, preventing premature aging (which pieces of evidence — wrinkles, expression lines, loss of tone and dark circles — are quite common in people who sleep poorly);
- improves the ability to concentrate, clear thinking, focus, and memory;
- it gives greater disposition and good humor (effecting in personal, social, professional relationships and routine activities);
- helps those living with sleep paralysis.
How to perform sleep meditation
If you are new to the art of meditation, the tip is to look for guided meditation audios. They are easily found on YouTube or specific apps.
Guided meditation is nothing more than a series of instructions, which guide the focus of your thought while summoning sensations conducive to the induction of sleep – in the case of meditation to sleep, the purposes of meditating are varied.
Guided Meditation Narratives will help you give full attention to your intention to sleep. They will also provide great relaxation, with impressive speed and efficiency.
Sleep meditation techniques often place great emphasis on breath control. You will be invited to take a deep breath in and out, counting the time. It may sound very simple, but the truth is that breath control uniquely calms us.
In any situation where stress or anxiety hits, try taking a deep breath and letting it out, as if it were a big sigh. Repeat the exercise a few times and witness the change in your physical and mental state.
Feel your body!
In addition to watching your breath, the narrative will likely ask you to feel your body, from your scalp to your toes.
With your eyes closed and focusing on one part of your body at a time, you will relax your muscles, feel the contact with the bed, surrendering to the comfort of the moment.
Quiet sounds and music, in addition to the instructor’s leisurely tone of voice, contribute to the immersion in the mood.
Words and suggestions offered by sleeping meditation will guide you to intense well-being. Visualizing positive landscapes, colors and atmospheres can also be encouraged.
Find audios that empathize with your preferences. Wear headphones and listen to the sessions, until you assimilate the instructions, as a new habit to encourage sleep.
With practice, you will know how to proceed and will be able to meditate on your own, without the help of extra resources.
Tips for potentiating the effects of sleeping meditation
When we understand that sleeping well transforms our quality of life, we understand that it is worth investing in care to ensure that sleep is the best possible.
It is not necessary to revolutionize the routine to obtain expressive gains! Just make wiser choices, such as avoiding stimulant coffee, sodas, or teas after the evening.
Exceptions do happen but don’t make dinner a moment of excess. Prefer to eat less and lighter foods (too much fat or carbohydrates are enemies of quiet rest).
Put on comfortable clothes, choose a good pillow, comforter, and, of course, a quality mattress. Your body needs to feel cozy and your posture should be favored, even to avoid pain the next day.
Make the environment dark and free from noise (such as a TV on). Don’t be scouring social media or replying to messages when you’re in bed.
Another important consideration concerns schedule maintenance.
Set a time for going to bed and for waking up, as this will help to condition your mood for both activities.
Being unruly, in this regard, interferes with the body’s natural stimuli.
Finally, create your ritual and then bet on meditation to sleep.
In addition to discovering how the practice lulls your sleep, you will notice the results of meditation to wake up feeling refreshed, refreshed, with rejuvenated energy and skin!
