If you have read this far, it is because you want to know how to relax to sleep.
Come and agree: we know how wonderful sleeping is, as well as imagining how desperate it can be to lie down to rest and not be able to.
For this reason, we want to help you achieve this victory, which is sleeping.
There are cases where difficulty sleeping can be the symptom of a more serious illness.
In cases like this, it is important to seek the help of a professional, in addition to learning relaxation techniques for sleeping. However, in the case of simpler cases, you can apply only the techniques.
- Have light dinners;
- Turn off your electronic devices, as they are very stimulating;
- Keep your room at a temperature between 15 and 22º.
How to relax to sleep?
1. Slow, deep and conscious breathing
Breathing well and correctly brings incredible benefits to our bodies. Diaphragmatic breathing helps to improve our breathing.
This breath will take a large amount of air into the lower lung area. As a result, oxygen absorption improves and our lungs are benefited. This results in a state of total relaxation for our body.
You start the exercise by taking a deep breath for 4 seconds directing the air to the abdomen. Then you hold your breath for 7 seconds and exhale deeply in a sonic manner for 8 seconds.
This exercise must be integrated with all other techniques, after all, breathing is essential during relaxation.
2. Get a massage
Apply pressure with your fingers on the scalp, from the forehead to the nape of the neck.
Massage between 5 or 10 minutes and then you will feel more relaxed. Some devices on the market assist in this massage.
3. Chi Kung technique
This technique has its origins in Chinese medicine.
It has the purpose of maintaining health through the balance of the mind, physical exercise, and breathing.
There are, within the Chi Kung practice, several relaxation exercises for sleeping.
One of them is the one we will describe below:
Sit on the bed with your legs crossed, empty your mind and concentrate on your breathing.
Breathe in and out slowly four times.
Then massage the soles of your feet with clockwise circles for a few minutes.
Do this on both feet. This will help you to relax.
4. Put on a quiet song
Our experience in the city makes us used to noises, but they are not good for our health.
Calm music, preferably instrumental, helps us to rest and causes relaxation in our mind.
Also Read: Phrases of homesickness: 20 quotes that translate the feeling
So, before going to sleep, turn the sound down and try to empty your mind.
In addition to instrumental music, there are classic songs and certain sounds that resemble nature that helps at that time.
5. Move your feet and hands
Lying on your bed, start moving your feet up, down, and sideways in a circular motion.
Do these same movements with your hands and wrists.
These movements helped to relax your body, after all, during the day our members get tired and tense.
Therefore, relaxing them helps.
6. Technique with exercise based on autogenous training
Autogenous training was developed by neurologist Johannes H. Schultz in the last century.
It is effective in treating anxiety and psychosomatic disorder.
It indicates that, through our concentration and attention on physical sensations, we will reach a state of deep relaxation.
One way to do this exercise is to lie down comfortably in bed.
Close your eyes and focus on your right leg and repeat in your mind “my right leg is heavy, very heavy and hot”.
Repeat this five times or until you really feel that weight and that heat.
After feeling this, think “now I feel relaxed, now I am completely relaxed”. Breathe deeply and lift your leg and feel its lightness and relaxation. Do this with all parts of the body.
At the end of this exercise, your whole body will be relaxed. It is a long process, but very effective.
7. Guided image with music
This technique helps both to relax and to treat physical pain. This is possible because it is based on the idea that the mind and the body are connected.
To be able to perform this technique you can follow the following steps:
Sit in bed in a peaceful and relaxed way.
Put on some relaxing music.
After that, put an image in your mind.
Envision a peaceful scene with gentle, relaxing, happy, and engaging stimuli. It can be a forest, an island, a lake, or any other place that is peaceful for you.
Direct all your senses towards this image, that is, smell the place, feel the wind, hear the sound, feel the sun, feel the night.
In this way, placing yourself in that place and feeling how it affects you, relaxation will arise.
This way, you will disconnect from the stress of the day and put yourself in a pleasant place. This will relax your body and mind and result in a quality night’s sleep.
About the mind. How to relax to sleep?
Turn off all the lights
When you reduce the light index, then your body understands that it’s time to rest.
Thus, there is the production of melatonin, responsible for inducing sleep. With that, your mind starts to work in a more relaxed way, because your whole body will start to act to rest.
Avoid sound stimuli
It is very common to hear people saying that calm, relaxing music or even sounds of nature help induce sleep. But, it depends on each person.
We know that what works for everyone is silence. That is, before going to sleep, already at night, it is important to avoid sound stimuli.
Try to have light conversations with others
Very heavy matters, such as problems and difficult situations, can hinder sleep induction.
Thus, your mind will unconsciously try to resolve all of these points covered in the conversation. As a result, your sleep will be impaired.
Try not to think too much
The time to sleep is to empty your head. Practice some mental exercise, or go to a specialist and train your mind to eliminate the flood of thoughts from the day.
Bedtime is not meant to solve problems, but to set them aside.
If even with all these tips you still have difficulty falling asleep, then the best thing to do is to seek an expert on the subject, as this can be Sleep Apnea.
About the brain. How to relax to sleep?
The best way to relax to sleep is to use sleeping meditations:
Mindfulness Meditation
The practice of mindfulness meditation (mindfulness) could not be simpler: choose a quiet place and pay attention to your breathing, when your attention wanders to a list of tasks or problems to solve, return to the present moment.
Just by breathing deeply for 5 minutes, you will already feel a state of total relaxation.
In this meditation, your attention should also be focused on your body, which can be relaxed in your bed, since the ultimate goal of the practice is to fall asleep.
Realize the feeling of the contact of your body with the surface underneath you. Ideally, the mattress should be firm and not too soft. The same goes for the pillow.
Check out a basic guide to mindfulness meditation practice:
- Lie comfortably in your bed.
- For a minute try to relax and try to mentally release tension from your muscles.
- Now with your eyes closed, focus your attention on your breathing.
- Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen
- Breathe slowly through your nose for the 5-second count.
- When breathing, try to keep the hand resting on the chest still and the hand on the belly rise a little. This is called abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing.
- After breathing, hold your breath for 5 seconds and then breathe out through your mouth for 5 seconds.
- Pay attention to the physical sensation of your breathing.
- Inevitably, your attention will leave your breath and wander elsewhere. When you start to realize this, just turn your attention to your breath.
- Once you have learned to breathe with your abdomen you can remove your hands and let them rest beside your body.
- You can do this for 5 or 10 minutes or until you can fall asleep.
Concentration meditation
In this type of meditation, focus your attention on one specific thing.
You can, for example, watch your breath or repeat the mantra aloud, such as “I am at peace”, or else visualize something in your mind.
For beginners, having this focus point is useful for calming the mind and relaxing completely.
Step by step for concentration meditation:
- In a comfortable position, relax all the muscles in your body.
- Breathe a little more deeply than normal.
- If you are distracted by a thought, turn your attention to your breathing. It will act as a kind of anchor for your mind.
- You can also focus your mind on something very simple, like a white circle with a black outline, for example.
The ideal object for you brings peace or joy to your mind but does not create much excitement or boredom when you focus on it. Focusing on that image generates the necessary mindfulness.
Guided meditation
In guided meditation, you hear someone else leading you through the practice of meditation.
An instructor or an audio guide can guide the practitioner to relax the toes, then the legs, and so on.
He or she can take you through guided images, asking you to imagine, for example, a beautiful white sand beach with water hitting the shore.
Many people use guided meditation to relieve anxiety and get to sleep quickly.
The duration of this type of meditation can vary from 5 minutes to 1 hour.
These techniques are available to improve your relaxation to sleep, even if we think that it won’t work, maybe you just need a little motivation to focus on actually relax.
And this is how to relax to sleep
