Studies have found that meditation can help reduce cortisol, the hormone associated with stress, and increase natural melatonin levels to help you sleep more restfully. As a relaxation technique, it can calm the mind and body while improving inner peace. When done before bedtime, meditation can help reduce insomnia and sleep problems by promoting overall calm. Guided meditation is when someone else guides you through each step of meditation.
You may be told to breathe or relax your body in a certain way, or they can have you visualize images or sounds. This technique is also known as guided imagery. While the exact steps may vary from source to source, the following step-by-step instructions provide an overview of how to do guided meditation. The daytime sleepiness that follows can make you feel unwell and undermine your productivity, and may even harm your health. Now, a small study suggests that mindfulness meditation, a mind-calming practice that focuses on breathing and awareness of the present moment, can help.
But why? We know that a regular practice of meditation can cause changes in the body that are similar to the changes that occur during sleep. The restful alertness that you may experience with meditation is associated with a decrease in heart rate, reduced metabolism and changes in the nervous system that reduce the arousal that occurs during sleep. Your familiarity with mindfulness and your ability to step back and observe thoughts and emotions a little more clearly will be critical in turning a “reaction” into a “response.” And this is exactly what you are training your mind for when you sit down to meditate. Therefore, it is no accident that meditation has been found to have such a positive effect on insomnia. In fact, in a Stanford study of insomniacs using meditation, 60% didn't even qualify as insomniacs at the end of the study. While not the equivalent of flipping a switch for better sleep, the practice of meditation over time can be a powerful tool on the path to sleep well-being and health. Meditation helps keep you from getting in your own way and allows your brain to regulate sleep and wakefulness based on how it does so naturally.
Of course, the amount of time spent meditating, the type of meditation practiced, and the quality of sleep experienced are factors in this explanation. Let's take a look at the specific meditation techniques that usually work well for sleep and how to do each of them. But it's not as simple as listening to a guided sleep meditation to help you fall asleep, says Jason Ong, Ph. For example, one study found that two different types of meditation are related to the release of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. In fact, according to some Buddhist texts, a full night's sleep is about four hours among competent meditators.
Some believe that it is advisable to avoid meditation before bedtime, as the practice can cause sensations of concentration and awareness. Studies in people with meditation experience have found that they show improvements in slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, as well as fewer nocturnal awakenings. Neuroimaging studies are beginning to support the idea that a meditation practice promotes greater wakefulness and a lower propensity for sleep as it progresses in intensity. Interestingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that long-term expert meditators need much less sleep.
