Meditation is a powerful and potent tool to help with insomnia and sleep. The primary way that meditation can help you sleep better and fall asleep faster is by calming the mind to reduce stress, worry, and anxiety. Insomnia can have many different mental and physical causes. Removing or reducing stress and anxiety through meditation can help with sleep, no matter what the underlying issue is. One of the easiest and most powerful types of meditation for deep peaceful sleep is guided meditation. Most guided meditations use a calming voice with slow and soothing sounds or music to help slow your mind down, let go of worry, and allow your body to deeply relax.
What is a guided meditation?
Guided meditation is a type of visualization meditation where a person’s voice leads you through a step-by-step process of focusing your attention. Guided meditation may bring your focus to your breath or it may have you relax different parts of your body. Guided meditations often use a series of images or sounds to encourage deep states of calm, focus, and relaxation.
How to do a guided meditation for sleep
- Select a video or other recording of a guided meditation, preferably for sleep.
- Turn off any distractions, dim or turn off the lights and make any other preparations for sleep.
- Lie down in bed or find a comfortable place to sit or lay that is also an easy transition to bed.
- Dim the light of the display of your phone or device you’re using for the guided meditation. If you are using the device as an alarm clock, make sure it is plugged in.
- Make sure the autoplay is off so you can easily fall asleep after the recording ends.
- Start the recording and focus on relaxing your body and breathing deeply and slowly.
- Focus your attention on the person’s voice and other sounds in the recording. If your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to the recording.
Asanas for Peaceful Sleep
A slow and gentle practice of calming yoga poses will be helpful to reduce stress and balance the body’s systems to promote good sleep. Use our Calming Pose Sequence just before bedtime and add or emphasize any poses from our list of Postures for Insomnia.
Guided meditation videos for sleep and insomnia
We have searched through hundreds of videos on YouTube to find the ten best free guided meditations for sleep and insomnia. As each one is a bit different, take some time to preview them to see which approach will work best for your personality and type of insomnia or sleep difficulty.
Sleep Hygiene Tips and Meditation for Sleeping Well by YYOGA at Home
The first half of this video begins with some simple tips to promote good sleep. These include proper hydration, moving your body, and take magnesium. The guided sleep meditation begins at the 5:10 mark and focuses on sound, breath, and body awareness. Simple and short, this is a great place to start with guided sleep meditations.
10 Minute Guided Meditation for Sleep by Shona Vertue
This sleep meditation begins with a few simple stretches to release stress and tension. It then moves into some basic pranayama breathing and a guided body scan while in Shavasana pose.
Guided Meditation for Sleep and Anxiety
This 15-minute seated meditation incorporates breath work, visualization, body scan relaxation, and positive affirmations to release tension, stress, and worry. Slow ambient music accompanies this lovely and sweet meditation to surround yourself with the frequency of love and gratitude.
Guided Meditation For Sleep & Relaxation by Boho Beautiful
Listen to this 10-minute meditation to “let go of stress, negativity, and worry to welcome a deep and restful sleep.” This practice focuses on deep breathing, relaxation and affirmations for letting yourself go and surrender to peace and calm. Soothing rain sounds and gentle piano provide a soothing soundtrack for this video.
Guided Deep Sleep Meditation for Developing Gratitude by The Mindful Movement
Cultivate inner peace, compassion, and gratitude in this hour-long sleep meditation. The practice begins with setting an intention for a positive perspective. Progressive relaxation, body awareness, and positive affirmations are the focus of this meditation. Slow ambient music plays in the background throughout the whole video.
Guided Meditation for a Deep Peaceful and Calm Sleep by Meditation Vacation
This meditation uses guided imagery and music composed with binaural beats to help focus the mind and create relaxation. release tension, worry and clear your mind to invite a peaceful and deep sleep in this 47-minute meditation.
Yoga Nidra Guided Meditation for Sleep by Yoga with Ailsa
This video uses Yoga Nidra, a guided meditation practice for systematically relaxing the body part-by-part while maintaining a focused state of awareness. Use this basic 10-minute Yoga Nidra practice to promote overall relaxation and to prepare for a night of deep restful sleep.
Guided Meditation For Sleep And Relaxation by Yoga With Bird
This 10 minute guided body scan meditation can be used before sleep or for insomnia or can be used for Shavasana after a yoga practice. This meditation is designed to “help promote relaxation and calmness of the mind and to simply re-center and recharge when feeling anxious.” Gentle soothing music plays in the background in the video to further help you relax.
Easy & Quick Night Time Guided Meditation Before Sleep by BrettLarkinYoga
This 10-minute meditation can be done lying down on a yoga mat in your bed. This practice uses a calming loop of ambient music and focuses on body awareness, breathing, and progressive relaxation.
Guided Meditation For Relaxation & Sleeping by YOGATX
This meditation begins with a progressive relaxation focusing on major muscle groups as well as organs. For each part, an affirmation is used that you repeat silently to yourself. While this was created for promoting deep sleep you can use this meditation anytime you are feeling stress or anxiety.
Explore More Meditations
A dedicated and consistent practice of meditation helps to calm the mind, reduce anxiety, and promote inner peace. Explore our Meditation Basics section to learn more about the many different types of meditation techniques.
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