Why guided meditation helps sleep
Guided meditation helps improve the quality of our sleep by settling the mind. Being led through a guided practice helps draw the mind away from anxious thoughts and engage it in a restful practice, where it’s turbulence is calmed.
The challenge with trying to sleep with an anxious mind is that the mind catches our attention and then runs with it. One anxious thoughts leads to another or escalates until we can’t sleep because we’re in a heightened anxious state. At such times, many will turn to their phone or the TV for escape, but those choices don’t support sleep.
Guided meditations can also divert the mind, but do it in a progressively relaxing way that helps the mind settle enough for sleep to come naturally.
Different types of sleep meditation
Guided meditations are helpful for settling into peaceful sleep. There are many different types of meditation for sleep. Some work with the breath, or body, others more with releasing unwanted thoughts and relaxing the mind through visualization. If you want to try guided meditations for improving your sleep it can be helpful to try different types and see which you prefer.
Using the body to relax the mind for sleep
The Body Scan meditation is a guided practice that redirects the mind away from racing or anxious thoughts towards different areas of the body. The body scan brings awareness to tension and temperature and other sensations and works through the whole body releasing tension and increasing relaxation.