mizzparkerI got 99 problems and sleep ain’t one!
Using meditation for sleep is just one example of how meditation can benefit your life. Practitioners have always known the positive effects of meditation on sleep and it might be one of the best-kept secrets.
Are you a night person?
Before I started meditating, I considered myself a “night” person. Someone who liked to stay up late and wake up late. After staying up half the night I would find myself still laying in bed wide awake. Then finally falling asleep for what seems to be in instant, it’s time to get up.
Now it’s late morning, maybe early afternoon and as soon as I would wake up, it felt like my energy was already drained. It would take a few minutes of lying in bed before actually slowly descending out of the bed.
Unproductive Late Nights
Does this sound familiar? Are you a “night” person too? Well, I hate to break it to you but let me tell you why you aren’t really a night person, that is if this scenario is how you’ve been operating too.
Now if you stay up late working on projects and you wake up in the morning and hop out of bed with your swag on excited about how productive your day will be, then this may not resonate with you.
The reason why you aren’t really a “night” person is that you are only stalling the stress at bedtime because you know your mind will be racing with all the constant worrying thoughts when you lay down in the silence. You might even feel like you aren’t really looking forward to the next day because you know it will only bring all of your worries and problems with it. Yes, stress is a bi%#h!
99 Problems
The problems in life won’t go away but many times we are stalling our lives because we don’t know what to do next. We feel stuck. And there are plenty of distractions to keep us occupied just enough to float through life without really digging into ourselves to figure out what to do next.
So we end up staying up late by using some type of distraction like games, or TV instead of being productive. And in-turn we drain our daily ration of energy on the banal nothingness of life. Then we finally fall asleep, wake up and do it all over again. This becomes a non-inspiring vicious tiresome cycle.
You might be wondering how meditation for sleep ties into to all of this? Well, I’m getting there. I want to be clear on one of the root causes of insomnia which is definitely stress and worry. Most people are either caught up in worrying about the future or dwelling in the past.
Meditation for Sleep
Ding, ding, ding! Meditation helps us center our minds back to the present moment. That is why they say the present moment is a gift because in the present moment, right now, in this very moment, there is no stress and worry. (It’s also a double entendre.) Stress and worry only live in the vacant recess of the mind and is only accessible when we choose.
And if you are in constant worry mode it will be very difficult to find the solutions to your problems and to sleep. If you can’t make your mind simmer down, then the problems will feel compounded.
When you make meditation a part of your daily routine, your mind simmers the f*%k down, it’s as simple as that. When your mind is calmer and less focused on your life worries, you can actually get some the deep sleep that you’ve been craving.
The great part about creating a daily meditation routine is meditating has an accumulative effect; each practice builds upon the next. So you are building up a reservoir of good vibes every time you meditate.
“How do I start to meditate?”, you ask. I thought you’d never ask. First, you can listen to episode 1 of Real Shift Happens podcast where I talk about meditation more in-depth.
5 Min Focused Shift: Guided Meditation
Then you can refer to my post, 5 Tips to Start a Daily Meditation Practice as needed for quick a quick start reference.
If you’d like to try out meditating with a guided meditation app, check out my favorite guided meditation apps, 3 Guided Meditation Apps for Instant Peace. These apps and many others offer awesome meditation for sleep programs.
You have choices, all you have to do is pick one and start. You will notice a difference in your sleep after the first day. And if you keep going, you will be sleeping like a baby and getting the best sleep of your life! Namaste.
