Meditation for Sleep - Medical / Health Care

Just like nutrition and exercise, sleep is critical to your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Long- and short-term sleep deprivation has been linked to low energy, decreased focus, and irritability as well as more serious health conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity (1).

Sleep meditations incorporate a variety of relaxation techniques designed to help you let go of stressful thoughts, release tension from your body, and focus on your breathing. These techniques—combined with a consistent bedtime routine and healthy lifestyle choices—can help you prepare for and get a better night’s rest as well as function better throughout the day. Consistent meditation practice has been linked to better mental focus and improved energy (2).

If you struggle to get a good night’s sleep or if your sleep has gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, you are not alone:

• One in three adults do not get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• 50-70 million US adults have a sleep disorder with up to 20% of the population suffering from insomnia, according to the American Sleep Foundation (3).
• More than 37% of the Greek population reported sleep problems after just three weeks of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 15% increase as compared to the national average.

• Women and people in urban areas were the most affected (4).

Sleep deprivation does more than just leave you feeling tired the next day. In fact, the cumulative long-term effects of sleep deprivation can lead to an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, depression, heart attack, and stroke (5). The short-term effects can be just as devastating, including increases in accidents and injuries at work and a decrease in overall performance.

Sleep loss also has an adverse effect on mood and behavior, including increases in mental distress, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and alcohol consumption. As such, quality of life and family well-being are also negatively affected when you do not get enough sleep at night (5).

According to the book Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem, the “management and treatment of sleep loss are rarely addressed by clinicians, despite the large toll on society.” (6)

Your sleep schedule and bedtime routine play a very important part in your overall health and well-being and should be considered just as important as your diet, annual doctor’s exam, or your mental health. When you take the time to prioritize sleep, you may see a significant improvement in other areas of your life.

Too Much Bluelight:Turn off your devices—phones, televisions, etc.—at least one hour before bed in order to avoid the negative effects of blue light, which blocks the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy.

Inconsistent bedtime routine: According to Dr. Shelby Harris, our bodies crave routine, including consistent bedtimes and wake up times. Experiment to figure out what works best for you and follow your routine seven days a week.

Room temperature is off: Research shows that the ideal room temperature for sleep is between 15-19 degrees Celsius or 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit (8). Feeling too hot or too cold may be what’s keeping you up at night.

Too much caffeine: Caffeine affects all of us differently, but having too much of it in the afternoon can keep you awake at night. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, try to avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate after lunch and especially before bed.

Social jet lag: If you’re in the habit of staying out late and sleeping in on the weekends, social jet lag may be to blame for some of your sleep issues. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule even on the weekends is key to preventing this issue.

If you’ve been having trouble sleeping for an extended period of time, it is more than likely that there are multiple factors causing your sleepless nights.

In order to develop the best bedtime routine, it can be helpful to take an experimental approach. Using the tips above, start by designing a routine that you think will work best for you. Try it out for a few weeks and record your results, being sure to record your sleep quality each night.

Next, slowly change different aspects of your routine to see if and how your sleep quality changes. Keep making adjustments until you’ve perfected your bedtime routine to meet your specific needs.

While you have most likely experienced the repercussions of a bad night’s sleep (low energy, grogginess, irritability, etc.), you may not be aware of all of the benefits that a consistent sleep meditation practice has to offer. 

A recent study published by JAMA Internal Medicine showed that middle-aged adults who had trouble sleeping and completed a mindfulness awareness program experienced less insomnia and fatigue after six weeks of daily 20-minute sleep meditations (9).

• Reduce stress: Studies have shown that meditation can decrease your stress levels by redirecting your thoughts from worries about the past and future and keeping your mind in the present moment (10). This can be especially helpful when a busy mind is preventing you from falling asleep at night.
• Improve attention and focus: A study conducted by Italian neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni found that individuals with a consistent meditation practice had more stability in their ventral posteromedial cortex (vPMC), or the part of the brain that is linked to spontaneous thoughts and mind-wandering, as compared to non-meditators. While both groups showed consistent brainwave activity in the vPMC, meditators were able to better control their thoughts before they spiraled out of control (11).
• Promote emotional regulation: A study conducted by Yi-Yuan Tang showed improved emotion regulation after mindfulness training, including an increase in activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent prefrontal cortex, the parts of the brain related to self-control (12).
• Increase melatonin: A consistent meditation practice has been shown to increase melatonin levels, which plays a vital role in sleep regulation (13). 
• Activate your parasympathetic nervous system: Transcendental meditation techniques have been shown to activate the body’s parasympathetic nervous system or your rest and digest response, which is key to bringing the body to a calm and relaxed state (14). 
• Deactivate your sympathetic nervous system: The same study also showed that transcendental meditation techniques deactivated your sympathetic nervous system, which controls your flight or fight response (14). 

 

The relaxation techniques used in sleep meditations provide you with a wide range of benefits that can help better prepare your mind and body for a good night’s sleep as well as help you throughout the day when you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or just in need of a break.