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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to offer medical treatment or advice. If you struggle with chronic insomnia or other difficulty sleeping, you may consider consulting with your physician or with a sleep specialist.
You may feel exhausted, but there are just those times when no matter what you do, you simply can’t sleep. It’s a scene far too familiar for many of us:
You, lying in bed, wide awake, tossing and turning, painfully aware of the hours ticking by.
The more time passes, the more stressed you feel that you’re still not asleep and about how tired you’ll feel the next day. And this just makes you more worried and anxious…and even less likely to fall asleep. Around and around it goes.
When you’re up in the middle of the night, it might feel like you’re the only living soul still awake—but you’re not. Nearly a quarter of American adults report a problem sleeping. The reasons range from conditions that interfere with breathing, causing sleep apnea, snoring and restless sleep, to nervous tension in the body and unconscious fears that arise in slumber.
One of the most common sleep problems is insomnia—when you can’t fall asleep or you wake up and can’t get back to sleep. More than 30% of people struggle with occasional insomnia, and 10% suffer from a chronic condition.
If we’re all so tired, why can’t we just go to sleep?
The body and mind need one thing in order to fall asleep and stay asleep: relaxation. Deep relaxation. Anything that interferes with that state keeps us awake.
Often, restlessness starts in our heads. When we’re busy or worried, it can be difficult to “turn off” the thinking brain enough to allow the body’s natural relaxation response to kick in. Stimulation from caffeine, sugar, nicotine, alcohol, or from electronics can also interfere with the body’s sleep cycle. And pain or illness, or in some cases, too much sleep, can also keep evening rest out of reach.
Whatever the cause of a sleepless night, worrying about your lack of sleep only fuels anxiety and stress and pushes the possibility of relaxation further away.
Find an entire collection of our meditations specifically designed to help you sleep better.
Insufficient sleep is considered a public health epidemic, one that’s been made worse over the past two years by stress resulting from the COVID pandemic.
Fortunately, there’s also been a lot of research and experimentation about how to improve our collective sleep. Here are some proven ways/research-backed techniques to help you get the sleep you need.
Our brains are solution machines: always analyzing, interpreting, remembering, solving problems, rehashing the actions of the past, and planning for the future. Usually, all this hard-mental work means that by bedtime, our minds, as well as our bodies, are ready for a well-deserved and restorative break. (Cue: Yawning.)
But every once in a while, the thinking brain goes into overdrive, staying on the job long after the rest of the body has clocked out.
Research indicates that journaling may help counter a restless mind at bedtime. Recording your thoughts is a powerful way to get them out of your head to where you can see them more clearly. It also reassures your mind that an important memo won’t be forgotten and allows it to take its rest.
Take a few minutes before you turn off the lights to jot down some notes about your day: an encounter, a memory that stuck with you, an idea, or something from your to-do list that you didn’t get around to. Whatever mental leftovers you have, write them down.
Here are some other tips for nighttime journaling:
Counting sheep may not be the cure for sleeplessness that our childhood lullabies promised, but counting your breath might be. Research shows that practicing slow, controlled breathing can help shift the mind and body out of hyper-arousal and make it more conducive to sleep.
Here are some options to try:
Try a 1:2 ratio to help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which allows us to relax and sleep.
How to do it:
In this technique, which is also useful for anxiety, you create a “box” of same-duration inhalation, holding, and exhalation.
How to do it:
This awareness technique uses the breath and the body as anchors to guide our attention inward.
How to do it:
Often we hold tension in our body without knowing it. And tension in the body is a sure formula for keeping you awake at night. Try this technique to systematically relax each area of your body.
Sleep is a basic biological need that ensures vital functions, such as tissue repair, growth, memory storage, and much more can happen. And like respiration and digestion, sleep is an action of the autonomic nervous system. This means that your body knows how to do it, and when to do it, on its own. When you’re lying awake, worrying about not getting enough sleep and feeding anxious thoughts, it can help to remember:
My body knows how to sleep. My body is designed to sleep. My body will take care of itself and get the sleep it needs.
Trusting your body also means that if, one night, you don’t get the amount of sleep you’d like, you can be sure that your body will eventually find its rest.
Every once in a while, we need to concede that we’re not going to win the struggle with sleep from our comfy beds. Our mind is too ramped up, and our body has followed its signal by increasing our heart rate and blood pressure, making relaxation out of the question. At this point, your best course of action might be to get up.
Instead of jumping up and turning on the lights, try to keep a restful environment, moving quietly and slowly as you make your way to:
The physical act of getting up and moving and interrupting the spin-cycle of your tired mind might be enough to discharge restless energy and tension, allowing a more relaxed state where sleep is possible.
The only thing worse than not being able to fall asleep is when you do and then wake up, completely alert, and spend the next frustrating hours trying to get back to sleep. All the methods to fall asleep are useful when you wake up from sleep.
A mindfulness technique to reduce bodily tension.
Setting the right mood for sleep can go a long way toward helping your body and mind to relax and let sleep happen naturally.
Explore our articles, expert tips, and guided meditations to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep through the night.
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This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
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Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
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Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
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I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
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