Using meditation for sleep can enhance one of the great pleasures of life. Suffering from sleep problems is to deprive ourselves of a great pleasure. Learning how to improve the hours we spend sleeping is a great benefit. The following points may help you sleep better.
Meditation is different from sleep, but meditation can lead to a good night’s sleep. Going to sleep is making a transition in consciousness.
A meditator can learn to transition into meditation easily, but sleep can be more challenging. Practicing meditation makes transitions in consciousness easier, so a meditator gains more control over sleep.
Drifting from Meditation to Sleep
It is easy to pass from meditation into sleep.
Here are some meditation for sleep practices.
- Just before bed, think of your purpose in life.
- Before falling asleep, meditate for a few minutes. You can sit up in bed or on your pillow. You might try the air breath which is breathing in and out through the mouth, like blowing through a straw. Make your breath a fine stream.
- Listen to your heartbeat or just place your awareness on your heart area. Notice if you feel you pulse anywhere else in your body.
- Relax any tense muscles by tensing them and relaxing them a few seconds.
- Breathe out your problems, breathe into your inner self where you are safe from troubles.
Troubling thoughts may arise in your mind when you try to relax. Lying in bed, you tend to think of your challenges, whereas during the day, you feel more confidence and power, and the anxieties of the night seem distant.
It’s an issue of faith, that tomorrow you will have help to solve what you cannot solve now. It’s not that the nighttime problems are unrealistic. You want to be grateful for the warnings, then remind yourself that you have unseen resources sufficient to answer them.— Puran Bair, Living From the Heart 2010
A Long Exhalation
- Make a long or heavy exhalation like a sigh. The long sigh is followed by an inhalation.
- Which nostril you’re breathing through is also important. If you lay on your right side, your sinuses will drain to the right and in a few minutes you’ll be breathing through your left nostril. That is conductive to a passive condition and will help you fall asleep.
- In the middle of the night turn yourself over to the left side so you breathe through the right nostril, which will gather your strength for the coming day and help you get up in the morning. But if you can’t get back to sleep on your left side, return to the right.
Don’t ignore the environmental factors as well. Make sure you are not too hot nor cold or thirsty or with a full bladder. Take care of those needs first.
Don’t Use an Alarm
It’s better to let your unconscious wake you. You may be better off setting an alarm to tell you when it’s time to GO to bed!
As soon as you awake, sit up. Now meditate for a few minutes. This is a type of mastery. Make contact with your heart and breath rhythms. Do this until you feel awake.
Now get up and do your morning routine. Work in 20 minutes of meditation if you can in the morning. If it works better you can do your 20 minutes in the evening or around sundown.
Your improved sleep today will lead to harmony and success tomorrow.
Learn How to Meditate with Heart and weave meditation into your life and into your sleep!
Meditation for Sleep
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