If you’re feeling restless before bed or in the middle of the night, try this long-lasting practice to calm your busy thoughts and relieve tension in your body.
There are so many reasons why we have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Stress at work or in relationships, health problems, hormonal changes, the state of the world – many things keep us up at night.
Here, Mark Bertin offers a calming sleep practice that helps ease our restlessness by using the breath as a calming anchor to gently allow our busy minds and stressed bodies to rest.
This is a great practice to use as part of your regular sleep routine or whenever you need support to calm your mind and body. The more you do it, the more it will signal to your brain and body that it’s time to rest.
Meditation to calm the mind and body for sleep
Read the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
- Find a comfortable position, usually lying on your back. Allow your arms and legs to gently drop to your sides. If this posture is not comfortable for you, find another posture in which you can relax during this meditation.
- Keep your eyes open if you like, or let them close slightly. Begin the practice by taking a few deep breaths and focus as best you can on the physical sensation your body makes with each breath, perhaps noticing the rise and fall of your abdomen and chest. Maybe moving the back of your body across the surface you’re lying on.
- Get rid of any feeling that you are trying to do something specific. We can’t force ourselves to relax any more than we can force ourselves to sleep. But use the sensation of the physical movement your body makes with each breath as a place to easily ground your awareness and attention.
- Your mind may remain busy for now, and that’s okay. With a feeling of gentleness and care, whenever you notice that your mind is caught up in an emotional state or some thought pattern, simply return with that feeling of gentleness. You can say: I am aware that I am breathing in and I am aware that I am breathing out.
- We will begin a guided body scan in which we will pay attention to different parts of our body as a way to bring the mind back from its thinking and the places where it wanders, and as an opportunity to physically relax our body.
- Begin by raising your awareness to your feet. You may notice touch or temperature. When you are covered with a blanket, you may notice the sensation of a blanket being draped over your legs and. For the next few minutes, as your mind wanders, bring your awareness back to your feet and slightly release any tension or tightness you notice in your feet. No need to do anything with them, no need to move them.
- Pay attention to the feeling that you are a little upset, that you are overcome with a need for sleep or a desire for things to be different than they are. So feel the care and let go of some of this practice. You can’t make it go away, but notice that it’s part of the experience and come back to the feeling of your feet, wherever they are now.
- Then move your awareness from the feet up to the lower legs. Loosen them if you notice anything tight or uncomfortable. Stay patient with yourself as best you can.
- Then shift your focus to your knees and upper legs. Notice where your thoughts go and where your mind wanders. Come back as many times as you need.
- Next, move your awareness through your pelvis and buttocks. Up into the lower back. Noticing the pressure on the bed or where you lie. There may be a sense of movement with each breath.
- If at some point, because of discomfort or whatever, you feel like you need to make a little physical adjustment, that’s okay, and that’s okay too. Maybe settle in and observe for a few breaths, then with a sense of intent make any necessary adjustments.
- Now move your awareness to your upper back—a a place where many of us feel a lot of tension and stiffness. Honor it and pay attention to it, and let go and relax into whatever is available to you now. Stay patient with your mind to stay busy and come back to your body as often as you need to.
- Next, bring your awareness to your stomach. Notice whether you enjoy the gentle rise and fall of your belly with each breath. Notice any other physical sensations that may be happening in that part of your body right now. Often in the stomach we also encounter some kind of reflection of our emotional state. Pay attention to it and let go a little if you can – not pushing it away, but recognizing it and letting go a little if you can right now.
- Now bring your consciousness to your chest. Continue to use the same perspective of observing patience. Notice the movement as your body breathes. Notice any reflection of your emotional state at this moment. And then, without forcing anything, see if you can maintain that awareness and let it go a little. Relax if there is a feeling of tightness or tension.
- What if the going gets tough? It’s normal. Just return to this physical movement of your body with each breath.
- Now bring your consciousness into your hands. Relax your hands. Relax all the muscles in the palms, backs of the hands and fingers and let go.
- When you’re ready, move on to the forearm. Then your shoulders and shoulders with the same sense of awareness and release. Then the shoulders and relaxing the shoulders. Your neck and neck relaxation. And then noticing the facial expression and facial muscles. And relaxing the facial expression as much as possible. And then the whole head.
- Now expand your awareness for a few moments to your whole body. Use your breath as an anchor if this open awareness is too distracting. There is nothing much to do now except to notice the state of your mind as best you can and return to your body.
- As we continue this practice with a sense of open awareness, it may be helpful to add a short mental phrasesuch as I am aware that I am breathing in and I am aware that I am breathing out. Allow your body and mind to settle into this space, not fighting the thoughts and emotions, but perhaps engaging with them more gently, noticing them and coming back to the breath as many times as you need to.
- Continue now as long as you need to with this sense of body awareness and letting go, letting things be. There will be no final bell. Just let yourself sink into a healthy night’s sleep.
