Why meditation can help you sleep better

How does meditation help sleep??

Did you know meditation is a simple and safe way to improve insomnia?!

It may even improve sleep quality for people who don't have sleep issues... meaning anyone can benefit 💙

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to significantly improve sleep, and reduce daytime sleepiness and irritability, in people with chronic insomnia. Long term, it's AS effective as sleep medications, but without the side effects!

Mindfulness and meditation improve sleep by making our mind and body relaxed and ready to snooze - switching off our fight and flight response, and switching on our rest and digest one.

This create a relaxed state of mind that helps us fall asleep, called the 'relaxation response' - which reduces our heart rate, breathing rate, and stress hormones (cortisol).

The relaxation response even helps reduce inflammation, improves insulin levels, and protects our cells from damage!

The opposite to this is the stress response (from our fight and flight nervous system) - this wakes us up, speeds up breathing and heart rate, increases cortisol and insulin, and creates inflammation.

When we are stressed or anxious, our brain stays “wired” - which is why struggling to fall asleep, and waking at 3am are classic signs of stress!

In the long term, this can create sleep anxiety, where bedtime triggers worrying about not being able to fall asleep 😢

Meditation also helps create a state of acceptance, reducing worries and rumination (thinking about things over and over). Plus it helps us regulate emotions.

Meditation improves chronic pain (which also affects sleep) in a similar way

PLUS Meditation creates lasting changes in our brain that help sleep, via improving our slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, as well as helping us wake less at night.

Some forms of meditation even cause brain waves that mimic those we get in deep sleep - explaining why meditation can make us feel so relaxed and sleepy!

To get the best benefits, meditation should be done on a regular basis, as this helps to ‘rewire’ the brain and change how our nervous system functions. Before bed meditation is a great place to start, as you often notice instant results - feeling more relaxed, calm, and ready for a great night's sleep.

Meditation can also be hard to start with, especially if we're used to our brain running a million miles an hour - but ironically this is often when we need it most!!!

We've included a sleep meditation in our movement and mind section, why not give it a go and see how you feel - there's no harm in trying 💙