Out of the millions of people (At least 60 million Americans by last count) that struggle with sleep, many people find that sleep meditations really do help them fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

What makes sleep meditation so good at helping people with insomnia? Why shouldn’t we all just turn to pharmaceuticals like Ambien or Temazepam to knock us out?

The first issue is that medications come with costs and side effects. There are many free resources to help train your mind to fall asleep using sleep meditation.

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What is Sleep Meditation

One of the primary complaints of people who have insomnia is their brain just won’t shut off. It’s always chattering away thinking about stress, worries, past mistakes, or even random things. If you’ve ever been lying in bed trying to fall asleep and you are thinking about why Giraffes necks are so long, you have been a victim of your brain chattering! Meditation is a tool that calms your mind and can eventually slow down (or stop) those constant thoughts. This helps you fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and wake up more refreshed. Different Types of Meditation There are many different ways to meditate that can help with sleep: Mindfulness Meditation – This is a meditation focused on the present moment and often centers around your breath.

– This is a meditation focused on the present moment and often centers around your breath. Transcendental Meditation (TM) – This meditation has you focus on a mantra that is given to you by a teacher. You repeat this mantra silently in your head or outloud.

– This meditation has you focus on a mantra that is given to you by a teacher. You repeat this mantra silently in your head or outloud. Mantra Meditation – The same as TM, but you choose your own mantra.

– The same as TM, but you choose your own mantra. Body Scan Meditation – During this meditation you scan your body from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes and relax each part. This can be very useful for those with a busy mind.

– During this meditation you scan your body from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes and relax each part. This can be very useful for those with a busy mind. Loving Kindness Meditation / Metta Meditation – This is a meditation that helps to develop a compassionate mind and heart. It may not be the best to use in falling asleep though, because your mind is very active while performing it.

– This is a meditation that helps to develop a compassionate mind and heart. It may not be the best to use in falling asleep though, because your mind is very active while performing it. Guided meditations – These can be any of the above meditations I listed (or others) but your mind is being guided on what to think by a youtube video or mp3.

– These can be any of the above meditations I listed (or others) but your mind is being guided on what to think by a youtube video or mp3. Guided Sleep Meditations – While listening to these meditations you are given soothing suggestions which help you to fall asleep. What is a Guided Meditation I recommend that people start meditating with a guided meditation. This is because when you are first learning how to meditate it can be confusing if you are doing it correctly or not. Meditation is a completely mental process so you need to be walked through each step of it before you can do it on your own. For some meditations it is very simple to learn. Take mindfulness meditation for example. The goal of that meditation is to stay focused on the feeling of breathing, and if any thoughts come up to simply acknowledge them without any judgment, then to bring your focus back to the breath. Simple concept, but it can be difficult to do. When you use a guided meditation it is MUCH easier to get started. The Best Guided Sleep Meditation One of the best meditations for sleep is the video below. It is a session I created called ‘DreamCatcher’. So what makes it the best? Well, because it combined meditative techniques with hypnosis and binaural beats. To explain why this is so good, you need to understand what is happening in your brain when you meditate, when you are in hypnosis, and when you sleep. Why Meditation Helps With Sleep To understand why meditation helps you sleep, here is a quick primer on how the brain works:

The brain produces different brainwave frequencies. The first is what you are in right now, it’s called Beta Brainwaves. These are the frequencies associated with concentration and being fully awake.

When you start to daydream (like you did during a boring class in school) or when you are in a state of meditation, your brain starts producing Alpha Brainwaves. These are great for helping you relax as well as to help you learn.

The next set of frequencies your brain will produce is called Theta Brainwaves. Your brain only produces these when you are in a DEEP state of meditation, or when you are in a state of hypnosis. During this state you may become much more involved in your internal world and not care as much about what is happening around you.

The last set of brain waves are called Delta Brainwaves. When you are asleep your brain starts producing these frequencies to help you rest and and heal. You can also reach Delta frequencies by a deep hypnotic state.

That is why my ‘DreamCatcher’ guided sleep meditation is the best. It combines meditation (which gets you to those alpha states) with hypnosis (which moves you to Theta) and will eventually guide you to sleep (Delta).

My meditation / hypnosis session is also over 40 minutes long. You are meant to fall asleep as you listen to it.

The DreamCatcher sleep meditation video is available for free on youtube, but if you want to download it as an mp3 you can take my sleep test which will give you even more resources to improve your sleep (and that DreamCatcher mp3 will be e-mailed to you).

Sleeping Pills Are Not the Best Option

Sleeping medications can be helpful for some people in the short and long term. However, many people do not realize how sleeping pills work and the side effects they can create.

If you’ve ever taken a sleeping pill such as Ambien, you might have woken up groggy the next day. That is because medication creates an unbalance in your body in order to lull you into unconsciousness. This is very different than falling asleep naturally.

Grogginess is the least of the side effects. Here are some of the side effects listed for Ambien (Zolpidem):

Major Side Effects Clumsiness or unsteadiness

Seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there

Confusion

Depression

Difficulty with breathing

Dizziness, lightheadedness, or fainting

Falling

Fast heartbeat

Skin rash

Swelling of the face

Trouble sleeping

Unusual excitement, nervousness, or irritability

Wheezing

Those are just the major side effects. The minor side effects of ambien are too many to list, but they include things such as memory problems, mood changes, and nightmares or unusual dreams. You can go to Drugs.com for a full list of Ambien side effects.

The Mayo Clinic wrote a great article if you are considering talking to your doctor about sleeping medication.

Who Should Use Guided Sleep Meditations

If you have trouble falling asleep then one of the first steps to conquering that is to address the issues in your mind. I’ve found that the vast majority of people with ‘insomnia’ really just have a busy mind that won’t shut off. If you have a busy mind, you should try meditation to help you sleep.

You can learn to shut off your mind and sleep.

You don’t need to take medication like Ambien or Unisom in order to sleep. Those drugs have a lot of side effects. You can instead train your brain to fall asleep naturally and easily.

Guided meditations are a great way to start that process of training your brain. Not only that they can be used with any age group, and ethnicity, any culture, and religion. The only thing you need is a common language.

All of the meditations I produce are recorded in English with an american accent. That’s because I’m from the USA and I don’t happen to speak any other languages (yet).

Additional Sleep Resources

If you have insomnia or other sleep disturbances, then here are a bunch of resources to help you conquer that and sleep better:

The first is an article I created which is the Ultimate Guide to Sleep Hypnosis and Natural Sleep Aids. You will find many great pages on this site on how to sleep better.

I also have a program to train your brain to sleep using hypnosis, cognitive behavioral techniques, and guided meditations. You can access it by taking my sleep test. It is a paid product, so it’s really only for people who have genuine problems falling asleep.

There are also other free Youtube videos you can find that help with sleep.

If you found this article to be useful I would LOVE if you shared it with your friends on facebook or twitter. The more people that know about natural ways to sleep the better we all are.

Sleep well!