Guided Meditation for Sleep: Definition, Examples, & How to Do It

By Justine Saavedra, M.S.
Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.

What is guided meditation for sleep? Discover the benefits and develop a routine for guided meditation for sleep.

Guided Meditation for Sleep: Definition, Examples, & How to Do It

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Do you find your mind racing with thoughts when your head finally hits the pillow at night? Do you struggle to sleep because of these racing thoughts even though you feel tired? You’re not alone. In fact, one study found that approximately 35 to 40% of U.S. adults have problems falling asleep or experience daytime sleepiness (Hossain & Shapiro, 2002). Many people find it challenging to slow down their brains at the end of the day.

This isn’t surprising considering the increasing demands on our attention and the constant flow of information we take in from social media and the news.

Getting adequate rest is an important component of many aspects of our mental and physical well-being. If we have poor sleep habits, we can miss out on the following beneficial functions of sleep:

Enhancing learning and memory
Strengthening physical health
Clearing inflammatory neurochemicals that lead to cognitive decline (Z Assefa et al., 2015)

So how can you get more sleep and reap these benefits? You may have read about using guided meditation as a tool to manage stress, but did you know it is also a wonderful way to help you achieve better sleep habits? Keep reading to learn about what guided meditation for sleep is, the benefits, how to start a guided meditation for sleep practice, and more.

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What Is Guided Meditation for Sleep? (A Definition)

Guided meditation for sleep is a specific type of meditation practice that can be used to help quiet your mind before you go to bed. Other practices, such as transcendental meditation, ask you to empty your mind or to only focus on a single mantra. Guided meditation is easier, especially for beginners, because you have another person talking you through the meditative process. This allows you to focus on what the guidance is saying rather than everything else running through your brain.

The instructors guiding this type of meditation often use relaxing visual aids, such as imagining yourself lying on a bed of fluffy clouds. There is also usually calming music or the sounds of nature in the background. How they guide you through the session depends on the type of meditation they practice, which we’ll talk about next.

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Types of Guided Meditation for Sleep

There are many different styles of practice for guided meditation for sleep. Let’s explore some of the most popular ones below. Feel free to try different practices to find the best fit for you.

Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one of the most prominent meditation techniques. The goal of this practice is to be fully in the present moment. The instructor may guide you to focus on your breath or perhaps sensations in different parts of your body. If you find yourself stuck in your own head, it may be because you are living in the past or the future. Mindfulness helps bring you into the now and quiets those troubling thoughts. This may be a beneficial practice for people who struggle with worrying about the future or find themselves ruminating about the past.

Progressive Relaxation
Progressive relaxation is a body-focused technique. There are many different ways to do progressive relaxation but basically, you focus on tensing and then relaxing certain muscles. This exercise teaches your body to respond to tension with relaxation rather than more tension (McCallie et al., 2006). This may be a helpful technique for you if you carry your stress in your body and muscles. A video specific to this practice can be found here:

Video: Progressive Muscular Relaxation Guided Sleep Meditation for Anxiety & Insomnia Relief at Bedtime

Yoga Nidra aka yoga “sleep”
This deep relaxation practice is designed to put a person into a deep-rest state of sleep while remaining conscious (Parker et. al., 2013). Contrary to most yoga practices, this one does not involve any physical movement. In fact, you are encouraged to lie down in a comfortable position when participating in a session of yoga Nidra. This particular practice is helpful when you need a quick energy boost during the day, although it can be used to fall asleep as well.

Guided Meditation for Deep Sleep and Relaxation

Yoga Nidra, described above, is one of the more well-known guided meditation practices for deep sleep and relaxation. It is so well-known that there has even been scientific research conducted on this easy-to-learn practice to test its effectiveness in relaxation.

A 2020 study found that practicing yoga Nidra can:

Lower stress
Improve sleep quality
Enhance feelings of well-being (Moszeik et al.)

The purpose of Yoga Nidra is to guide you into a state of non-sleep deep rest. This means you are getting the benefits of sleep without having to be asleep. While it isn’t a replacement for getting a regular 7-8 hours per night, it is a handy tool for those times when you need an energy boost.

While you can use this practice to fall asleep, most often Yoga Nidra is used as a re-energizing exercise. You can complete a session right after waking up if you don’t feel rested enough. You can also practice Yoga Nidra in the afternoon if you feel tired instead of taking a power nap. I often use it to recharge myself in the middle of the day. Naps can make me groggy but a 20-minute session of Yoga Nidra leaves me refreshed and ready to tackle the afternoon. You can find a link to some guided meditation for sleep videos that focus on Yoga Nidra here:

Video: Yoga Nidra Sleep Meditation Guided with Female Voice

Video: Sleep Meditation - Yoga Nidra to Sleep Fast - Calm the Overactive Mind | Total Mind Body Relaxation

Guided Meditation for Sleep and Anxiety

Almost 30% of Americans will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in their lifetime (Kessler et al., 2005). Those people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder often experience reduced sleep quality (Ramsawh et al., 2009). If you have an anxiety disorder or experience the feeling of anxiety frequently and it affects your sleeping habits, guided meditation can help. Quieting the racing thoughts can improve not only your sleep but your overall quality of life as well.

While guided meditation alone can help reduce anxiety and increase sleep quality, you can enhance this effect by adding lavender aromatherapy. This specific scent has been found to increase sleep quality and reduce anxiety when inhaled before bed (Kessler et al., 2005). I incorporate lavender into my sleep routine by using an essential oil spray on my pillow. You could also try using an essential oil room diffuser or placing a lavender sachet next to your bed to get the same effect.

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Hypnosis Guided Meditation for Sleep

When you think of hypnosis, you might think of a magician swinging a watch in front of someone’s eyes and then making that person do crazy things, such as cluck like a chicken. However, the process rarely works like that. Hypnosis has been shown to help ease people’s physical pain but less is known about how it affects sleep. A review of hypnosis for sleep studies describes examples of this process as “using a metaphor of a fish going deeper into the water for deeper sleep, using an age-regression technique prompting the participant to focus on his or her earlier memories of periods when restorative sleep could be easily achieved, providing directions for relaxation with visualizations including relaxing scenes, and delivering ego-strengthening suggestions.” (Chamine et al., 2018).

While hypnosis is very similar to guided meditation, these sessions tend to be longer and are designed to penetrate deeper into your subconscious mind. Some last up to 8 hours and can be intense. Be careful when listening to long, overnight sessions and ensure the message being relayed to your subconscious is one that you are happy with.

Benefits of Guided Meditation for Sleep

Getting enough sleep is an important part of our overall well-being and is a crucial part of learning and memory, emotional regulation, and strengthening physical health (Z Assefa et al., 2015). Establishing better sleep habits can lead to an increase in your quality of life and enhance your health down the road.

People who sleep 7-8 hours are at a lower risk for:

Diabetes
Cardiovascular disease
Weight gain
Obesity
Inflammation (Grandner et al., 2016)

Meditation is a wonderful tool that has its own benefits:

Improves memory and attention
Increases self-compassion
Promotes mindfulness and being in the present moment
Decreases blood pressure and release of stress hormones (Pascoe et al., 2021)

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How to Do Guided Meditation for Sleep

There are many different ways that you can approach implementing a guided meditation for sleep practice. It is important to find something that works for you, so feel free to make adjustments and seek out alternatives that make you most comfortable. For example, some people may find they prefer short sessions and others may prefer longer meditations. Develop a routine that makes you feel as relaxed as possible.

1. Choose a guided meditation for sleep video.
Many different videos pop up when searching this term and it can be overwhelming to choose one. However, you only really need two or three videos that you enjoy. Some questions to consider are:

Do you prefer a male or female voice?
Do you like a longer or shorter meditation session?
What kinds of sounds (nature, music, etc.) do you prefer in the background?

You can cycle through the same few videos once you find ones that work for you. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Video: Guided Sleep Meditation & Deep Relaxation

Guided Sleep Meditation, Clear Your Mind, Clear The Clutter, Guided Meditation

2. Create a calm, relaxing environment in your sleeping space.
Try using lavender aromatherapy to help you relax. Make sure you have plenty of blankets and pillows to make yourself comfortable. If you can’t minimize the sound around you while sleeping, try using sleep headphones.

3. Decide whether you will meditate sitting up or lying down.
Some people may prefer completing a shorter meditation while sitting up in bed and then lying down to go to sleep after. I like to use guided meditation for sleep as a way to help me drift off faster so lying down works best for me. You may also choose to complete your guided meditation session in another room and then go to bed after.

4. Put on your meditation and let it guide you to sleep.
Once you have a video ready, it’s time to begin. Focus on the voice of the person guiding you and let them take you away from your racing thoughts. If your mind wanders— which it most likely will— just keep trying to bring your attention back to the guidance. If you feel too frustrated, try a different video or just try again the next day.

5. Be patient with yourself and stay consistent.
Even if you find it difficult to focus on the meditation guidance because of racing thoughts, keep trying. It becomes easier to quiet your mind with regular practice. The benefits are well worth the time you put in.

Tips for Guided Meditation for Sleep

Create a nighttime routine that includes guided meditation.
Make your sleeping space comfortable.
Use sleep headphones if your sleeping environment is noisy.
Don't worry about finding a new meditation every night. It's helpful to have 2-3 videos that you enjoy that you can cycle through.
Try not to get frustrated if meditation is difficult at first. Keep practicing and it can get easier.

Articles Related to Guided Meditations for Sleep

Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books (& eBooks) Related to Guided Meditations for Sleep

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Guided Meditation for Sleep

Sleep serves many important functions in our overall health. It enhances our memory and learning, it can increase physical performance, and it helps clear debris out of our brains that can cause cognitive decline (Spira et al., 2014). Getting adequate sleep can be one of the first stepping stones on the path to improving our well-being. For those of us who struggle with sleep, guided meditation is a wonderful tool for getting a good night’s rest. Use the information above to create a calming, relaxing nighttime routine. Make sure to try different styles and videos until you find a guided meditation for sleep routine that works for you and with practice, you can finally begin to get the rest your body and mind need.

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References

Chamine, I., Atchley, R., & Oken, B. S. (2018). Hypnosis intervention effects on sleep outcomes: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14(02), 271–283.
Grandner, M. A., Alfonso-Miller, P., Fernandez-Mendoza, J., Shetty, S., Shenoy, S., &; Combs, D. (2016). Sleep. Current Opinion in Cardiology, 31(5), 551–565.
Hossain, J. L., & Shapiro, C. M. (2002). The prevalence, cost implications, and management of sleep disorders: An overview. Sleep And Breathing, 06(2), 085–102.
Inoué, S., Honda, K., & Komoda, Y. (1995). Sleep as neuronal detoxification and restitution. Behavioural Brain Research, 69(1-2), 91–96.
Karadag, E., Samancioglu, S., Ozden, D., &; Bakir, E. (2015). Effects of aromatherapy on sleep quality and anxiety of patients. Nursing in Critical Care, 22(2), 105–112.
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593.
McCallie, M. S., Blum, C. M., & Hood, C. J. (2006). Progressive muscle relaxation. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 13(3), 51–66.
Moszeik, E. N., von Oertzen, T., & Renner, K.-H. (2020). Effectiveness of a short yoga nidra meditation on stress, sleep, and well-being in a large and diverse sample. Current Psychology.
Parker, S., Bharati S.V., Fernandez, M.; Defining Yoga-Nidra: Traditional Accounts, Physiological Research, and Future Directions. Int J Yoga Therap 1 January 2013; 23 (1): 11–16. doi:
Pascoe, M. C., de Manincor, M., Tseberja, J., Hallgren, M., Baldwin, P. A., & Parker, A. G. (2021). Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the mood benefits of meditation: A narrative review. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 6, 100037.
Ramsawh, H. J., Stein, M. B., Belik, S.-L., Jacobi, F., & Sareen, J. (2009). Relationship of anxiety disorders, sleep quality, and functional impairment in a community sample. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43(10), 926–933.
Spira, A. P., Chen-Edinboro, L. P., Wu, M. N., &; Yaffe, K. (2014). Impact of sleep on the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 27(6), 478–483.
Z Assefa, S., Diaz-Abad, M., M Wickwire, E., & M Scharf, S. (2015). The Functions of Sleep. AIMS Neuroscience, 2(3), 155–171.

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