If you’re looking for a natural way to help your insomnia, guided sleep meditation may be worth a try. Learn how it helps and how to start by reading this blog!
Millions of people suffer from insomnia, which can lead to a wide range of problems like fatigue, anxiety, and depression. While there are many places to turn to for help with insomnia, one underutilized (and completely self-managed) method is through sleep meditation.
In this blog, we’ll explore how sleep meditation helps self-manage insomnia and how you can start using it to improve your sleep.
Insomnia can be caused by stress, anxiety, depression, or even physical pain, but what makes it especially grueling is when you feel like you’re stuck in a never-ending cycle.
Despite the fact that you feel exhausted during the day, you still can’t fall asleep at night. This spirals into even more stress and anxiety, which only exacerbates the problem.
Other causes of insomnia include:
– Poor sleep habits
– Use of stimulants like caffeine or nicotine
– Eating late at night
– Working odd hours
– Medical conditions like sleep apnea
Sleep deprivation affects the brain in multiple ways, including impaired judgment, decreased reaction time, and difficulty learning new information or retaining memories.
Sleep deprivation can also cause mood swings, irritability, and anxiety.
Essentially, our brains and bodies aren’t able to operate as efficiently as they could if we get enough sleep. In fact, quality and consistent sleep is a major factor in your mental fitness at large.
Many people mistakenly believe the brain “shuts off” during sleep, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The neuroscience of what’s happening inside your brain during sleep is a fascinating topic we’ve written about in depth before.
To feel properly rested, your sleep needs to travel through several stages. Each of those stages is also associated with different types of brainwaves and different levels of brain activity.
One of the main reasons meditation helps with sleep is through its influence on brainwaves that promote feelings of relaxation and quiet internal chatter.
Meditation is the act of focusing your attention and calming your mind. It’s a simple yet effective way to relax your body and mind.
There are many types of meditation that suit a variety of different purposes, but did you know that there are guided sleep meditations available that may help your insomnia?
Sleep meditation is specifically catered to lower stress levels, increase feelings of relaxation, and lead to periods of more restful sleep. It’s a drugless way to improve sleep quality that many users find helpful.
Guided sleep meditation sessions are usually between 20 and 30 minutes long. They typically start with some deep breathing exercises to help you relax. Then, the guide will lead you through a series of visualizations that help you destress and fall asleep. The visualizations may involve imagining yourself in a peaceful place, such as a beach or a meadow.
These days, VR is being used to enhance guided sleep meditation for insomnia. VR can provide a more immersive experience that can help you relax and fall asleep more easily.
While guided sleep meditation for insomnia won’t cure insomnia, it can help you manage it better.
When you meditate, your brainwaves change.
Different types of meditation are associated with different kinds of brainwaves, just like different stages of sleep are more closely associated with certain brainwaves.
Guided sleep meditation for insomnia usually focuses on your theta waves, because the goal is to help you relax and de-stress. The benefits of this focus includes:
– Reducing stress
– Slowing down your thoughts
– Calming your mind
– Helping you relax
If you’re looking for a natural way to help your insomnia, guided sleep meditation may be worth a try. You might be surprised at how effective it can be in terms of both helping you fall asleep and improving the quality of your sleep.
Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback that uses real-time displays of brain activity to train people to change their brainwaves. It’s also the driving force behind our app Healium.
How it works is very simple:
By capturing and displaying your brainwave activity in real-time and immersing users in quality sleep meditation experiences, Healium grants users agency over their brain. With data at their disposal, users can track progress, drive motivation, and work to change their brain patterns and improve their sleep as a whole.
So, if you’re looking for help with your insomnia, neurofeedback might be worth considering.
However, it’s important to remember that neurofeedback is a self-management tool, not a cure.
At Healium, our goal is to help you get the best night’s sleep possible. That’s why we offer a variety of guided sleep meditation experiences, each designed to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
Our guided sleep meditation exercises for insomnia are a self-directed and drugless alternative that may prove useful.
Using VR technology, you can immerse yourself in a calming environment and follow along with the guide that you need.
If you are suffering from insomnia and are looking for a drug-free way to self-manage it, meditation may be the answer for you.
Try out Sleepium for yourself today!
Sarah Hill, a former interactive TV news journalist at NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates in Missouri, gained recognition for pioneering interactive news broadcasting using Google Hangouts. She is now the CEO of Healium, the world’s first biometrically powered VR channel, helping those with stress, anxiety, insomnia, and other struggles through biofeedback storytelling. With patents, clinical validation, and over seven million views, she has reshaped the landscape of immersive media.