Caregiver stress can cause restless nights. You may have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or having good quality sleep. To get a good night’s rest, Alisa Paliano from Nestmaven.com recommends 5 relaxing guided meditations for deep sleep. Place your mobile device or laptop on your bedside table (ideally with a sleep timer set) and let the soothing sounds calm your racing mind and ease you into a tranquil sleep.
Incorporating meditation into your bedtime routine is a great way to quiet your mind and relax your body to prepare for sleep.
In fact, even leading sleep experts advocate the benefits of this practice for both reducing the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and improving the quality of sleep.
Finding the right guided meditation for you can be a bit of a cumbersome task: What works for one person may be absolutely grueling for another.
With a search turning up thousands upon thousands of options – where does one even begin?
We’ve rounded up 5 of the best free guided meditations for sleep that YouTube has to offer.
Simply choose one that speaks to you, get comfortable, and go to sleep.
5 relaxing guided meditations for deep sleep
1. Into Sleep A Meditation – 9 minutes
Quiet Mind Cafe offers up this guided meditation for full muscle relaxation and deep restorative sleep.
By guiding both your body and mind into a state of complete relaxation before falling asleep, you will be able to fall asleep faster and enjoy a more sound sleep.
2. Guided Meditation – Blissful Deep Relaxation – 18 minutes
TheHonestGuys produce a variety of high quality guided meditation videos which they provide for free on YouTube.
This practice, designed to guide you into a state of deep relaxation, is perfect for a pre-bedtime cooldown.
It includes approximately 10 minutes of speech, then – once fully relaxed – you can simply enjoy the soothing sounds of the beach until you drift off to sleep.
3. Yoga Nidra – Meditation & Guided Relaxation – 25 minutes
Yoga nidra is often called “yogic sleep,” which is a state of being between sleep and consciousness that encourages deep emotional and physical healing.
It’s a great way to switch gears from a hectic day into a restful sleep.
In the first 16 minutes, a soothing voice guides you through the transition from waking to sleep, passing through a deep stage of complete relaxation in which the mind is still and filled with a sense of peace and inner awareness.
4. Guided Meditation For Anxiety & Stress, Beginning Meditation, Guided Imagery Visualization – 30 minutes
This guided visualization from Jason Stephenson will help you release tension in your body and mind and to learn to better cope with anxiety and stress that comes your way.
This will not only enable you to fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly, but over time can reduce sleep problems.
5. Sleep Guided Meditation (Spoken) For Sleeping, Deep Relaxation (With Rain & Fire Sounds) Hypnosis – 45 minutes
Jason Stephenson invites you to come spend an evening inside a log cabin deep in a relaxing wood, cozy up next to a crackling fire and allow yourself to be guided into a deep state of calm and peace.
This 45-minute video also boasts that it will help you enhance your productivity tomorrow, thanks to getting the much needed rest you deserve.
Variety is the spice of life
Many of these meditations are designed so that you can listen to them over and over again. But if you find one losing effectiveness, try switching between different ones to keep things fresh.
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- 5 Coping Tips for the Overwhelmed Caregiver
Guest contributor: Alisa is the editor in chief at Nestmaven.com where she writes about all things sleep related – from useful tips to help you sleep to helpful sleep products. She has a Bachelor of Honors in information science, loves yoga, healthy food and chocolate (and is totally fine with that contradiction).
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