Donald Dodge

2580 East Tahquitz Canyon Way apt 207, Palm Springs, CA, USA

Cherylin

Geelong, Australia

Jane Callen

Bethesda, MD, USA

Violet

Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Michelle

Monticello, NY, USA

Nancy

Rockport MA

Parvaneh Holloway

Saugerties, NY, USA

Daniel Jimenez

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Paul Bradley

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Kelly Cannizzaro

Mark Swales

England

Light of Love Lesli

Santa Rosa

Diane

Glenda Kelly

NSW, Australia

Eileen I

Patty

Minnesota, USA

Jamie

Nashville, TN, USA

Elizabeth Antoniou

Relax your body through breathing and muscle release to drift into a deep, restorative, and restful sleep.

Science

Sleep

Relaxation Meditation

Visualization

English

This meditation will lead you into a deep, restful sleep. It includes a breathing exercise and progressive muscle relaxation. Alow yourself to be takento the safety of a comfortable sleep. Photo by Vincentiu Solomon.

This meditation will lead you into a deep, restful sleep. It includes a breathing exercise and progressive muscle relaxation. Photo by Annie Spratt.

Restful Sleep

 Welcome, this is meditation for good night sleep. I'm Tomek and I will guide you into deep restful sleep, so when you wake up you will feel refreshed and full of new vitality. Begin by taking a very comfortable position in your bed. You may lay down on your back or on your side or you may choose any other position that you normally sleep in. Are you ready? Close your eyes. Now say it to yourself, say it in your mind. I sleep soundly and deeply into this night. I sleep soundly and deeply into this night. I sleep soundly and deeply into this night. This is a message to your subconscious that will prepare you mentally for the period of restful sleep. The Salai Lama says that sleep is the best meditation. The purpose of this practice is to restore your natural ability to fall asleep by removing all mental and physical obstacles that may still be in the way. Now give yourself permission to fall asleep. Let go, just for a moment, of all the worries, all the struggles. Put them aside. You may return to them in the morning with a fresh mind. This restful sleep will bring a new perspective that will allow you to deal with all the struggles and all the worries in a better way. It will allow you to find new solutions. Now shift your attention to the area of your dreams. Can you recall your favorite dream? Perhaps you'd like to revisit it tonight. Now it's the time to make that decision. A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities, says JRR Tolkien. Allow me to prepare you for this journey by leading you through a simple breathing exercise. This exercise will help you to calm down your nervous system and also provide your brain with a fresh supply of oxygen. When you are asleep, your brain is very active, processing all important information that you collected during the day. During this exercise, you will breathe in through your nose, hold your breath and exhale through your mouth as if you try to blow a candle. Use every exhale as an opportunity to let go of all the stress, all tension. I will lead you now through five cycles of this breathing method. Are you ready? Breathe in through your nose, hold it and exhale through your mouth. In through your nose, hold it and exhale through your mouth. In through your nose, hold it and out through your mouth. In through your mouth, hold it and out. Relax now and breathe normally. This simple breathing technique helps to relax your sympathetic nervous system that is active during fight of light. Now you switch on your parasympathetic nervous system and enter rest and digest mode. There is an intimate connection between your physical body and your emotions. By actively relaxing your muscles, you may change the way you feel. Normally, you may not be aware how tense your muscles are. This tension accumulates during the course of the day. Now we move to the second part of this meditation. In this part, we will intentionally tense and relax all major muscle groups. This ancient technique is called by modern science progressive muscle relaxation and will help you to move your body and mind to the edge of sleep. If you find this exercise too demanding, simply listen to the instructions without doing anything. You will resume in the next part. As you tense your muscles, you hold your breath and when you relax, exhale slowly through your mouth. Ready? Lift your eyebrows to wrinkle your forehead. Hold it tight for a moment, a bit longer and relax. As you release the tension, exhale through your mouth and feel the wave of relaxation moving through your forehead. Now repeat the same process with your lips, cheeks and jaw. Ready? Breathe in and tense your lips, cheeks and jaw. Hold it a bit longer and release. Muscles in your face feel more loose, more relaxed. Can you feel the difference? Now your shoulders. As you breathe in, bring your shoulders towards your ears, tensing all the muscles as hard as possible. Hold your breath and keep the tension for just a bit longer. Hold it a bit longer and release and feel another way of relaxation pleasantly spreading across your body. Now chest and belly. Take a deep breath and tense muscles in your chest and belly. Hold your breath, keep the tension and release. And a pleasant wave of relaxation moves across your body. Now move to your buttocks. As you take a deep breath, tighten the muscles in your buttocks. Hold it a bit more and relax and feel how all the stress goes away. Now last part, your legs. As you breathe in, squeeze your legs together. Hold them tight. A bit more and release. Breathe normally and relax. With all muscles relaxed, your mind will follow. Your tension becomes softer, less attached to any particular object or thought. Soft on the edges and ready to surrender effortlessly. Remaining tension zips out of your body and mind. Gravity simply holds you there and nothing needs to be done. Everything is taken care of. Before you drift off completely into a restful sleep, bring your attention to your breath. By now you may notice a different quality in your breathing. Your breath reflects the state of your body and the state of your emotions. You may notice the quality of your breathing now. Is it deep? Is it shallow? You may follow the natural rhythm of your breathing. There is no need to force it. Simply follow it. You may notice contraction and expansion of your belly as you breathe in and breathe out. With every breath you take, this expansion and contraction becomes softer. With every breath you slow down a bit more. You go deeper and deeper into a softness of your sleep. This is all natural and normal. There is no other place you need to be when there is no other thing that you need to do. Simply being and getting ready for a restful good night's sleep. Breathing in and breathing out. More and more into restful sleep. Every breath brings you closer to the edge of sleep. Now, there is a very little that holds you back from falling into deep restful sleep. And every breath you take, allow you to detach a little bit more, a little bit more. And now you feel that there is nothing else that is stopping you from having a good night restful sleep. Now, I wish you a very good night's sleep. So when you wake up, you will feel refreshed and full of new vitality, ready to face any challenges that a new day will put in front of you. Have a good night.