Man, headphones and relax in bed for meditation app, radio or podcast in morning. Technology, wellness and music producer in home for audio, sound and sleep or streaming online for calm and zen --ar 16:9 --v 6.1 Job ID: 45edcfd1-acc6-4d70-99d7-707bfaffc37c
If you have trouble sleeping, you might be at the point of trying anything just to get a good night of rest. It’s tough lying down at night, not knowing whether or not you’re going to sleep. Just the possibility that you might not only add additional stress that could prevent you from sleeping. So now you are thinking about a guided meditation app for sleep.
What are these apps? What do they do and, more importantly, do they work? Right off the bat, it is important to note that people with sleep issues are different. Not everyone struggles with insomnia for the same reasons. Likewise, what works for one person might not work for another.
The Guided Meditation Principle
A good place to start is with the guided meditation principle – specifically guided sleep meditation. Guided sleep meditation is a tool for helping people set aside their thoughts to focus on the sensations in their bodies instead. By doing so, they also set aside the thoughts that are keeping them awake at night.
Scott Moore is a sleep meditation teacher and a transformational retreat leader. He explains that guided sleep meditation is a form of meditation that leads the practitioner through the process of relaxing by way of spoken guidance.
In one of his classes, you would focus on the sound of his voice and let his words guide you through what is known as a ‘body scan’. As you progress through the scan, you become more and more relaxed. The thoughts that keep you awake at night are no longer bothersome.
An App Does the Same Thing
A guided meditation app does more or less the same thing. As you lie in bed, you listen to the voice in the app as it guides you through the meditation process. In terms of the body scan, it is nothing more than focusing on individual parts of the body and the physical sensations you are feeling in the moment.
The guide directs you to focus on one body part at a time. As you zero in on that body part and its sensations, you’re less distracted by external thoughts. Moving from one body part to the next exposes your mind to more physical sensation and less thought.
Eventually (a typical session is 30-60 minutes) you are so totally relaxed and feeling the sensations of your body that you are ready to sleep.
It Might Work for You
So here is the million-dollar question: do guided meditation apps for sleep really work? For some people, yes. For others, perhaps not. One study published in 2015 showed mindfulness and meditation helped improve sleep of older adults. In fact, it worked better than a traditional sleep hygiene therapy.
The mindfulness and meditation intervention was practiced for two hours each week over the course of six weeks. Those who participated were more likely to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night. In addition, those participants also reported less fatigue during the daytime. They even reported less depression.
It’s Worth a Try
So what’s the final verdict? If you suffer from chronic insomnia, a guided meditation app is at least worth a try. Better yet, look around for yoga nidra classes near you. Yoga nidra, which is also referred to as ‘yogic sleep’ could help you accomplish the same thing. Yoga nidra is the practice Scott Moore relies on as a sleep meditation teacher.
The nice thing about mobile apps, should you decide to try one, is that you can probably find one that doesn’t cost anything. You can’t beat that.
