Sleep meditations and aids

People suffering from stress and anxiety often find sleep a real struggle. Which makes their next day even more stressful and the cycle goes around and around like a monkey chasing its tail. Resolving sleep issues often involves dealing with the root cause of the stress and anxiety as well as the physical, emotional and psychological responses.

Tips

Be sure that the mobile phone or tablet is in another room altogether. If you are using a phone or a tablet to play calming music or a spoken word meditation, be sure to have the device face down so that it does not send any light into the room.

Although some may say that it is blasphemy, kick caffeine. It will not be easy, my last attempt took two weeks to stop the leg cramps fully. It was worth it though. By that way, that includes 'energy drinks' and cola. Both of which are high in caffeine and sugar. If you must have coffee, try to have your last cup of coffee before 1:00 PM and less than three a day.

The same with refined sugar and Aspartame, the commonly used artificial replacement for sugar. The sooner you can reduce your intake on these, the better.

Clips




Binaural Beats

Binaural beats re designed to listened to using earbuds or even better yet, headphones that can block out outside noise. What is played in one ear is played at a different frequency to the other ear. This difference promotes the growth of neural pathways across the brain, building resilience. 432 Mhz Binaural beats are designed to promote relaxation and deeper sleep. here are two of my favorites:

Whilst I've listed two out here, there are some many more available. Try a few and when you are ready, do a YouTube search and find the ones that suit use best. Click here to go to a page with many more. Just remember to have the tablet or phone face down whilst it is playing.


Spoken word meditations

Sometimes the spoken word meditations for sleep are also called "Sleep talk downs". Again, I find the best ones are between 30 minutes and one hour. These don't need headphones and I often use an external speaker. That way, when I nod off, there is nothing on my head to wake me up when it digs into the pillow. Doesn't matter if it is a cheap Kmart one or the most expensive one you can find. Here are some that have work for me.


 Weighted blankets



Sleeping under a blanket that has had weight added to it, usually by sand, bamboo or glass beads, sounds very weird. Whilst not a heavily researched area at this point in time, the research to date seems to favor these as a tool for reducing anxiety and improving sleep. Here are some research articles to consider:


There are many more articles around which a Google search will find fairly easily.

I have sourced them from multiple places. Spotlight and Aldi when they are on special are always great. If I want something custom, like what we have at DVAC, I go to this supplier, Laughland,  https://www.laughland.com.au/ . I’ve bought a number of blankets, lap-pads and neck wraps from Laughland and they are great.


If you do decide to try either a weighted blanket, always be sure to pay attention to the weight limits of no more than 10% of your body weight and to not let small children sleep under a weighted blanket at all.

Other tips

Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurology at Stanford university is one of a number of research professionals who are saying that sleep is the number one tool for mental health.



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