Our daily lives can be a mixture of highs and lows. At the end of the day, when we finally want to settle down, that’s when all the thoughts of happiness, anxiety, anger or even gratitude come rushing into the brain. Our thoughts run too fast when we should be settling down to get deep sleep
If like me, you also experience this hyperactivity right before bed and fail to get a good night’s rest, then this article is for you. Gratitude meditation before sleep is a form of guided meditation technique, which helps the brain to calm down before bed and improves the quality of sleep. We will be discussing why and how it works, as well as providing a step-by-step guide on how to follow gratitude meditation before sleep.
What is Gratitude Meditation?
As the name suggests, gratitude meditation is a form of guided sleep meditation where you list down all the things you are grateful for. As we watch various videos on YouTube or scroll through social media websites, it is easy for us to look at other people’s picture-perfect lives and find fault with ours. Therefore, to keep a healthy mindset and listen or reflect on good things in your own life, gratitude meditation works wonders.
Gratitude meditation before sleep is a form of guided meditation that is strategically placed right before sleep. It works to experience feelings of appreciation and content with your life, but at the same time also works to calm your thoughts and brain before sleeping. Some people listen to music to channel their emotions, some can fall asleep on their own, while some have a bedtime relaxation ritual. What is common between all these routines is to relax and get into the mood of sleeping
Guided sleep through gratitude affirmations is one way of doing that.
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Sleep, Meditation, Gratitude: How it Works and How to Do It
If we look at the design of gratitude meditation, it works logically. As you meditate, love, peace, mindfulness, and other key moments are experienced. Meditation, in general, is known to help you regulate your emotions. It saves you from emotional outbursts by choking yourself with emotions, without any outlet. Therefore, when you focus on gratitude sleep meditation, you are using affirmation descriptions and guiding your gratitude in a positive light. It can actually create feelings of increased gratefulness, which improves your overall well-being.
The way in which gratitude meditation for deep sleep meditation works is that you’re in a state of increased focus on the present, and you begin to enjoy the little things. For instance, when you force yourself every day to think of something to be grateful for, then even a sunny day or a cozy nook on a rainy day are things you begin to be grateful for.
Especially, in today’s modern world, where social media makes us think that others are living the best most luxurious lives, while we struggle from day to day. When you equip gratitude meditation, you begin to be grateful for things in your own life. It helps to develop a more outright positive perspective on life, recording good things and navigating through the bad things with poise.
How to Follow Guided Gratitude
A few tips on a successful guided meditation for sleep are:
- Find a calming spot in your house. No sound, no disturbances or any distractions
- If you like music, then download albums to play in the background
- Sit in a yoga position or lie in bed, your position during the gratitude meditation is not of great importance
- It’s easy to focus when the night’s routine and all the chores have been done
- You can consult a trusted health professional if needed
Why Gratitude Meditation Helps You Sleep
We have discussed how gratitude meditation helps you develop a positive attitude and improves well-being, but it also improves the quality of your sleep. Research suggests that gratitude meditation at the end of the day has improved the ability to have full Rem Cycles in the sleep and reach a deep sleep stage. The way it works is in three ways:
- Gratitude Focuses Your Mind on the Positive
A comment on your dress or comment read on Instagram can leave us feeling glum. You may forget about it as you get busy in your work, but at the end of the day, when everything goes silent and you are falling asleep, the negative feelings can return and affect your sleep. By gratitude exercises, meditation is designed to help you find joy. Feelings of gratitude and appreciation help you get over any negative feelings from the day, become mindful and remain positive
- Reduces Stress and Anxiety That Can Interfere with Sleep
Meditation and mindful movement is a license to getting over any anxious or stressful thoughts. As you sit in bed and keep thinking over something that brings you stress, you actually distract yourself from sleeping. However, when you uphold the habit of guided gratitude meditation before sleep, then you align your thoughts towards the positive. This can soothe over anxious feelings and help you achieve a peaceful mindset before bed.
- Promotes Relaxation and Contentment before Bed
Gratitude meditation before sleep, even without any anxious, stress, or other thoughts can be overall better for reaching deep sleep. On normal days, if you go through gratitude meditation, it helps you get into bed with a settled and toned-down attitude, and get into sleep as soon as you hit your head on the pillow. It is designed to help you relax and become content, by easing down your brain activity.
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Step-By-Step Guide to the Gratitude Meditation
Mindful movements are powerful tools to help you develop gratitude. It increases appreciation within you and creates an abundance of positive intention, so that your perspective over life occurrences become positive and you become content with the hand life has dealt you.
When doing meditation for gratitude, make sure to follow these steps in detail for successful meditative exercise
Set the Scene
When doing any meditation to calm yourself, the mood you set is very important. Consider the vibes of your space as a donation towards your own wellbeing. Background music, podcasts, audio recordings or anything you like can be used to set the correct mood. The scene should be calming and help you pause from routine activities. There should be no distractions, no noises that can impact your focus or people going in and out of the room
Get Comfortable
In a comfortable space, it is important that you are also comfortable. Whether sitting down, lying down or even standing up, to conduct guided mediations all designed techniques require you to be in a comfortable position. In bed, lay on back, relax muscles or if you are sitting, then upright back, neck must be straight and arms in your lap.
Take Deep Breaths to Begin Settling In
As you begin gratitude meditation, take a few deep breaths. As you take a breath in, calm yourself, as you take a breath out, remove all thoughts. Consult a doctor or trusted professional, if you have issue breathing
Exercise of Gratitude
For the last step, there is no on way that is correct. It depends on what you like to do
- You can focus on grateful thoughts in your brain. List down things you are grateful for, good things that happened in the day, a kind word or a good deed.
- You can chant a gratitude mantra over and over. Repeat the mantra as an affirmation that helps you develop a positive outlook and positive vibes.
Irrespective of what you choose to do, guided meditation acts as a reminder and brings back thoughts that have drifted away.
The Sleep Meditation (10 Minutes)
Even if you don’t want to sit down in a yoga position and meditate, you can do this meditation as you lie in your bed. Meditation gratitude is not limited to a position but depends only on establishing a gratitude attitude.
As you lie in bed, you can
- Think of Something from Today You Are Grateful For
Any small success, a sunny day, or somebody’s smile
- Focus On the Feeling of Gratitude – Really Feel It
As you focus on that good thing, align your thoughts to show thankfulness for it. It is integral that you truly feel the gratefulness and do not act it
- Take a Deep Breath In, Breathe Out Softly Saying “Thank You”
To develop compassion, take a few breaths and say the term thank you. It will help you relax and truly be grateful for the thing you are thinking about
- Repeat Steps 1-3, Continuously Finding New Things to Feel Grateful For
Restore the first step and then think of the second thing you are grateful for and repeat the same steps again. Do this until you feel relaxed and tension has left your body and nervous system.
Finish with Gratitude Affirmations
If you want to use the guidance technique of positive affirmations or mantras in guided gratitude meditation, then here are a few helpful mantras that work.
- “I Am Grateful”
As you breathe in and out, repeat the phrase I am Grateful. Every night, affirm yourself that for all the good in your life, you are grateful. You have seen it, noticed it, and are thankful for it
- “My Mind Is Calm and At Peace”
If something is bothering you and you cannot let go of it, then this mantra is for you. Say my mind is calm and at peace over and over again. Truly feel it and only focus on it. Make yourself larger than the anxious thought or event. As you keep repeating thing, the anxious thought will go away
- “I Will Sleep Soundly Tonight”
If positive affirmations are something that help you manifest, then repeat I will sleep soundly tonight over and over again. As you say this, you will manifest a good night’s sleep, without any issues or disturbances that do not let your rest.
As you repeat these affirmations every night, it can act as a workshop that helps you remain positive right before going to sleep. Your affirmations can work to bring in positive thoughts or gratefulness or take away negative thoughts that are disturbing you or help you manifest a restful and calm sleep ahead.
Read Also: Why do People Struggle with Meditation?
Research-Backed Benefits of Gratitude Before Bed
Although we have discussed all the ways gratitude meditation before bed can help you improve the quality of your sleep, we can now also provide you with evidence that it works
- 31% Fall Asleep Faster (Per UC San Diego Study)
In a study by UC San Diego, it was found that participants who took out 15 minutes before going to bed to be mindful, had a better quality of sleep and woke up feeling more refreshed. This mindfulness exercise also includes gratitude meditation before, which can improve your sleep
- 20 Minute Increase in Sleep Duration (Per Journal of Psychosomatic Research)
In another study done by a scientific journal of psychosomatic research, participants were found to sleep for 20 minutes longer when they were asked to follow a routine to calm down. Each participant group had a different routine to help in settle down, but one of the techniques also included gratefulness exercises and meditation
- Reduced Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, and Insomnia Symptoms (Per PubMed Journal)
On studies conducted by numerous researchers on the effects of meditation on sleep quality, various studies have found meditation to reduce anxiety, depressive thoughts, and recurring thoughts that cause distraction. Therefore, insomnia caused by stress has been known to reduce through meditation in the scientific community.
With this research evidence, it becomes clear that gratitude meditation will have a positive effect on sleep quality, quantity and well-being. If you choose to pursue gratitude meditation before sleep, it is likely that you will see results within months, if not weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ’s)
Yes. One of the ways of doing gratitude meditation before sleep is to lie in bed and meditate on thoughts of gratefulness. To do so:
— Lie in bed in a comfortable position
— Take deep breaths
— Repeat gratitude mantras
— OR focus on things you are grateful for
To sleep with gratitude, take out 10 minutes before getting to sleep to list down things that you are grateful for. Instead of bedtime stories, try to apply the technique of reviewing your day to identify things that you appreciate.
There is no particular time in the day when it is recommended to not meditate. However, when opting for gratitude meditation, it will have most effective results on your sleep, if you do it right before sleeping.
— To feel gratitude is the first stage
— To express that gratitude in words that shows acceptance from the heart is the second stage
— To adopt new behaviors, attitudes or emotions as a reaction to gratitude is the third and final stage. Adoption of gratitude makes you a better person
Gratitude makes you feel warm. It brings about contentment with oneself and surroundings, which can make you feel grounded in the present moment. You are not delving into the past, being stuck with some distance memory that causes pain. Instead, you are present for yourself and for your loved ones. It gives you freedom from whatever burden is holding you back
— Appreciation
— Admiration
— Approval
— Attentiveness
Mindful gratitude is when you pass through all three stages of gratitude; Feel, Express and Adopt
The best mindfulness meditation is gratitude meditation for a better and improved sleep quality. You must take time to breathe and focus on things that bring joy, instead of anxious and depressing thoughts.
No. On the contrary, meditation, when done correctly, will improve your sleep quality. However, it is worth noting that like anything in life, meditation if implemented incorrectly or if it becomes a source of stress, rather than wellness, can also result in depleted quality of sleep.
