Because sustaining awareness while meditating may be challenging at times, it's no surprise that mindfulness has been demonstrated to improve sleep quality. Sitting motionless and taking deep breaths is not a very exciting pastime. One may even say it is soothing. However, this is not the whole tale.

Mindfulness practice may help to foster nonjudgmental awareness, or viewing things exactly as they are, with openness and curiosity. Similar to the practice of meditation, it is easier to state objectives than to really carry them out.

If you have a heavy hand, neither your sleep nor your mindfulness practice will benefit from it. If you make it a mission to fall asleep, you are less likely to really do so. When you meditate, attempting to create a picture-perfect state of mind will just add strain and ambiguity to your experience. Sleep and mindfulness are more likely to occur if you prepare yourself with clear-sighted planning and patient resolve—intentionally but unforced—and if you set yourself up with these things.
 

A Guided Meditation for Improved Sleep

When considering any kind of meditation linked with sleep, bear in mind that nothing can be pushed or coerced to happen. Because striving makes it more difficult to sleep, you should aim to practice without any specific expectations or goals. Despite the fact that we cannot force ourselves to sleep, we may be able to fall asleep if we set a goal of being peaceful and less engaged with our thoughts.

We will not have an ending bell or directions for the subsequent meditation. If you wish to continue practicing after the end, you may, but you should attempt to get a decent night's sleep first.

1. Start while lying down, Allow your legs to rest in a comfortable position, hip-width apart. You may rest your arms at your sides or your hands on your tummy.
2. Begin by noticing your breath. Pay attention, as best as you’re able to the physical movement related to breathing, such as your belly rising and falling. Or, if you prefer, focus your attention more closely on the air moving in and out of your nose and mouth.
3. It’s normal, expected even, to have thoughts—There are a lot of them.Your mind rehashes the day or becomes preoccupied with thinking about tomorrow. Recognize your habits, and then practice letting them be. Label anything catches your attention, then return to watching the breath. Breathing in and out.
4. Notice if you get caught up in effort, Replace your irritation or worry with compassion for yourself. Catch thoughts of self-criticism or dissatisfaction, then return to simply one breath, one more time. Thoughts are only thoughts. Breathing in, breathing out. There is nothing to correct or alter right now. Observe where your thoughts travel and name them "thoughts." Repeatedly return to the next breath.
5. Shift attention to sensations in your body. Start by moving your awareness to physical sensations in your feet. You don’t need to wiggle your toes or move your feet, just notice them—the temperature or the pressure of your heel against the blanket or the mat beneath you.
6. From your feet, move your attention into your lower legs, Observing everything there is to see. Allowing yourself to let go of the urge to exert effort or accomplish something. Then go from your lower thighs to your knees, and finally to your upper legs. If you feel any stress or strain, try to relax and let go.
7. Then move your attention through your buttocks and pelvis, and into your belly and abdomen. You may feel your breath going up and down, as well as other bodily sensations and, on sometimes, a reflection of emotion. And, as you proceed from your belly to your chest, take notice of any times your mind becomes preoccupied with feelings of discomfort or distraction. And then, softly and patiently, guide it back one more time.
8. Move around into your back, certainly a place many of us hold tension in different ways, relaxing your muscles as best as you’re able, lowering your shoulders from your ears. If you feel a need to make an adjustment, allow that to happen with intention, pausing and choosing your next action. Shift your attention into your hands and lower arms, again without actively needing to move or change anything, observing and letting go.
9. Then moving through your neck and into the muscles of your face, perhaps noticing any locations of tightness or pinching, and then with gentleness, as best as you’re able, relaxing those muscles. And then for a few moments, have a general awareness of physical sensations throughout your body.
10. And now, if you’re still awake, bring your attention back to the breath, each time the mind wanders into the past or into the future, or wherever it chooses to go. If it’s a useful anchor for your attention, you can count breaths, breathing in, one, breathing out, one, breathing in, two, breathing out, two… When you reach ten, start at one again.
11. If counting becomes a distraction, then just stay with the sensation of breathing—at the exact spot where you feel your abdomen and chest expand and contract in response to your breath. Now you're on your own to keep going, counting breaths to 10 and coming back to the present moment calmly whenever distractions arise. No worries if you happen to lose track of the number. Return to the point where you last had an experience.