Yes, I do yoga! (In bed. Half asleep.)
Meditation Relaxation (MR) therapy– sometimes called Yoga nidra or Milam– exercises your mind and body, providing an effective method for proper rest and improved sleeping habits.
The best part? The guilt of cuddling up next to your beloved cellphone disappears.
There are more than 5 million “sleep meditation” videos on YouTube, and dozens of free apps including Calm, Headspace, Inscape and HelloMind.
The first thing anyone—from your mother to your Sleep Specialist— will tell you is to turn off your phone if you want a decent night of sleep. Yet, we all know that sleep is just a luxury when the Twitter timeline is just too good to stop scrolling.
My thoughts?
Embrace the urge. There is something sickly reassuring about knowing my phone is near.
Before I began nightly sleep meditation, I tried a handful of nightly routines. I experimented with conventional methods: tea or warm milk, reading, breathing exercises, aromatherapy. Sleeping pills were either not strong enough, or much too expensive for regular use.
I then played around with some unconventional methods; one of my favorites being a game where I refuse to let my eyes close except to blink.
I even went through a rather bizarre phase where I took excruciatingly ice-cold baths with all of the lights off.
Finally, I found my holy grail in sleep meditation. Something about the calming sounds of the ocean, mixed with an Australian man sharing empowering monologues, just clicked. I feel more rested, less resentful at my alarm clock, and less stressed about the time I’m wasting trying to sleep.
I’ve also realized that I am not missing any messages, emails, or social media alerts, but when the night comes that I might– I’m prepared.
(My favorite narrator for guided meditations is Jason Stephenson. In case he manages to find this article, thank you for the pillow talks.)