I’m 14, and I have struggle falling asleep. A lot. My mind wanders, I toss and turn, I want to look at my phone, and I just can’t get myself to calm down enough to sleep. I’ve heard all over social media that meditation helps you calm down and fall asleep faster. So I was wondering, does meditation actually work? Will it help me with falling asleep faster?
Meditation. Have you tried it? I heard over and over again that it is so helpful to calm your mind, and help fall asleep faster. When yet another week passed with me having trouble sleeping, I started to consider the idea to try meditation. My initial thoughts on it were skeptical, I thought it sounded weird and boring. But I just could not fall asleep, so when I saw that Peloton had a 2 week meditation program, with just 5-10 minutes of meditation a day, I decided to try it. What did I have to lose? I already was losing so much time in bed tossing and turning unable to fall asleep! Committing to just 5-10 minutes seemed like something I could try, why not?
A few days into the 2 week program I wasn’t falling asleep any faster, I wasn’t relaxing more, and overall, I still didn’t understand what the hype over meditation was all about. But I decided that I would finish the program. Over the next few nights, however, I started to fall asleep faster, even before the 10 minute meditation finished. By the end of the meditation 2 week program, I was hooked. I let go of my initial impressions of questioning if meditation worked, because in the end it was so helpful in clearing my mind and helping me fall asleep.
Calming Sounds: I found that listening to the instructor’s voice and listening to the gentle music, just helped me feel less alone and more peaceful. It also distracted my mind from wandering while I was trying to fall asleep. To be honest, I didn’t really even follow the directions given by the instructor, I just listened to their voice, which helped me calm down and helped my trouble sleeping go away.
I suggest trying meditation for those of you who have trouble falling asleep. It won’t magically solve your sleeping problems, but it will help you get in the mindset of sleeping. If you are like me and you are skeptical, remember that it might take time to start seeing effects from the meditations, and keeping an open mind is important. Also try different instructors. The 2 week sleep meditation was great because it had different instructors and I liked some better than others. There’s definitely an instructor out there for everyone. Give it a try for a week or two, what do you have to lose? If you are like me and you’re having trouble sleeping, trying meditations seems like a no brainer. And if it really doesn’t help, maybe look for another solution!
Peloton
My sister and I both love Peloton meditations and our favourite instructor is Ross Rayburn. The two week meditation program that we tried is also available there. Peloton offers a free trial, so you can easily try a few meditations, and see if you are interested.
Calm
The Calm app also has a free trial, and it offers meditations, sleep programs, calming sounds, as well as bedtime stories and more.
YouTube
There’s a massive amount of free meditations on YouTube. Try searching in “Meditations”, and seeing what results come up. You could even create a playlist with all your favorite meditations, so you can easily come back and choose which one to use. The Calm app even has some free meditations available to you on YouTube, which you can try!
Does meditation work? It tremendously helped me, so I really encourage you to try it out! We hope that these tips help you fall asleep faster and have a Small Bit of Happiness.
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Featuring quick videos created for teens by teens.
Does meditation work for sleep? After having trouble falling asleep and trouble sleeping in general, we tried meditation for sleep. If you’re wondering “what does meditation help with”, read this article!
