Sleep meditation: how long it takes and how to do it in bed

A sleep meditation lasts between five and twenty minutes and you do it in bed, with the lights off. You don't need to reach the end: if you fall asleep halfway, it has done its job. A review of 18 randomized trials found that mindfulness meditation improves sleep quality compared with similar controls, with a moderate effect that was even larger at follow-up.

How long should a sleep meditation be?

Shorter than you might think. For sleep, what matters is not piling up minutes but changing gear: moving from a head that is replaying the day to a body that is resting. That can happen in five minutes or take fifteen.

A practical guide:

• 5 minutes if you are already sleepy and just want to let the day go.
• 10 minutes for an ordinary night, with some mental noise.
• 15 to 20 minutes for nights when your head is racing, or when you want something to carry you from start to finish without thinking.

If you are not sure which one to pick, start with the short one. A ten-minute meditation you finish is more useful than a twenty-minute one you abandon at minute five.

How do you do a sleep meditation?

Most follow the same sequence, guided or not:

1. Get fully comfortable. On your back or your side, however you normally sleep. This is not a seated meditation: the posture here is your sleeping one.
2. A few slow breaths, with the exhale longer than the inhale. It is the most direct signal you can give your body that it can wind down.
3. A sweep through the body, from feet to head or the other way, noticing each area and letting it get heavy. This is the part that helps most to get out of your head.
4. Letting go of the guidance. Towards the end, the voice fades and leaves more silence. There is nothing left to do.

What if I fall asleep halfway?

Perfect. In a daytime meditation, falling asleep would mean losing the thread. In a sleep meditation, it is the goal. You don't need to hear the end or "do it right": if sleep arrives early, let it.

The reverse holds too. If you finish and you are still awake, it hasn't failed: keep breathing slowly and noticing the weight of your body. According to Meditar, sleep meditation works best when you don't demand that it works tonight, and instead repeat it night after night.

What does the research say?

The most thorough review pooled 18 randomized trials with 1,654 participants. Compared with controls that received similar attention — the same time, the same contact, but no meditation — mindfulness improved sleep quality at the end of the program, and the effect was larger at follow-up.

Compared with treatments designed specifically for sleep, however, there was no clear difference. The authors conclude that meditation may help with some aspects of sleep problems and call for more research. It is a cautious conclusion, and the right one.

Guided or in silence?

For sleep, guided. In silence, your mind has all the room it needs to drift back to whatever was keeping you up. A voice telling you where to put your attention fills that room without you having to do anything. That is why the voice matters so much: one you find grating or too energetic keeps you alert instead of letting you go.

Three things that help

• Same time every night. Your body learns the sequence: lights off, meditation, sleep. After a few weeks, just starting makes you drowsy.
• Phone face down. Start the meditation, turn the brightness down and don't look at it again. Checking how much is left pulls you back into your head.
• Low volume. Just enough to hear the voice. If you have to strain to follow it, turn it up a little; if it startles you, turn it down.

If thoughts are what keep you up, here is what to do when you can't sleep because your mind is racing. And if you have struggled to sleep most nights for months, talk to a professional: chronic insomnia has specific treatments with very good evidence.

Pick the voice that puts you to sleep

In Meditar you pick the voice that guides you: you listen before choosing and keep the one that feels right for the night. There are sleep meditations of different lengths, and it is free to start: download it here.