Calm the Mind Before Bed

Put your mind at ease for a restful night's sleep with these calming rituals and techniques.

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Just Relax
Those of us who find it hard to unwind may benefit from relaxation exercises such as deep breathing, guided imagery or progressive muscle relaxation exercises. Whether you’re taking deep belly breaths, visualizing waves on an ocean or tensing and relaxing your muscles, the goal is the same: to ease you into a more relaxed state. “When we get stressed, the sympathetic nervous system goes into alert,” Drerup says. “That’s the fight- or-flight response. Relaxation activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which does just the opposite. That slows the heart rate and respiration, lowers blood pressure and prepares you for a better state of sleep.”

MORE: Stress Less for Sleep

Get Zen
Learning to let go of troubling thoughts with meditation can soothe even the most agitated mind. To do that, consider mindfulness training. Mindfulness is a form of meditation that involves being aware of your thoughts but not reacting to them or judging them. Research by Jeff Greeson, PhD, a clinical health psychologist at Duke University, found that people who took an eight week course in mindfulness-based stress reduction reported better overall sleep afterwards and woke up less frequently during the night.

With mindfulness, the goal isn’t to relax or even to suppress the thoughts. “The goal is to become more attentive and aware of whatever is happening at the time,” Dr. Greeson says. “You’re saying, ‘Okay, this is what I’m thinking.’”

To become more mindful, it’s helpful to redirect your thoughts to your breath by placing your hand on your belly and feeling it rise and fall as you breathe. “That helps pull the plug when we start feeling the pull of our thoughts,” Dr. Greeson says.

— by Winnie Yu

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