Sleep Better with Mindfulness
A 5-day program designed to help you fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and wake refreshed using mindfulness practices.
Calming the Racing Mind
📚 Teaching
**Why the Mind Races at Night**: During the day, you're distracted. At night, in the quiet, all the unprocessed thoughts surface. Your mind is trying to solve problems, remember things, plan for tomorrow.
**The Worry Dump**: Before bed, spend 10 minutes writing down everything on your mind—worries, to-dos, thoughts. This signals your brain: 'We've captured this. You can let go now.'
**Counting and Imagery**: These techniques give your mind something gentle to focus on, crowding out rumination.
**The Paradox of Sleep**: Trying hard to sleep keeps you awake. The goal is to become so relaxed and present that sleep happens naturally. Let go of trying.
🧘 Tonight's Practice: Sleep Breath Counting
Duration: 15 minutes (do in bed)
Instructions:
- When you're in bed ready to sleep, lie on your back or side (whatever's comfortable).
- Close your eyes.
- **Counted Breathing**: Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 2, exhale for 6 counts. The longer exhale activates relaxation. Repeat 8 times.
- **Breath Counting**: Now count backward from 100, one number per exhale. 'Breathing in... 100. Breathing in... 99. Breathing in... 98...'
- If you lose count (or fall asleep!), that's perfect. Just start over.
- Let your attention rest fully on the counting. When thoughts arise, gently return.
- If you reach zero, start again at 100.
- The goal isn't to finish—it's to be so absorbed in counting that thinking stops.
✅ Evening Worry Dump
Tonight, 30-60 min before bed, write for 10 minutes: all worries, to-dos, thoughts swirling in your mind. Get them out. Then close the notebook and symbolically 'put them away' until tomorrow.