If you have ever been stormed with those worrying thoughts or a long task list to finish, you probably are going to be deprived of a good night sleep. Having a disturbed sleeping pattern or finding it hard to sleep is a burning issue in America.
Day drowsiness could be awful, slapping your capacity to perform well, often leading to adverse health effects. A research proposes – meditation – an act to calm your mind and senses by focussing on breathing could be a good idea.
Although meditation is being practiced for thousands of years, the meditative technique termed as the “relaxation response” was invented in America by Dr.Herbert Benson in the 1970s. This meditation technique is well known and has gained acceptance by doctors, therapists, and physicians worldwide as a means of alleviating symptoms of conditions ranging from malignancy to AIDS.
Mindfulness meditation is a practice of concentrating on your breathing and focusing on the present, not worrying about the thoughts of the past or future. This therapy aids in breaking the chain of your day-to-day thoughts to arouse relaxation, using any appropriate method that helps you.
Meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and post-traumatic stress disorder. People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as an enhanced mood and outlook, healthy heart, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns and even increased pain tolerance.
Table of Contents
The Different Types of Meditation
Mediation benefits
If you are insomniac and having sleepless nights, meditation could be a boon. The deep relaxation technique has proved to improve sleep patterns, quality of your sleep, and apparently making it easy to sleep. It also helps to deal with several sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea. Some vital information that could help you ascertain the practice of deep relaxation technique is as under.
It’s a safe practice
Meditation could be a fantastic option for those looking for a free from medicine and natural mode of dealing with insomnia. As a matter of fact, meditation is known to reduce the usage of sleeping pills. This therapy is also believed to reduce symptoms of insomnia as it reduces arousing the brain. Hence this is a totally risk-free method of meditation.
Can be used conjointly
Mindfulness meditation is believed to work efficiently with cognitive behavioral therapy in treating insomnia. Mindfulness meditation is known to deal with other ailments like blood pressure, stress, anxiety, and depression, along with insomnia.
Easy to use
Mindfulness meditation is a free, easy to use technique – meant for everyone, regardless of gender or age. Nowadays there are heaps of online applications and YouTube videos available teaching different meditation techniques, including books and meditation classes.
Meditation enhances the vital sleep region in the brain
Usually when you are tired or fatigued, there is a possibility of loss of sleep. Besides lying in bed for eight hours, it is important to be in rapid eye movement (REM stage) for a good amount of time for emotional, mental and physical state. However, the quality and the intensity of your sleep is far more precious.
Scientists have been able to establish a good understanding of sleep patterns and its effectiveness, based on extensive researches. Pons help in generating melatonin that helps to regulate the switching system of the REM stage.
Anomaly in this critical brain region causes distress of sleep, restlessness leading to insomnia. According to neuroscientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, meditation aids in constructing robust Pons to build this key brain region provisioning peaceful sleep, every night.
Expert meditators have written many books about apprehensive dreaming capabilities that are based on getting deep staged REM sleep. Many medical practitioners believe mediation is an ideal, safe and proven cure to insomnia. If you are after that carefree, stress-free and sound slumber, meditation is probably the most suitable remedy.
Meditation regains melatonin levels: the sleep power booster
Melatonin is a powerful neurochemical that assists in making you fall asleep. Melatonin is a hormone generated in the brain and its levels rise to the maximum, just before its time for bed – ensuring you get a good night’s sleep.
However, the melatonin has a constant threat from stress – forbidding your natural sleep routine, caused due to reduced melatonin levels. The snowball effect of stress can potentially lead to serious complications including emotional, mental and physical issues.
Fortunately, the compelling natural and powerful meditation remedy works wonders to help regain the melatonin levels. In a research conducted by Rutgers University, it was identified that on average, 98% of people who use to meditate experienced around 300% improvement in their sleep patterns.
If practiced on a regular basis, meditation ensures that your sleep patterns could be approved each night, making sure you wake up fresh each day to meet the challenges of your days – insomnia is out of the door!
Meditation relaxes brain waves to enhance sleep
Those going through depression or having anxiety tend to spend sleepless nights looking at the sky – blank and fallen. This is due to the excessive beta brainwaves that deprive you of good sleep.
These brain waves keep accelerating more and more as the denial thoughts cloud your mind, increasing the beta brainwaves. This delays your sleep further closer to your wake-up time, making it virtually impossible for you to get up from bed relaxed.
According to a study, meditation helps in increasing the levels of alpha, theta and delta brainwave schedules. The soothing brainwaves negate insomnia brainwaves, making sure you are able to perform at the optimum, the next day.
As per a recent study in 2020 from Sleep Standards, 48% of participants stated that feeling anxious during the Coronavirus pandemic was the main reason that makes it harder for them to fall asleep. If you wish to have a deep slumber sleep, meditation is the foremost thing to consider.
Meditation buries stress into the landfill of thoughts
In this fast-paced world, where time is slipping off and it gets virtually impossible to meet the end, the most vulnerable is our sleep. We are all are buried under the graveyard of never-ending thoughts and problems – making our mind a puddle of worries.
It is not uncommon in such situations to have sleep deprivation, losing the potential to think lateral, giving a way for the problems to crawl into the mind zone, creating mist of worries. This could potentially lead to a drastic loss of energy, even on slightest efforts, declining the physical ability to perform regular chores and mind to think pragmatic.
Inflammatory chemicals known as cytokines, which are released in response to stress, can affect mood, resulting in depression. Mindful meditation has been proved to minimizing depression by reducing these inflammatory chemicals
Meditation opens up the windows of valuable thoughts to peep into our minds, bringing us to the current moment, to make our mind realize that present is all we have with us and tomorrow is unpredictable. These vibes marry up our brainwaves to transmit thoughts that help in calming our senses, putting us to a night of good sleep.
The resultant of these meditations is the most effective mode of preparing your brain for bedtime, creating deep and peaceful sleep patterns.
Last Thoughts
The beginning is in realizing the significance of peaceful sleep – identifying a calm and quiet place to sit and relax – breath slowly (inhaling and exhaling), with eyes closed.
Focus on your breath, by gathering your thoughts into one place. Kick start with a couple of minutes, gradually increasing the time to as long as you wish to.
Meditate to improve your emotional and mental health. You can do it anywhere, at any time and that too without any special equipment. Attempting a particular style of mediation suited to your goals is an excellent way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day.
Habitual meditation helps alleviate anxiety and anxiety-associated mental health issues like phobias, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
