Sleep Science - A Meditation For Rest

Find a more rested state with this calming, scientific meditation. Blending self-massage, techniques to stimulate the Vagus nerve rest and relax response, soothing breath techniques and evocative body scan. No pressure, just a guiding hand into letting the body and mind down-regulate into rest.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation where we will use evidence-based scientific techniques to help you to come towards rest. Begin however you need to begin so you could be seated but better lying down making yourself as comfortable as possible and that might take a little bit of time maybe taking the body so the limbs are a little bit wider that's making space between the shoulder blades maybe tucking the chin into the chest slightly so that you can exhale and rest the full weight of the head back and down if you can we'll bring the palms and seal them over the eyes if you can't do that then just imagine bringing the palms over the eyes making a really close seal so that the brain can rest into a cave of darkness and with the eyes covered in this way you might slightly press the hands so that you can move the skin around the eyes and press in a way which feels like you're easing out any tension around the eyes and the forehead coming to relative stillness you might keep the eyes closed or you could blink them open underneath the hands and then shift the gaze towards the left corner of the eyes really look into the left corner of the eyes and slide the gaze across to the right corner of the eyes and slide the gaze up looking towards the eyebrows and then slide the gaze down to look down towards the cheeks now you might take that again and you can stay with these four compass points well you might start to cast the gaze into other directions maybe up on the diagonal across and down when you're ready we're gonna look to the center of the vision and then try and deepen the visions if you're trying to look at a star in a faraway constellation and then bring the vision very shallow like you're trying to look inside the eyelids or to the eyelashes and take that one or two more times deepening the gaze as much as you can like you're trying to look at something so far away and then close by shortening the gaze and then as you next exhale soften the eyes and let the hands pull to the sides of the face and the temples and then squash down the sides of the face to the cheeks or the jaw and have a good press and squash of the cheeks and the jaw you can do this with fingertips or the heels of the hands you might turn the head so that the head squashes into the hands a little and then you could even open the mouth and as you kind of chew the jaw slowly pressing fingertips or palms you're gonna exhale give the breath a little bit of texture as it leaves like you're trying to steam up a surface in front of you final little bit of massage and slide the hands to the sides of the neck of the fingers wrapping around the back of the neck then you can simply hold here feeling the warmth of the palms or you can gently drag the hands move the skin of the neck perhaps you press fingertips to the nape of the neck the base of the skull and then when this feels done I'm gonna pull the hands forwards and rest hands either on low ribs elbows out to the side or you could take hands to the belly or anywhere that feels comforting and comfortable find the lips where they meet and then either just visualize this or actually bring the tip of the tongue in between the teeth and the lips and then we will run the tip of the tongue along the inside of the mouth so beginning to explore perhaps all the way to the back of the teeth and then to the roof of the mouth and you can press the tip of the tongue quite firmly as you move it over the roof of the mouth finding different textures these ridges in the upper palate and then take the tip of the tongue down to the lower palate where the tongue would normally lie feel the heat and the liquid of the mouth and then when you next inhale we're gonna take the tip of the tongue up to the roof of the mouth and as you exhale simply let the tongue soften and the root of the tongue drop back I'll be your next few exhales can every breath soften the body like you're trying to imprint the back of the body into the ground as you take your next inhale your natural pace I'm gonna slowly fill the breath and then as you exhale purse the lips and blow the breath out through the lips all the way to its end you can take one or two more like that really find your natural breath pace slow inhale and then the exhale blown through the lips to its end and then that's done we settle brush the awareness to the tips of the left toes to the tips of the right toe to the left shin the right shin to the left thigh and as you exhale let the tissues of the left thigh soften around the bones right thigh right thigh soften grab the awareness around left hip as you exhale the hip widens and spreads outwards right hip right hip softens and spreads in the lower belly on a few exhales the belly drops back towards the spine left side of the ribs expanding outwards with waves and sinking downwards right side of the ribs expanding and sinking left shoulder and on an exhale the left shoulder squashes back into the ground right shoulder and the length of the left arm from the shoulder to the tips of the fingers and as you exhale next the left arm rests heavy right shoulder the length of the right arm rests heavy left side of the neck right side of the neck center of the neck left side of the jaw inside the mouth the space between the left back teeth right side of the jaw space between right back teeth left eyebrow corner of left eye right eyebrow corner of right eye space between the eyebrows left eyebrow right eyebrow left temple the left side of the skull right temple the right side of the skull the center top of the skull and then the space just above the head find the tip of the nose and the cool of the inhale warmth steam and humidity of the exhale cool of the inhale steam of the exhale you can simply stay with this or add a slight extra texture or steaminess in the back of the throat now as you exhale this is a breath technique called ujjayi breath produced by a very slight constriction at the back of the throat like you're fogging up glass and the beauty of this breath technique is that you begin to really follow the exhales to their end by prolonging the exhale breath we start to bring the heart rate and the blood pressure way down can you imagine that you're sinking or leaning into the end of the exhale for just a few more breaths then you can stay with this for our last few breaths we'll take a gentle humming I'm taking a normal maybe slightly longer inhale as you exhale you just add a vibrational hum and allow the hum to really travel all the way to the end of the exhale before you take another few by creating these vibrations in the back of the throat and the roof of the mouth we stimulate the vagus nerve the nerve which brings the body down into a parasympathetic rest or relaxed state when you have completed your final hum and take a longer inhale and then open the mouth and sigh the breath out draw the awareness around the body for a few breaths imagine that the body is becoming very very heavy imprinting sinking down and then imagine that the body is becoming very very light so light that it feels like you could almost lift and hover just above the ground now imagine that the body is feeling really cool like you're lying in a fresh stream and now can you imagine that the body is really really warm maybe you feel the warmth of the organs in the belly and the heart in the chest could you imagine that the body is very very big not just big but vast as big as a planet and then imagine that the body is very very small tiny like a speck of sand in the desert finally could you imagine the body filled with darkness so dark like the deepest night sky and finally imagine that the body is really really light and bright not just a warm golden light but maybe something brighter something whiter almost piercingly bright and with every breath you take now the inhale lightens and brightens the body and like a dimmer switch the exhale just slightly dims the light of the body inhale bright and light exhale slight dimming and now i'll take you through a series of images imagine the hands the shape of the hands the creases in the palms and the way that the hands are held imagine your home the rooms of your home the sounds and the smells of your home imagine a loved one not just in still life but emotion their expressions their love imagine your handwriting imagine the sea on a flat day clouds hanging imagine your brain the two hemispheres of the brain and all the tiny electrical signals firing up all of the time imagine your heart the squeeze and release of the heart and finally imagine your palms closing over your eyes and making that dark cave for the brain visualize yourself sleeping where are you how is your breath what is the expression on your face how does it feel to be asleep and know that with every breath of simple rest that you take you are coming closer and closer to that rested state