This recording has been made especially for you in order to help you improve your sleeping patterns.
So please make sure you don't listen to this whilst driving the car,
And hopefully you're now just either lying down,
Or sitting in a chair,
Or somewhere where you can completely relax and not be disturbed for the next several minutes.
So settling yourself comfortably and closing your eyes,
You don't have to stay absolutely still,
But it may be that that's all you actually want to do,
Just to let yourself settle more and more deeply into the chair,
Or lying on the bed.
Now take a deep breath,
And let it out slowly,
And allow yourself to become more relaxed as you do so.
As though you were breathing away all tensions from your mind and body,
Just let yourself be as easy and comfortable as you want to be,
Nobody wanting anything,
Nobody expecting anything,
And nothing whatsoever to do except to just relax.
As you breathe in,
Think of calmness and relaxation going in,
And as you breathe out each time,
Think of any remaining tensions just drifting away from you.
And for a moment or two I'd like you to just think about how it seems when you look up into the night sky on a warm summer's night,
And focus just on one tiny star amongst the millions that are there,
Just focusing on that one single pinpoint of light in the velvety darkness of the night sky,
And wondering perhaps how long that single pinpoint of light has been twinkling there,
Twinkling steadily in that velvety darkness,
Noticing that you're already becoming more relaxed.
And now I want you to direct your thoughts lazily to the top of your head,
Because many people don't realise that tension often starts in the little muscles of the scalp,
So I want you to think about those little muscles now,
And the skin of your scalp,
And just allow them to let go and relax.
It may be that it will seem that you can be aware of each little hair follicle relaxing,
Or maybe just a sensation that the muscles and the skin of your scalp become somehow more at ease.
And now all the muscles of your face,
Just let them let go,
Slack,
Expressionless,
As expressionless as you can possibly imagine.
The skin of your forehead,
The muscles all around your eyes and eyelids,
Just let them let go.
The cheeks,
Mouth and jaw muscles,
All becoming expressionless.
It's a wonderful feeling when you can let your face totally relax,
Because you can actually feel the skin settling,
Smoothing out.
All of this might mean that your mouth opens slightly,
But whatever's best to you,
Just let it happen,
Unclenching your teeth and relaxing your tongue now,
Because the more you physically relax,
The more you can mentally relax,
And the more you mentally relax,
The more you can physically relax.
Thinking about your neck and shoulder muscles too,
Just directing your thoughts there,
And letting those muscles let go.
And the tops of your arms,
Letting all tensions drain away as you think on down through your elbows,
Into your forearms,
Actually feeling your thoughts moving down through your wrists and into your hands,
Right the way down into the very tips of your fingers and tips of your thumbs,
Just letting all those muscles let go and relax.
And now thinking about your breathing,
Noticing that you're breathing even more steadily,
Even more slowly,
As you relax more and more,
So you can let any tension in the chest area to simply drain away.
As you think on down to your stomach muscles,
Letting those muscles relax too.
Letting those stomach muscles become beautifully easy and relaxed.
And think down into your back now,
Those long muscles on either side of the spine,
Just let those muscles relax.
And your waist,
Hips and main thigh muscles,
As you think on down through your knees,
Down through the shins and calves,
Just allowing all those areas to relax and let go.
As you think on down to your ankles,
Actually feeling your thoughts flowing all around your heels and ankles,
Along the arch of each foot,
Along the sole of each foot,
All the way down into the very tips of each toe.
All the muscles of your body beautifully relaxed and easy,
Very lazy,
Enjoying this wonderful feeling of easiness.
And now I want you to imagine,
As vividly as you can,
That you are at the top of a beautiful warm,
Softly lit staircase,
With 10 steps to go down,
All covered in a beautifully soft carpet,
In your favourite colour and design,
With a wonderfully smooth hardwood handrail at the side.
And in a moment or two I'm going to count all the way down from 10 down to 0,
And as I count all the way down from 10 down to 0,
You can imagine that each number is a step on this staircase.
Another step down into deeper and deeper levels of relaxation,
So that by the time I get to 0,
You will be as relaxed as you can ever be.
10,
Take the first step down now,
Plenty of time,
No need to hurry.
9,
Feeling more and more relaxed,
Moving down easily.
8,
Another step down now,
Into a relaxed calmness.
7,
Imagining how it feels as your hand glides down that stair rail.
6,
Going deeper now,
Deeper.
5,
Half way down and feeling more and more relaxed.
4,
Deeper still now,
And still deeper.
3,
Your breathing becomes slower now,
And steadier.
2,
A wonderful calmness just sweeping over you.
1,
Almost all the way down now,
Feeling serene and tranquil.
With just one more step to go,
2,
0,
All the way down now,
And your whole body and mind totally relaxed.
And you already know of course,
That people tend to have their own individual sleep patterns,
And some people sleep for around 8 hours,
While others consistently sleep for only half of that time,
Yet they still feel well and still remain healthy,
It's just what works for them,
And each human mind and body is so individual that we cannot really compare ourselves too much with others.
It's what works best for any one person that counts,
And sometimes when an individual is listening to a recording like this,
They find that they fall asleep whilst listening to my voice,
And that's fine too.
Sometimes the tone of my voice just relaxes somebody that they can't remember when they fell asleep.
Sometimes they're not sure if they're asleep or if they're awake,
And that's okay too.
And people who worry about the amount of time they're sleeping,
They feel they're just not getting enough sleep,
But that's usually because somebody else has said how many hours they should be getting,
Maybe a book,
Or a parent,
Or a partner,
Or some other person.
Yet it's an interesting thing that when studies have been carried out,
Many people discover that they are actually sleeping more than they realised.
Some people have been known to estimate that they had slept 2 hours when it was at least twice that,
And it's hard to understand at first until you understand a strange thing,
The strange thing that sometimes those people are dreaming that they are awake.
And that dream is so realistic that it can feel as if there has been hardly any sleep at all,
Even though all the monitors and all the test equipment clearly showed otherwise.
It's an interesting fact that some people truly believe that they never dream,
And yet again it's a proven fact that everybody dreams every time they sleep,
Because that subconscious mind of yours simply cannot stop,
And because it cannot stop,
It continues with thoughts while you sleep,
And those thoughts are what turn into dreams,
And sometimes those thoughts are slightly odd and strange,
But at other times they can seem so real and normal it's as if you are wide awake.
And of course I can't know what you dream when you sleep at night,
All I can possibly know is that you do dream when you do sleep at night,
Because everybody does.
I can't possibly know what you dream as you sleep at night,
But I do know that you do dream when you sleep at night,
Because everybody does.
So when you go to bed at night,
And you lay your head down,
And you want to go to sleep,
You're going to find those easy,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings,
Just floating steadily and easily through your whole body,
And those easy,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings that flow so steadily and easily through your whole body,
Allow you to drift off into a deep and relaxing sleep.
And you sleep so soundly,
And so steadily,
And so easily,
That you awaken only for any important reasons,
And you will discover that the moment that those important reasons have been dealt with,
And you return to bed and lay your head down,
You will instantly feel those easy,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings,
Just flowing easily through your mind and body,
So that you can return easily to that deep and relaxing sleep.
And during that deep and relaxing sleep,
With those easy,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings just flowing through your mind and body,
Your troubles and fears will be relieved in your dreams.
All your troubles and fears will be relieved in your dreams,
Even when you don't remember your dreams,
And even if you dream that you are awake,
Or even if you dream that you sleep without dreaming.
And while you sleep and dream,
Your subconscious mind,
That amazing subconscious mind,
Will carry out some important work,
Testing,
Repairing,
Replacing cells where necessary,
In each and every part of your entire body.
And all the time,
You just drifting,
And sleeping,
And dreaming,
And maybe dreaming of warm,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings,
Flowing steadily through your mind and body,
All your troubles and fears being relieved while you dream,
So that you wake up in the mornings,
Bright eyed,
Full of energy,
And actually looking forward to whatever opportunities the day will bring.
It's going to be a source of surprise and great comfort to you,
Now that you sleep so easily at night.
To you it's going to seem so normal,
That you just drift off into a deep and relaxing sleep when you want to,
That in no time at all,
It will simply be normal for you.
It will simply be quite normal for you to sleep so easily at night,
And to sleep for as long as you need to sleep.
It will simply be quite normal for you to awake in the mornings,
Bright eyed,
Full of energy,
And looking forward to whatever opportunities that new day is going to offer.
And because of all this,
In no time at all,
You're going to discover that those days when you used to feel that you simply had not had enough sleep,
Just become a thing of the past.
Those days of feeling that you simply had not had enough sleep are going to become a thing of the past,
Because you're going to find yourself glorifying in the new,
Alert and energetic person that you are about to discover.
And just visualise yourself now,
Waking up in the morning,
After that deep and relaxing sleep,
Let yourself just see yourself arising with a smile on your face,
And a spring in your step,
Full of energy,
Full of vitality,
Full of being you and everything that being you means.
So you know,
From now,
From now on,
When you go to bed at night and you lay your head down,
And you want to go to sleep,
You're going to find those easy,
Comfortable,
Quiet sort of feelings,
Just flowing steadily and easily through your whole body.
