If your brain won't stop racing at night,
Even when your body is physically exhausted and all you want to do is sleep,
I want you to know that you're exactly in the right place.
What's happening isn't a sign that something is wrong with you.
Your brain isn't broken.
It's just been stuck running on autopilot and stuck in a pattern that it learned a long time ago.
In this video,
I'm going to show you how to gently interrupt that pattern and guide your brain back into that calm and relaxed state where sleep happens naturally.
My name is Meredith Loudon.
I'm a sleep coach and former insomniac.
Struggled with sleep for 16 years before finally finding my way through it.
And everything I share in this video was key to getting there.
So get comfortable and let's walk through this together.
What we're really dealing with here are brainwaves.
Your brain is electrical.
It is constantly emitting electrical signals and these signals can be measured.
When doctors do sleep studies,
They place electrodes on your scalp to track your brain's electrical activity.
And these patterns are called brainwaves and your brainwave state determines how you feel.
Whether you feel alert or anxious or relaxed or tired.
And it all shows in your brainwave activity.
And there are a few main brainwave states that you need to know about.
First is the beta brainwave.
This is where you're fully awake and active.
This is where your brain lives most of the day.
But when you're super stressed and anxious,
You shift into an even faster version called high beta,
Which is a hyper alert state.
Then we have the alpha brainwave.
This is where you're calm and relaxed but you're still awake.
This is the bridge to sleep and this is the sweet spot that we're going to be working with.
Then you have the theta brainwave,
Which is a light sleep,
And then the delta brainwave,
Which is a deep sleep.
And here's the key.
If you're lying in bed with all this mental activity,
All these thoughts,
It means you're still in a beta brainwave.
And your brain can't just jump from beta into sleep.
It has to gradually slow down first from beta to alpha and then to theta.
So if you want to fall asleep quickly,
You need to train your brain to shift into the alpha brainwave on command,
Which is exactly what these techniques do.
And with enough practice,
You can learn how to do this in just three breaths and fall asleep instantly.
There are a few reasons your brain can't slow down into alpha at night.
First is that you haven't given your brain enough time or space to unwind from the day.
So when you finally get into bed,
That's actually the first moment of stillness and quiet that you've given your mind all day.
And your brain uses that moment to do all of the processing it's been waiting to do,
All the things that it hasn't had a chance to work through yet.
So it's not trying to keep you awake.
Your brain's just trying to catch up.
And unfortunately for you,
It feels like it's trying to catch up at the worst possible time.
The second reason is your brain is misinterpreting stressors in your life as life or death threats.
So your brain stays in beta trying to solve everything or prepare for tomorrow.
And for most people,
And what I'm seeing with all of my clients lately,
Is it's the everyday stress that builds up until the body gets stuck in a pattern of constant alertness and the sympathetic nervous system stays on and it feels impossible to relax and get to sleep.
The third reason is that you've unknowingly created a habit where your brain learned to stay alert at night.
That just became the default operating program in your subconscious mind.
And that's how this cycle of being awake at night repeats itself automatically,
No matter what supplement or sleeping pills you try,
No matter how good your sleep hygiene is.
So now,
What is the magic bullet for all three?
Well,
The alpha brainwave.
That's the answer.
The alpha brainwave is the best brainwave to focus on when it comes to improving your sleep because it's the only one that you have direct control over.
It's the only brainwave related to sleep that you can consciously shift yourself into at any time that you want.
So the first brain retraining technique to quickly shift into alpha is what I call the hold it breathing technique.
And it is extremely simple.
All you do is you inhale all the way up.
And then you pause and you hold your breath for a few moments,
As long as you can comfortably hold your breath.
Then you slowly exhale.
And at the bottom of your exhale,
You pause and you hold it again.
You'd wait a few moments,
As long as you can,
Before inhaling.
Then you repeat the cycle.
Inhale.
Exhale.
And you do that for a few minutes with your eyes closed in bed when you're ready to fall asleep.
This one can take some getting used to and it might feel uncomfortable at first,
But just do your best because with each round,
It gets easier and easier.
At the beginning,
Your body's like,
What the hell?
Why are we breathing like this?
But your body will adjust.
And when you breathe like this,
It actually slows down your brainwaves into alpha super quickly because when you hold your breath like this,
You're doing something called breath retention and breath retention has a calming effect on the nervous system.
It signals to your brain,
We're not in danger,
There is no emergency,
Which gives your nervous system permission to slow down and go into the rest and digest state,
Which needs to happen to fall asleep.
So when your brain gets that message,
It shifts out of high beta or beta,
Where you have mental activity,
And it slows down into alpha,
That calm and relaxed state.
And from there,
Sleep just happens on its own.
The second technique to shift into alpha is to disconnect from the external world and turn inward.
You're already really good at shifting into the alpha state,
But you've likely stopped prioritizing the activities that help you do that.
Because most of us are very wrapped up in what's going on in the world and in our life.
And we've sort of neglected certain practices that are really good for slowing your brain down.
Things like journaling,
Reading,
Listening to an audio book,
Meditating,
Breath work.
I know this might sound simple,
But it can be.
It can be this simple.
So just pick one and do it before bed.
And with repetition,
Your brain gets the message that it's safe to slow down.
So you are strengthening your brain's ability to shift into the alpha brainwave more and more quickly.
So then it starts to feel normal again to your brain.
And the next technique is a bit of a cheat code,
Which are binaural beats.
Binaural beats are audio frequencies that help your brain sync into a specific brainwave.
And the way it works is that you have to use headphones or earbuds because the music is designed so that your ears are hearing two different frequencies,
Which causes your brain to actually synchronize with the difference between those two frequencies.
So let's say that your left ear hears 210 Hz and your right ear hears 200 Hz,
Your brain would perceive the difference of 10 Hz,
Which happens to be the alpha brainwave.
So you do need headphones or earbuds for this to work because your brain has to perceive the difference in the frequencies.
And just a quick heads up,
Binaural beats sometimes aren't recommended for people if you're pregnant,
Have epilepsy,
Have any heart irregularities like a pacemaker,
For example.
But do your own research because they're extremely popular and a very powerful tool to use before bed.
And here's the thing.
When you train your brain to shift into alpha on command,
You get more than just better sleep.
You get peace of mind.
You develop the ability to sleep well,
No matter how stressful or chaotic day was.
I now have clients who fall asleep super fast after super busy work days while traveling,
Changing time zones,
And even after years of struggling with insomnia.
All because they learned to shift into alpha on command.
Your brain already knows how to slow down.
It just needs you to show it that it's safe to do so.
So just be patient with yourself as you practice these techniques.
They get easier and more natural with repetition.
Every time you choose to slow down,
Every time you breathe more intentionally.
Every time you redirect your mind rather than fighting it,
You are retraining your nervous system one moment at a time.
Rest is always available to you and you are already finding your way back to it.
