Middle Of The Night Sleep Meditation: Get Back To Deep Sleep

In this middle-of-the-night sleep meditation for those who find themselves wide awake and struggling to get back to sleep, we'll cycle through some gentle intuitive stretching, deep breathing, body scanning and progressive letting go of thoughts, pressure, and expectations to find a state of rest that will walk us right through the door back into deep sleep.

Please share with anyone who struggles with this and remember doing a sleep meditation before going to sleep each night will tend to reduce the frequency of this phenomenon!

Transcript

Hey,

It's Cyrus,

And it's the middle of the night,

And you're awake,

And you don't want to be awake,

So let's try to get you back to sleep,

Shall we?

So you might start counter-intuitively by finding some kind of stretching position,

Some kind of yoga position on your bed,

Or standing up,

It doesn't really matter,

But just something gentle that your body intuitively wants to stretch into,

And just allow yourself to sink and ease into it,

To breathe into it very slowly and effortlessly,

And as you do,

Give yourself permission to not need to sleep at this moment,

But to simply allow your body to stretch in a way that it intuitively wants to.

Allow your breath to slow down even more,

To be even fuller in this position,

And really allow yourself to become slack and relaxed in this position for another moment,

And if and when you feel ready,

Just find your way back into a easy position in your bed that you could potentially fall asleep in,

And sometimes when it's the middle of the night,

We say to ourselves,

Ah,

It's gonna be really hard to fall back asleep,

But don't worry about that right now,

Just take the pressure off,

Let's just make the goal getting you back into a state of restfulness,

And if sleep happens from there,

That's a bonus,

But just allow yourself to rest and aim for that restfulness,

One step at a time,

And I invite you to start to breathe with me,

We're gonna do a series of very gentle breath holds with a four,

Seven,

Eight rhythm,

So breathe in slowly,

Filling up your belly for four,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And hold for seven,

Feeling your body as you hold for a seven count,

And exhaling out through the mouth slowly for an eight count,

Breathe in deep again for a four count,

Hold for seven,

Being present with the energy you sense in your body as you hold,

And exhaling out through the mouth for eight,

Nice and easy,

And you're engaging your rest and digest system just by doing these long breath holds and exhales,

Breathing in again for a four count,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Holding for seven,

And slowly exhaling for eight,

Letting it go,

Allowing yourself to decompress as you let the breath fall out of the mouth,

Okay,

Last one,

Deepest one,

Breathing in for four,

Nice and slow,

Filling up the body,

Holding for seven at the top,

And being present with what you sense in your body as you hold,

And super slow,

Letting go out through the mouth for eight,

And as you do,

Just notice any subtle energy or tension in the body,

There might be a background anxiety or restlessness,

Instead of fighting that,

If it feels right and safe to do so,

Just allow yourself to simply sense what you feel in the body,

To allow it to be felt for a moment,

Give yourself permission to not worry about the thoughts,

But simply be present with the energy or the feeling that might be presenting itself in this moment,

Imagine space opening up around it,

Imagine yourself letting go of all resistance and letting those feelings flow through you freely for a moment with the breath,

Imagine it dissolving now out into the universe,

Out into an energy and space that can handle those feelings for you,

Just allow them to evaporate and dissolve with the breath as you relax,

Take all the pressure off of going back to sleep instead,

Just invite yourself to allow yourself to just rest,

To be restful without worrying about sleep,

And just bounce around the body starting at the stomach,

Notice what you sense in the stomach with a gentle examination of attention,

Bounce up into the chest and the heart area,

Just get curious without any pressure,

Notice what you sense in the chest,

Allow the rivulets of energy and attention to cascade down the arms,

From the shoulders,

Down through the elbows,

Down through the wrists and the hands and fingers with the attention,

And allow that to wash back up towards the neck,

To flow up into the jaw,

To notice the sensations in the facial features,

The lips,

The inside of the mouth,

The breath at the nostrils,

And the muscles around the eyes,

Gently softening,

Gently unwinding to open up a space behind the eyes,

An empty space,

And allow that empty space to bloom up towards the top of the head to open,

And wash down the back of the head into the upper back,

Let the waterfall of energy travel down to the lower back,

Down through the glutes and the backs of the legs,

All the way to the heels,

The soles of the feet,

The toes,

And the tops of the feet,

Allow all thoughts to move into the background,

Allow the aliveness of the body to start to move,

Magnify as you rise up to the shins,

The knees,

And the front of your thighs,

Feel your pelvic floor,

And your hips,

Feel the whole front of your body facing the sky,

Opening and softening with the breath,

And feel the whole back of your body supported by the bed,

Sinking,

Easing,

Unwinding into the support with each breath,

When thoughts come up,

Let them go,

Make it a game,

Just have fun with noticing,

Releasing like you're letting go of a balloon into space,

And as you let go of each thought balloon,

Allow yourself to dive deeper into the ocean of energy that's flowing head to toe,

Enjoying that flow of restfulness,

And giving yourself permission to not worry about anything other than just this moment,

Just a restful attitude and space that you're cultivating,

Just like an architect of rest,

Curating that atmosphere as you let the balloon thoughts go into the atmosphere,

And release deeper into the pleasant flows and recurrence of subtle energy in your body,

And just imagine yourself opening a door to sleep,

You don't have to walk through that door until you feel ready,

But just open it,

And dwell in that state of rest until you feel like you can effortlessly flow into the door,

But really give yourself permission to just relax at the foot of that door in a state of restfulness as long as you want or need to,

With no pressure whatsoever,

Let go of thoughts,

Let go of blocks,

Let go of expectations,

Whatever arises,

Whatever old patterns,

Let them melt and flow out moment to moment,

And relax deeper into the body,

Into the moment,

Sensing all the little details of what's happening in this moment,

From a perspective of enjoyable rest,

Like you're simply curious and exploring what you notice through your senses in this moment,

And allow yourself to get lost in those sensory details,

To be quietly surprised by them as they wash through you in each fresh moment,

And allow those sensory details to disperse,

To dissolve,

For space to open up between them like you're riding the most pleasant waves,

And allowing it to wash through you and soothe your nervous system with each breath,

Feel this rhythm of letting go of whatever comes up without exception,

And surrendering to the flow of sensory awareness,

As you rest more deeply into it than you ever even expected,

Perhaps you might take a slow breath and allow yourself to exhale and feel any remaining tension becoming dispersed and released,

As you unwind even deeper and allow the support to do what it does and cradle you effortlessly into a state of rest,

And allow the empty space behind your eyes to open up within your entire body,

So that you feel this spaciousness within,

Connecting with the space all around you,

So that you notice yourself simply floating in this greater space,

Allow the letting go to become so effortless that the space becomes totally light and open in each moment,

And allow yourself to simply be at ease in this state of rest,

With no pressure for as long as you want,

Until stepping through that door to sleep becomes an automatic and effortless thing,

Like you just float through that door on your own when you feel ready,

Letting go of all expectation or concern and just gently resting in the space of details that are happening moment to moment.

Reviews

I searched middle of the night after I had been awake for a couple of hours and started getting anxious (my system has a creativity party sometimes around 1 am and I was ready to wind that party down).

This helped me get back into my body, remember that breath is a magical super power and start to enjoy this time vs stress out about it. Appreciate the imagery to give my mind something to do. Thank you 🙏

Thank you it helped getting back to sleep as I was suffering from stomach issues!

I found this very helpful. I got to the end feeling very relaxed then floated through the door to sleep not long after it finished. Thank you

Fantastic low-key and friendly approach - really does what it says on the tin! Thank you.

Didn’t go off but felt a deep sense of peacefulness. Breathing exercises calming and effective. Thank you 🙏

It helped me fall asleep after waking up in the middle of the night

Thank you, this is a wonderful meditation with such a soothing voice.

This is awesome! I've used it on multiple occasions. It works every time 😴😌

Really like this approach and it helped me fall back into a deep sleep. Grateful to you✨🕊️

So relaxing. Hope one day to make it to the end of the recording:)

Helped me relax and eventually fall back to sleep. Thanks 🙏🏼

This is just what was needed to fall back asleep. Soothing voice and a focus on resting the body. Thank you!🙏🏼

Great tone, great pacing; I fell asleep and never heard the end of the meditation. Thank you! 🙏

I was able to fall back to sleep and I am grateful. Thank you.

Got up in middle of the night and fell asleep before tte end. Ty! Bookmarked and recommended!💫💓

I love your voice, pacing, soothing words. Such a gift 🙏🏻

My first time of listening to this and I'm impressed as I'd woken up at 4am and was struggling to get back to sleep due to my racing mind and this was a great help as I fell asleep and missed the rest of the meditation. So thank you for helping me get back to sleep.

Woke up this morning realizing I fell back to sleep before this was over. Thank you Cyrus!!

This was so restful. I actually chose to do this as my morning meditation to start the week on as my system hasn't felt that rested over the last few days due to disrupted sleep. It's taken my nervous system down a whole lot of levels, and I feel calmer, ready to start my week. I'll save this one for any future sleep disruption as I know that it'll help me for those episodes when I do wake up during the night.

This is one of the very best meditations for insomnia I’ve found. Thank you so much. 🙏🏽