How does Meditation Improve Sleep?
By Aleida Lopez Gimenez
Good sleep quality is crucial for a healthy life, both mentally and physically. It helps us with our moods, our memory, our judgment and decision-making, and it also helps prevent important health problems such as depression, diabetes, or immune system damage.
We all know the impact that a night of poor sleep has on our daily performance. That is why insomnia and other sleep disorders mean a real threat to our well-being and can aggravate stressful situations. Sleeping problems are common during pregnancy and postpartum, which can lead to great discomfort and stress. Meditation has been associated with positive changes in sleep patterns and has been proven a solid alternative to traditional insomnia treatments.
Insomnia and motherhood
Sleep disorders are very common during pregnancy. A study found out that 52% of pregnant women experience insomnia or similar symptoms of sleep disturbances. It has also been stated that this is especially prevalent during the third trimester of the pregnancy, which might be an explanation of common depressive symptoms that many women experience during that stage. Sleeping difficulties appear to be linked to hormonal changes and physical discomforts, such as more frequent urination at night, muscular pain, or difficulty finding a comfortable sleeping position.
After childbirth, there are several factors that might have a negative effect on moms’ sleep quality. Adjusting to their babies’ sleep or eating patterns, hormonal shifts, or postpartum depression are likely to challenge mothers’ sleep hygiene. It can take several months for a mother’s sleep to stabilize after childbirth.
Benefits of meditation for sleep
Research shows that mindfulness-based meditation can have a positive impact on your sleep quality. Mindfulness involves focusing on the present and welcoming thoughts and emotions in an open-minded, non-judgmental manner. Mindfulness meditation can help create a relaxed state of mind over the stressors that cause sleep disturbances.
Another of the main causes of insomnia or poor sleep is increased arousal, which means that our body is functioning abnormally with increased hormone secretion, increased whole body and brain metabolic activation, elevated heart rate, and more. A study that used a meditation program, which researchers called “mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia”, on randomized patients with chronic insomnia, showed that mindfulness meditation reduces psychophysiological arousal. Not only did it improve nocturnal symptoms of sleep disturbance, but it also reduced waking dysfunction and distress.
Another study shows that mindfulness-based meditation produces significant improvements in sleep quality similar to physical exercise. These benefits were also proven to be sustained long-term, a similar conclusion to the study on chronic primary insomnia patients who showed signs of clinical recovery through a mindfulness-based stress reduction treatment. In conclusion, mindfulness meditation is a viable treatment if you’re suffering from insomnia and sleep disturbances and could be a good alternative to medicalized treatments.
How to incorporate meditation for better sleep
In this article, we have given you a few tips on how to create a daily meditation habit. Consistency is key if you want to experience all the benefits meditation can bring to your sleep quality and overall health. Here are some of the things you should consider doing when meditating at home that could help you reached the best results:
● meditate 30-45 minutes/day
● meditate 6 days/week
● keep a meditation diary
● keep a sleep diary
Conclusion
Sleep disorders cause a big amount of distress, which can feel even more overwhelming during pregnancy or postpartum. Meditation and mindfulness are proven to be a viable alternative to traditional treatments of insomnia and can improve significantly your sleep quality along with other benefits such as reduced anxiety or pain sensitivity.
