Recent Study Proves Meditation Can Improve Sleep
Insomnia is experienced by millions of people worldwide. Not only can be frustrating to not be able to get to sleep. But due to the lack of good quality rest, insomnia can lead to a whole host of physical conditions as the body is given little opportunity to do its maintenance and repair projects.
In one study carried out by the University of Southern California, it was found that across two groups involved, the people that meditated showed improvements in sleep quality compared to the control group that didn’t meditate. While in another randomized controlled trial of meditation and chronic insomnia, 45 adults were asked to meditate over an 8-week period. The results again showed that the ones who meditated reported significantly greater reductions in ‘Time Awake Time’ and ‘Insomnia Severity’ when compared to the control group who didn’t meditate.
These studies and others reflect what I have observed teaching meditation. Time after time people who’ve found it difficult to sleep have reported enjoying the best sleep they’ve had in years. In my experience, it also appears that meditation helps you enter sleep at a deeper level and get more rest from the sleep you get. Normally it takes around 5 hours to eventually enter the deepest levels of sleep. However, with meditation, the body is resting before entering sleep and once you do drifted off, the deeper realms of rest are more quickly experienced.
Sleep Without Counting Sheep
As an added bonus, one of the reasons people find it hard to sleep is because they can’t switch off. The longer they lay awake not sleeping; the more concerned they can become around how tired you might be the next day. However, if you meditate yourself to sleep using Mind Calm or Body Calm, you won’t engage in thinking as much and find it easier to drift off when your body and mind is ready. Not only that, but with the knowing that your body gets ample rest of meditation, you can change your relationship with sleep and may even find you are actually happy to have the chance to get a few hours of meditation in before the next day.