How to Meditate In Bed

Meditating in bed can be a great way to kick off your morning and to wind down before switching the lights off at night.This article will help you understand the benefits and limitations of meditating in bed, as well as a how-to-guide on meditating on that mattress of yours.

How to Meditate In Bed – Moving Breath

Lay comfortably on your bed and close your eyes
Focus your mind on your breath moving in and out of your body
Observe the sensation of the cooler in-breath and warmer out-breath
Notice when your mind starts to wander off into thoughts
Gently bring your mind back to observing your breath.

There are few places on this planet that can compare to the comfort of your own bed, but don’t be tricked into thinking that mattress of yours is the ideal place to meditate. Before attempting to meditate in bed, there are a few important factors you should take into consideration.

How To Meditate In Bed

To meditate in bed, you should adopt what is traditionally known as a Savasana pose. In this pose, you lie down on your back, with your legs and arms spread an equal distance apart from your body, and your eyes gently closed.Rest your hands with the palms upturned and make sure your toes are loosely pointing towards the ceiling.

Once you have settled into this position on your bed,it’s time to relinquish control of your thoughts and to surrender to the experience of your meditation.

Take in several long, deep breaths and let them out in a controlled manner. As you do this, focus your attention on the cool air as it touches the point of your nose on the in-breath. Mentally follow the passage of the air down into your body. Feel into the rise of your stomach and the expansion of your chest. Breathe out. Follow the air out of your body in reverse just as you did with the in-breath, this time observing the way your stomach deflates and your chest contracts, and feeling the point of warm air on your nostrils.

Stop moderating your breathing pattern, but continue the process of observing the coming and going of your breath as described above. Every time your mind wanders off, simply acknowledge that you’ve been distracted, and bring your attention back to the practice. Repeat this process until your set time has elapsed.

One risk you’ll face while meditating in this position is that you are at a higher risk of falling asleep.However, as seductive as the temptation might be,stay awake! If you find yourself drifting off, we recommend switching to an alternative meditation style, such as a seated position, which requires more alertness and wakefulness. If that doesn’t do the trick, trying adjusting your external environment, such as opening a window to allow a cool breeze in, which may help to keep you awake.

Another tip that might help you stay awake is to keep the light on. Most practitioners generally believe that you should dim the lights or turn them off in an attempt to create a calmer environment, yet there are those that believe a light might just help keep you awake, which is something you should prioritize during your meditation. In the end, it seems that your choice to leave the light on comes down to personal preference. Figure out what works best for you and go from there.

While you’re meditating in bed, you should aim to focus on a single object, most typically the coming and going of your breath. Remember, the idea of meditation is to give your mind something to do other than thinking, which is why we should endeavor to return our attention to our breath every time we find our train of thought being derailed by mental chatter. However, as in any meditation, the object you focus on is ultimately up to you. If you don’t want to focus on your breath, you may like to turn your attention outward to your sensory experience and focus on sounds or bodily sensations, or maybe you could try the visualization method where you generate and hold a mental image in your mind as the point of your focus.

While lying down might put you in a more relaxed state of mind, experts suggest that sitting is the better posture to adopt when engaging in a meditation practice. This is because sitting up and maintaining a straight back requires you to discipline your mind into an alert and attentive state, and such focus is necessary for an effective meditation practice. If you lie down, it’s much more likely that you’ll get too comfortable, lose focus and doze off. So where possible — unless sitting causes you pain and discomfort — you are better off crossing those legs, sitting up straight and beginning those omms, even if it’s on your mattress!

How To Meditate In Bed – Full steps

Lie in a comfortable position in your bed, with loose clothing.
Set your timer for 3- 10 minutes. Shorter if you want to stay alert
You can close your eyes or leave them open with a soft gaze.
Bring your attention to your body resting on the bed
Feel the sensations of back, legs, arms and head as they contact the soft bed covers
Observe the way your body sink gently into your bed
Slowly Move your attention from your feet to your head, allowing each muscle groups to release tension and relax.
Now bring your focus to your breath as it moves in and out of your body.
Observe at your nostrils the cooler in breath and the slightly warmer out breath
As your mind begins to wander in other thoughts
Gently bring your mind back to the breath
When your timer sounds allow yourself to come slowly out of the meditation as you feel ready.

Meditating in bed – In the Morning vs Before Bed at Night

Whether you want to kickstart your morning with a meditation practice before rising from bed, or start a nightly meditation ritual before going to sleep, meditating in bed can be hugely beneficial for you. There are experts who suggest that meditating at any hour of the day (whether that’s in bed or somewhere else) can improve your overall sense of wellbeing, sharpen your focus, provide you with clarity and put you in a calmer mood that will help you better manage the stressors of everyday life.

Meditating in Bed in the Morning

Meditating in bed in the morning can help you better prepare for the challenging day ahead by cultivating a space of inner peace and calmness that will help you better negotiate, reduce and overcome the anxiety-inducing stressors you’re likely to encounter throughout your day – such as deadlines, pressure at work or confrontations with bosses.

You might also find that you’re able to better let go of unhelpful, self-recriminating or intrusive thoughts sooner should they arise throughout the course of your day.

Finally, if you stick to your morning routine, you might start to experience a shift in perspective over time to a more optimistic, trouble-free point of view where you feel unshackled from the worries that once weighed you down. Now, doesn’t that sound nice?

And the best part is that meditating in bed can only benefit you! Unless you like hitting the snooze button, rolling over and catching a few more Z’s, there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t start your day with a nice meditation session.

Meditating Before Bed

There are studies showing that meditating before bed can be the perfect remedy for quieting that restless mind of yours. It can help you let go of troubling thoughts and concerns that you accumulated throughout the day and settle into a space of relaxation, which is conducive to a better night’s sleep.

Meditating in bed before going to sleep can also act as an antidote to the effects of insomnia and anxiety that might have once kept you awake with racing thoughts, uncomfortable feelings and tension built up through the day.

Again, just like meditating in the morning, there seems to be few disadvantages to meditating before bed. Most research suggests that it will improve your sleep, help reduce health-related ailments and enhance your overall sense of vitality and wellbeing, but it is important to note that you are more prone to fall asleep when practicing directly before bed, so it may be worthwhile giving yourself an hour buffer between meditating and hitting the hay.

What is a Pre-Bed Meditation?

As the name implies, a pre-bed meditation is when you set aside time to engage in the act of meditation before laying your head down on that feathery pillow of yours. A pre-bed meditation is typically used to settle your thoughts, to let go of stress you underwent during the day, and to ease yourself into a relaxed state that will ultimately help you in having a good night’s sleep.

By unwinding through a pre-bed meditation, you might also prevent sleep disturbances and dial down the intensity of your dreams. To extract the full benefit of pre-bed meditations,it’s important that you ritualize the act of meditating by practicing it each night and turn it into a regular routine. Before you know it, you will be having the deepest, most settled night’s sleep you’ve had in years!

Can Bedtime Meditation be used For Anxiety?

Ever notice when you’re trying to power down at the end of the day that your thoughts suddenly switch on and you spend the rest of the evening tossing and turning rather than getting to sleep? Many people suffer from anxiety and restlessness, the effects of which can prevent us from getting a good night’s sleep.

The good news is that we can use bedtime meditation to help minimize the effects of anxiety before going to bed. By engaging in a pre-bed meditation practice, we can quieten our minds and enter a space of relaxation by observing, accepting and letting go of any stressful thoughts and feelings that might be disturbing our sleep or stopping us from getting to sleep at all.

If you suffer from anxiety, experts recommend adopting a bedtime meditation practice into your nightly routine to unwind after a stressful day and to better prepare yourself for sleep.

Is Bedtime Meditation Music OK?

Bedtime meditation music is most definitely okay! There are dozens of meditation soundtracks available freely on YouTube and other online platforms designed specifically to assist your meditation practice and to ease you into a state of relaxation that will lull you into a much deeper, more rejuvenating sleep.

You can incorporate a meditation soundtrack into your meditation practice before bed or simply use it as ambient, background music to help you get to sleep.

From a scientific point of view (3), music directly affects your parasympathetic nervous system, helping you to wind down and relax. In fact, it has even been suggested that the right type of music can actually reduce your heart rate and lower your blood pressure, leading to a much more relaxed frame of mind that is ideal for meditative purposes and/or a good night’s sleep.

Bed Meditation Techniques

There is a wide range of meditation techniques that you can use in bed. Essentially, any technique you can use outside the bedroom you can use inside the bedroom too.Bed meditation techniques work in precisely the same way they work in any other context.

Instead of practicing in a park, or a busy shopping center, or the beach, you simply practice them in your bedroom instead; they work exactly the same way, you just transfer their use into the more comfortable setting of your bedroom.

Whether you want to practice on top of the covers or under them, these techniques are perfectly suitable for meditation in bed:

Mindfulness

In this approach, you should adopt a comfortable posture either on top of the covers or under the covers of your bed, preferably in a seated position.You should expand your awareness to your sensory experience, shifting your attention away from thinking to the softness of your mattress under your butt or the touch of a blanket grazing your arm. Simply do your best to remain present with your experience via your senses. If your mind wanders or mental chatter arises, you should acknowledge the distraction by labeling it as thinking or feeling, and return your attention to your sensory experience.

Breathing

Lay down on your mattress and rest your head on your pillow, with your face turned to the ceiling. You can keep your eyes open, but it’s recommended that you keep them closed to better maintain your focus. Similar to the process described earlier in this article, you should focus your attention on the rise and fall (or inhalation and exhalation) of your breath, mentally observing its passage as you draw the breath into your body through the nostrils and again as you push it out. Simply observe yourself respiring and bring your attention back to the practice any time you find your mind wandering.

Mantra

To complete a mantra meditation specifically for bed, you should first come up with a mantra suitable for use in the bedroom. If you’re unfamiliar with what a mantra is,it is a word or phrase that carries a profound meaning that often ties in with the teachings of traditional meditation practices. Typical mantras suitable for the bedroom are “I am at peace with the world” and “I am relaxed and calm”. Repeat the mantra internally until you fall asleep or use it to create an anchor point to which you can return when you find yourself getting distracted by thoughts or external stimuli.

Visualization

Recline on your bed with your face upturned to the ceiling, close your eyes and bring into your mind the mental image of a place or time when you felt a deep sense of relaxation and harmony. It might be the beach, walking through the forest, or maybe even the very bedroom in which you’re meditating – you choose! Now flesh out the elements of that image – the sounds, sights, smells, the interplay of light and shadow: the minutiae of the finest details. Now, let yourself be fully absorbed in the mental place you are holding in your mind’s eye, and immerse yourself in the therapeutic experience.

Counting

Ever heard the expression “count sheep until you fall asleep” when you’re struggling to switch off? Well, that’s exactly how this meditation style works when it comes to bed. Once you’re lying comfortably in bed, take a few exaggerated breaths before beginning the breathing exercise.Inhale for three seconds, hold your breath for three seconds, release your breath over three seconds, then repeat the process for as long as you need. If you don’t want to count your breaths, you may like to literally imagine sheep leaping over a fence and count them until your awareness softens and you fall asleep.

Guided

Switch your favorite bedtime meditation soundtrack on, relax on your bed, let your weight spread out over the surface area of the mattress, and simply follow the specific instructions offered to you by your meditation instructor. There are literally hundreds of soundtracks out there – some free, others not – designed specifically for the purposes of bedtime meditation. All you need to do is insert some earphones, set your phone up on your bedside table, do what you’re told and reap the benefits of a guided bedtime meditation.

Body Scan

This type of meditation requires you to expand your awareness to your sensory experience, with a focus on bringing your attention to specific parts of your body. You should lie in bed, relax your body, then start by shifting your awareness over successive parts of your body, even scanning down to the smallest parts of yourself like fingers and eyebrows, until you have covered your whole body. Just observe the existence of these parts and experience the sensation of ‘lighting up’. If you wish to use a body scan approach, you may like to use a guided meditation to instruct you through the process.

Is it bad to meditate at night?

Definitely not! You will benefit from meditating at any hour of the day, whether that is first thing in the morning, during the day or at night. It doesn’t matter when you do it, if you increase the frequency with which you meditate, the more you’re doing yourself a favour. Just don’t fall asleep!

Is It Better To Meditate In Silence Or With Music?

It comes down to personal preference, expertise and experience. Traditionally, meditation was practiced in silence so one might be able to better observe his or her thoughts and feelings. However, if you’re new to the practice, it might be better to meditate with music and/or a guided meditation.

Will Meditation Help Me Sleep?

Experts suggest that meditation, particularly before bed, will deepen and enhance the quality of your sleep. Through meditation, you will let go of stress and tension that might otherwise keep you awake at night, putting you into a state of relaxation and therefore preparing you for a great night’s sleep.