Midnight Mindfulness: How Being Present Can Help You Sleep

 I can’t say that mindfulness can put you to sleep, but it may help change how you feel when you wake up in the middle of the night. 

If you can’t sleep at night, try meditating—pop in a CD, fire up your ipod*, or meditate on your own. Sometimes a soothing voice, instructions to relax, and the intention to be mindful of your breathing can help you fall asleep (and truthfully, it’s not uncommon to fall asleep while meditating during the day!). 

However, there’s no scientific evidence that mindfulness will help you sleep, other than in the general way that being less stressed out helps you sleep. But when you wake up at midnight and your mind is awash in anxiety, this is when mindfulness shines.

 
Anxiety hits when our minds live in the past or the future. We replay our difficulties and obsess about the future. Anxiety can torment us in our late night wakings. Especially when we’re more and more anxious about the fact that we can’t sleep.

 
Here’s where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness invites us to let go of the past and future and turn our attention to the present moment. What’s actually happening when we are anxious? Well we’re usually having a physiological response—rapid heart beat, energy in the body, a tight feeling in our chest or belly—that accompanies the thoughts that are causing the anxiety. (Oh no I can’t sleep, it’s been hours, I’ll be a mess tomorrow, this has been going on for weeks, etc…)

When we can bring our mindful attention to the physical sensations of the present moment—the beating heart, the tight belly, the dry mouth, etc.—then we can not focus on the story line that’s tormenting us and relax into the present moment, learning to accept what is… a bunch of uncomfortable present-moment body sensations.  

Often, when we persistently attend to the present moment, we might find that an emotion is fueling the anxiety.  We might discover there’s sadness (for instance) underneath the anxiety. When we can be present with that sadness, sometimes in that act, the anxiety subsides and we can go to sleep. Sometimes we can’t, but we can be okay with the fact that we’re not asleep.

 
And this is the crux—mindfulness helps us to be okay with the present moment, no matter what it is. And when we can do this, no matter what the conditions are, even in the wee hours of the morning, we can find inner peace. 
 

*(Meditations for free download on www.marc.ucla.edu).