What Are the Best Bedtime Meditations?

For those having trouble sleeping, try this guided meditation with soothing music and celestial imagery to help induce restful slumber. This and similar programs can be found online such as YouTube or in apps like Calm, Headspace and Sleepiest.

One effective strategy for relieving stress or uncompleted tasks that have you up at night is verbal journaling meditation, or doing daily reviews. This approach may help release tension.

1. Sleep Stories by Calm

Trying something soothing to relax your racing thoughts and help ease into sleep can be helpful, such as this guided meditation. It features a relaxing voice which slowly fades out as well as soft music to assist your relaxation process and allow you to drift off.

Find your ideal meditation session effortlessly on this app that offers a selection of sleep-focused meditations. Narration by mental health advocates like Calm's head of mindfulness Tamara Levitt may help guide the experience while other tracks include soothing sounds from nature.

This popular app also provides adults with an option to listen to sleep stories - like bedtime stories for adults. One such story, Rainday Antiques, walks you through an antique shop as rain drops gently outside. Both YouTube and the app make this story available free of charge, although headphones may be preferable when listening.

2. Blue Gold by Calm

Meditation can help improve sleep by helping quiet your thoughts, lower heart rate and breathe deeply. Studies have also demonstrated its benefits in relieving mood disorders like anxiety and depression as well as sleep issues like interrupted sleeping patterns. For maximum effectiveness it should be practiced at an uninterrupted time before bed.

Blue Gold, narrated by Stephen Fry and available for free on Calm's app, is one of the most beloved meditation experiences available to users. Subscription fees typically apply for other guided meditations.

Body scan meditation is another simple yet effective form of bedtime relaxation that involves lying down comfortably and consciously relaxing each part of your body individually - from your toes up. Once completed, reach the top of your head.

3. Deep Sleep by Jason Stephenson

Jason Stephenson offers this guided sleep meditation which employs binaural beats - which cause your brain to make the delta waves associated with deep sleep - for maximum effectiveness. To experience it fully, listen with headphones.

In this meditation, you'll be immersed in soothing sounds of rain and ocean waves to help guide you towards restful slumber. After an initial short talk-down session, this relaxation features about an hour of soothing music for optimal restful slumber.

Headspace's Sleep Meditation App boasts over 30 million users globally and uses similar delta-wave tones and binaural beats techniques as its Relaxing Wind Down Body Scan meditation series (with over 193 million YouTube views), making this sleeping meditation perfect for combatting stress and anxiety that might keep you up at night. This series is particularly beneficial at combatting those symptoms which keep people up at night - perfect if stress and anxiety keep you up at night!

4. Deep Sleep by Michael Sealey

If you're having difficulty sleeping and/or experiencing nightmares, Headspace's 10-minute Sleep Meditation may be just what's needed to help. By helping calm your mind and reduce heart rate and breathing rates while relaxing your body for restful slumber.

Deep Sleep guides you through progressive muscle relaxation and the release process as you drift off into peaceful dreamland. Listeners have found this audio beneficial for quickly falling asleep and staying asleep through the night.

Though many of the best bedtime meditations are available through sleep apps, YouTube also provides many free videos that you can use to help ease your mind and get to sleep more easily. Experiment with different meditations until you find one that works for you; then track how well it helps with sleeping after using an audio or video for several nights.

5. Dreamscape by Lauren Ostrowski Fenton

If stress or anxiety is keeping you awake at night, try this Spotify sleep meditation series of five sessions designed to build stress relief habits and relax the mind.

Lauren's voice is soothing and relaxing, creating the ideal ambience for meditation. Her use of visualization to ease you through winding down both mind and body has become my go-to bedtime meditation when I need help relaxing before falling asleep.

This audio offers 18 minutes of guided meditation to relax your body before transitioning into affirmations that reprogram your mind for restful slumber. The music is soothing and dreamy, creating the sense that one is floating amidst stars. At just 18 minutes long it makes an excellent bedtime routine addition. There is even an extended track which specifically targets muscle relaxation!

6. Inner Happiness by Kim Carmen Walsh

If your mind is racing and having trouble sleeping, this sleep meditation might provide the solution. It uses a soothing male voice to ease your thoughts, helping to relax you into restful slumber. Furthermore, this tranquil session features soothing music.

This video's soothing voice and music make it the ideal tool for sleep meditation. Additionally, its delta wave isochronic tones and binaural beats are proven to induce deep restful slumber - great if you struggle with anxiety or depression.

This short meditation focuses on positive self-affirmations to boost self-esteem and improve mood, making it ideal for bedtime meditation for kids as well.