Few things in life are better than a healthy night’s sleep and the best sleep usually comes when you have full peace of mind. So what is the best way to clear your head before sleeping? The answer lies in a practice called sleep meditation, which uses calming soundscapes to take you to a place of clarity and relaxation.
Sleep meditation is a helpful tool that can boost cognitive function after a night of rest. By using sounds such as rain, thunderstorms, ocean waves, or things you may hear in a rainforest, you can soothe your brain and create a peaceful environment to help you sleep.
This is not a pseudo-science by any stretch. These methods have been clinically proven to help guide you into better sleep. Whereas sleeping with a TV program on or something similar can actually harm your sleep pattern, sleep meditation relies solely on sounds designed to comfort you into a deep rest with white noise. Keep reading to learn about the five best mediation videos for sleep on YouTube.
Article Contents
Does Meditation Help You Sleep?
You might wonder to yourself whether or not sleep meditation is a reliable way to fall asleep. After all, if you find yourself to be anxious or someone who overthinks in general, is it really a good idea to put yourself in a position to be within your own head while trying to sleep? Is that not the problem to begin with? Meditation is much more complex than just thinking of yourself to sleep. It uses a number of tools to help you.
- Sleep meditation helps regulate your breathing.
- White noise is less harmful than the light emission from televisions and more subversive than just sleeping with an oscillating fan on.
- Sleep meditation helps calm us down and relieves stress, which in turn creates healthier sleeping patterns, like less tossing and turning, for example.
Meditation, in simplest terms, is meant to help us relax. In this case, you are not simply thinking of a serene beach and imagining the waves hitting your feet. You are regulating your breathing and listening to a soundscape that helps put you in a position where you do not have to strictly use your imagination. This type of meditation has been found to help even the most busy-minded person find themselves sleeping better.
How Does Meditation Help You To Sleep?
Meditation helps us to sleep in a variety of ways. Most importantly, it has a calming effect which not only relieves stress but cools your heart rate down, making you less antsy and fidgety while trying to sleep. Instead of laying there thinking about sleeping and why you are not falling asleep, sleep meditation helps pull your mind to another place which you can then use to proverbially launch into healthy sleep.
The act of regulating your breathing by taking deep breaths through your nose and exhaling through your mouth, for example, helps you get ready to sleep and rid that feeling of restlessness. Meditation helps in this way, by ridding your mind of that restlessness and bringing yourself to a natural state of relaxation. The white noise found in sleep meditation is designed to add an extra layer to that feeling.
Sleep meditation adds a sonic layer to our efforts to fall asleep. Soundscapes like oceans, rainforests, and rainstorms have a unique effect on your ability to relax by immersing you in a tranquil environment. It is one thing to simply imagine a serene setting but another thing altogether when you can actually hear a serene setting mixed with breathing exercises. By combining these, you will have phenomenal sleep.
Sleep Meditation Is Less Harmful
Stress is no joke and we all deal with it on a regular basis. Some of us even need medication to help us fight stress, as it can have a severe effect on our overall health. Sleep meditation’s sole purpose is to soothe you and keep you stress-free, especially when it is time for bed. Whether you are someone who takes their work home with them or just simply has trouble calming down, sleeps meditation is the remedy for you.
You should never go to bed angry and you should never go to bed worrying about something. This can cause your brain to be in a constant state of panic or otherwise, keep it in an active state which will lead to restless nights, tossing and turning, or even waking up every hour or so due to bad dreams. Sleep meditation helps get you out of this negative headspace and leads to a healthier, tranquil state of mind before bed.
What Is The Best Sleep Meditation On YouTube?
There are many sleep meditation channels on YouTube. Some of these channels tell a story, take you along on a small adventure, or simply play soothing music on a ten-hour loop, for example. Most of these videos should have dark screens so as to not emit harmful light that may disrupt your meditation. If they do not, have no fear, because it will typically be a still image of some sort.
You will ideally want to find something soothing. Most titles include soundscapes consisting of thunderstorms or oceanfront for example. Do not throw on a hard rock concert or an action movie soundtrack and expect to get the same result. You will want to search for white noise soundtracks or something like nature sounds (because meditating in nature is so good anyways!) to maximize a night full of relaxation and comfort.
The 5 Best Best Meditation Videos For Sleep On YouTube
This is a nice compilation for you to try out if you are new to sleep meditation. Try these five videos to get an idea of what to look for, whether you are new to sleep meditation or just looking for a break from what you normally listen to while you are meditating.
If you find a video that you enjoy, be sure to subscribe to the channel. This will make sure you have a quick way to go back to a channel you like but also keep a steady influx of new videos in your YouTube algorithm that you can check out as well.
1. Guided Deep Sleep Stories
The Honest Guys have an outstanding and reliable catalog of sleep mediation content that has been created with the user in mind.
- With well over a million subscribers, they have been creating sleep meditation videos since 2008.
- They have a long history of helping people find their happy place and should be trusted in your efforts to relax and get better sleep or just meditate.
This particular link will take you to a live broadcast that acts as a loop of sleep meditation soundscapes that run for a 24-hour period, seven days a week. This is a great place to start with The Honest Guys, as it is basically a greatest hits collection of some of their most popular meditation practices. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out the rest of their content.
2. Relaxing Sleep Music • Deep Sleeping Music, Relaxing Music, Stress Relief, Meditation Music (Flying)
Soothing Relaxation is the home of the most viewed sleep meditation video on all of YouTube. With almost three hundred million views, you can bet that many people have successfully found comfort in the soothing, almost surreal soundscapes Soothing Relaxation has to offer. This is a beautiful composition that will take you to another world. However, it is visual, so maybe throw on a sleep mask when sleeping.
Composer Peder B. Helland from Norway creates all the music himself and has successfully created a fountain of content for users to go back to time and time again to whisk them away into a peaceful slumber. He offers three different 24/7 live broadcasts as well if you would like to have a smorgasbord of options as well while you are meditating.
3. Sleep Music 24/7, Sleep Meditation, Insomnia, Relaxing Music
Yellow Brick Cinema is a collective of composers that utilize beautiful soundscapes with the power of special frequencies that will not only help you sleep better but also have a positive effect on your brain in general thanks to a method that incorporates neuroscience. Almost 5.5 million subscribers regularly turn to Yellow Brick Cinema to help them meditate. Just be sure to have a sleep mask handy since they use graphics.
This is another one of those 24/7 live broadcasts that will have a number of different compositions for you to meditate to. These are super handy as they offer a detailed glimpse into the channel’s content but also keep you from getting too familiar with the compositions and keep you from being able to clear your mind. They also have an application you can download on your smart device for meditating on the go.
4. Thunder and Rain Sounds for Sleeping
Sleep & Relaxation is a newer channel (established in 2017) on YouTube, however, their catalog would say otherwise.
- They have a long list of natural sounds that are great for falling asleep but also have playlists full of guided meditations as well.
- One of the best features of this channel is that just about all of their videos have a dark screen for optimal sleep meditation.
- This will make the screen pitch black so no annoying lights.
Sleep & Relaxation are constantly pumping out videos for their subscribers and are always looking for suggestions. Be sure to drop them a line if you would like to see or hear something specific, but do not be shocked if they have everything you are looking for already.
5. Delta Waves Sleep Music
MeditationRelaxClub makes a multitude of different soundscapes and compositions with a slew of composers all brought into the same ideology; helping you relax. They have everything from nature sounds, acoustic guitar, and even delta wave soundscapes to help lull you into a natural sleep.
This particular video is a delta wave compilation used for deep sleep. Aside from the music itself, it actually utilizes delta waves to help your brain relax into a healthy meditation. This is a widely-recognized tool for sleep meditation and can be found everywhere, from day spas to yoga studios.
If you are nervous about how to do online meditation, we have a guide for you so you feel at ease.
Final Thoughts
Sleep meditation is one of the best things you can do for yourself, even if you do not find yourself to be an anxious person. The ability to relax and calm your mind before you go to sleep can go a long way and will have lasting effects on your overall well-being.
These channels will guide you to a more peaceful and better sleep. You will find yourself to be able to think clearer, wake up more refreshed, less irritable, and less anxious. Sleep meditation has so many benefits, but do not limit yourself to only meditating at night. Use these tools to your advantage and meditate whenever you find yourself to be overwhelmed.
(Want to learn more about the art of meditation? Here are some great books on meditation and mindfulness for you to check out!)
