Delicious, Delicious Sleep

Until I made the switch to eating paleo, I was a terrible sleeper. I never had trouble falling asleep, but I’d wake up at 4:00 a.m.—wide awake! almost every night— with spiraling thoughts, fretting about the fact that I wasn’t sleeping, and admonishing myself that if I kept worrying about sleeping I would never actually sleep. Around 6:00 a.m., I’d fall back to sleep, only to wake up half an hour later to go workout.

It was a waking nightmare.

Since about 2010, I’ve learned how to do things all day long that help me prepare for restful sleep: smart training, paleo food, magnesium supplements, no blue screens in bed, and Doc Parsley’s Sleep Cocktail every night around 9:00 p.m. I usually, easily get seven to eight hours of shut-eye every night. But according to my Fitbit, the quality wasn’t quite there; I had with “restless” periods in the double digits.

But no more! For the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying deep, un-restless sleep, and I think it’s because of this new-to-me meditation: ZZZZZZ from My Meditation Station podcast.

meditationstation

My Meditation Station is produced by fitness and meditation expert Stin Hansen of the web site My Thought Coach. There are dozens of helpful guided mediations—for free—and I’ve been using a handful of them fairly regularly. There’s a great one for recovering from workouts, several on body image, and a quick 4-minute wake-up meditation that really does help me start the day feeling bouncy and positive. Plus, ZZZZZZ which is a combination of brain-wave altering music, a soothing voice, and visualizations that help release stress. You can find all of these and more in the Library of My Thought Coach or subscribe to My Meditation Station with your favorite podcast app.

Guided meditations are an excellent way to try meditation, if you’re not familiar with the practice. And if you are an experienced sitter, these are a nice supplement to quiet meditation.

Let me know if you try any of them!

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Comments

  • Susan Brown says:

    Thanks for sharing this information about the meditation podcast. I have been struggling the last few weeks with my sleep. I listened to this last night and had a great sleep and woke up refreshed.

  • Nina says:

    I am going to try this next week! My man is leaving for two weeks (booooo) so falling asleep will be a challenge, as I am used to use him as a pillow, lol, and also because I am trying to look into more meditation stuff (after reading Last Best Cure and reading about your experience with meditation on a podcast you did with Steph Gaudreau), this will for sure be a great experience! 🙂 Thanks for sharing, I will come back with updates after I try! 🙂

  • Jessica says:

    Going to try this tonight! And I am definitely interested in the wake up one too. I feel SO unproductive until noon. I wish I could do better! I get so distracted!

  • Lea says:

    Sorry if this is a stupid question – do you get ready for bed and then listen to this while you are lying in bed? Or just anytime in the evening before you actually go to bed?

    I have very similar issues – can usually get to sleep fine, just wake around 4am and then can only get back to sleep at around 7am when I should be getting up….gets really frustrating and I always feel tired.

    • Not a stupid question at all! Yes, I do a whole pre-bed ritual: wash my face, brush my teeth, take my allergy medicine, then drink the Sleep Cocktail. I read in bed for about 30 minutes, then put on my eye mask and listen to the meditation. Sometimes I fall asleep with my headphones in, wake up VERY briefly in the middle of the night to remove them. Sometimes I stay awake (barely) to the end, then take off the headphones and CLONK!!! into sound sleep immediately. Let me know how it goes for you! It can take a few weeks (or months) for the sleep cocktail and meditation to work consistently—and sometimes it works right away. It depends on your stress, cortisol, and other factors. Good luck!

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