The body scan, adapted for falling asleep. The closing gong has been removed so nothing wakes you at the end.
Listen to the Meditation
About This Practice
Moving attention slowly through the body is one of the more reliable ways to fall asleep, because it gives the mind a simple physical task and steadily unhooks it from thinking.
It also does the work the daytime version does. Emotions announce themselves in the body first, usually before we have named anything, and learning to read those signals early gives us room to respond rather than react.
If you are prone to anxiety, there is something further here. Lying in the dark noticing sensations, and finding that nothing bad happens as a result, teaches you that body sensations are not dangerous. They arrive, they change, they pass. That is often exactly the lesson that night-time anxiety needs.
You may not reach the end. That is fine, and rather the point.
Micro Practice: Three Breaths
When you notice something happening in your body, take three breaths.
- Breathe and settle on the breath itself.
- Breathe and acknowledge that you are experiencing a sensation right now.
- Breathe and let it be there. This is a body experience, and you are safe.