Calm Your Racing Mind Before Bed: 3 Free Techniques

Investing in the proper pre-sleep environment is important. But in these challenging times, not everyone is in a position to spend.

I thought I’d share my three favorite things to do before bed to help calm my racing mind. I’ve found all three to be potent on their own or in combination.

All of them are free.

4–7–8 Breathing

Breathing is something that happens without any conscious effort, but it’s surprising how much basic breath work can make you feel at ease.

My favorite breathing exercise is the 4–7–8 technique. It’s simple:

1. Exhale completely through your mouth

2. For 4 seconds, inhale through your nose

3. For 7 seconds, hold your breath

4. For 8 seconds, exhale through your mouth

5. Repeat steps 2–4 three times, for a total of four breath cycles

For more guidance on this technique, here is a great video from Dr. Andrew Weil:

Evening Meditation

I’ve been meditating for years, and while I’m by no means an expert, I can strongly attribute my practice to being more present and less reactive in everyday life.

When I meditate before bed, sometimes it is so effective that I fall asleep before finishing.

Like many, I struggle to meditate without guidance. It turns out there are some excellent free apps to that provide helpful bedtime meditations.

On iPhone, I love Oak. It’s simple in a good way, with only a few meditations to choose from. This app provides a bedtime meditation that incorporates a variation of the 4–7–8 breathing technique discussed above.

On Android phones, Calm is a good choice. Although you have to pay to unlock the full potential of this app, I find that the free meditations are sufficient.

Just five or ten minutes of meditation before drifting off are enough for me to fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.

Bonus tip: Both apps provide the option to play a background sound. To me, the sound of rain is incredibly calming.

Bedtime Yoga

I don’t know about you, but I tend to be a very “tight” person, with the need to stretch daily.

There’s a problem, though. I find most yoga practices to be way too active for bedtime. This can provide the opposite effect of the sleepy calm we are trying to achieve.

Thankfully, there are a number of free YouTube videos with yoga practices tailored specifically to bedtime.

My favorite example is from a popular yoga YouTube channel, Yoga With Adriene. This sequence only takes about 7 minutes. It’s not very strenuous, and I always feel super sleepy at the end of the practice.

If you have any other techniques for slowing down before bed, I’d love to hear them.

Please take care of yourself.

Greg