Scan before you sleep

For a calm and restful night

We’ve all experienced nights where it feels impossible to fall asleep. Racing thoughts or tense muscles can make it seem that a good night’s rest is out of reach. If this sounds familiar, read on to learn about a technique that doesn’t involve counting sheep, and you might just get the shut-eye you deserve.

While there are several tricks you could use to get a good night’s sleep, body scan meditation might be the one you need. Body scan meditation entails bringing attention to different parts of your body, mentally scanning each part in turn, before focusing on your body as a whole. As one of the most accessible meditation practices out there, anyone can take part by following an audio recording.

Similar to meditation, there is no one correct way to practise body scan mindfulness. Some body scan sessions involve tightening a muscle group first before actively relaxing it, while others focus purely on progressive muscle relaxation. Research has shown that both approaches are effective, so go with whichever you prefer and reap these fantastic benefits:

● Reduced stress and anxiety. Mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression have strong connections with sleep problems. Body scan meditation is effective at easing symptoms of anxiety and ‌improves the quality of your sleep too. Body scan meditation is a readily available tool with proven benefits for your sleep habits and mental health. Perhaps it’s time to add it to your mental health self-care toolbox?

● Improved sleep quality and quantity. Body scan meditation improves sleep quality in older adults, especially when combined with relaxing music and deep breathing. In addition, many older individuals experience chronic pain, which could also impair sleep. One study showed that after practising body scan mindfulness daily for two months, participants noticed reduced chronic pain, improved sleep quality, and shorter time required to fall asleep.

● Increased happiness. On a typical day, we seldom pause and think about the various sensations we experience in our bodies. Body scan meditation encourages you to feel your body from a new perspective, a process that may increase happiness, as shown in a study. The happier you feel, the better your sleep.

If you’d like to give body scan meditation a try, listen to “Deep sleep body scan” in the Thrive section of the Strove app. Start with just 5 to 10 minutes every day before going to bed and slowly build up from there. You’ll soon reach 30 minutes or, better still, you may be fast asleep well before that.

Larisa Sheloukhova | Neurobiologist