If you are like most of us, you have a lot of stress in your life. Along with feeling stressed, you probably suffer from bad dreams or nightmares. Trauma, stress, commotion and chaos are all culprits of a bad night’s rest. The best way to combat this is to slow life down. Clear out a set amount of time for clearing the clutter out of your mind.
How Long Should You Meditate?
Meditation can be done over the course of a few minutes to upwards of an hour. You can also meditate multiple times a day. Taking a few minutes out during the busy day can have a profound effect on your sleeping habits at the end of the day. Meditating is like hitting the snooze button of stress. It puts it off for a bit. The stress may not go away and in fact may still be there waiting for you when you complete your meditation. The difference is your meditation has allowed you to recharge your mental battery and enables you to be able to handle and metabolize stress better.
When Should I Meditate?
You can meditate in the morning to bring energy to your body. You can meditate throughout the day to channel stress and refocus. Meditating in the evening can help you get into a relaxed state as you wind your day down. Bedtime meditation enables you to fall asleep quicker and have a better quality of sleep. It also enables you to have a little more control over your dreams.
What Affects My Dreams?
As mentioned before, chaos, stress, trauma and commotion are all known contributors to bad dreams. Sounds that are not relaxing are also contributors. Eating a heavy meal before bed is known to have adverse reactions on dreams. Falling asleep in front of the TV can get your mind racing and may surprise you as to what comes into your dreams. Your dreams are a direct reflection of what’s going on in your life. For instance, if you are worried about finances tightening, you might dream of things choking you. This is just one example, though.
How Do I Meditate?
There are a large number of ways to meditate. Meditation varies from styles, to chants and can be different depending on the reasoning for meditation. The main thought behind meditation is controlling your mind long enough to erase damaging stress. Meditation redirects your thoughts into a healthy pattern. For example, bedtime meditation can be simply laying in bed with your eyes closed, envisioning warm relaxing sunshine visiting each part of your body. As the sunshine reaches each tiny inch of your body, it relaxes it with comforting warmth. The relaxing warmth will have you nodding off in no time. Morning meditation may have you sitting on the floor or on a chair, envisioning energy coming into your body through each part. The energy literally energizes and gives life to each part of your body. Stress reducing meditation can be done lying down or sitting. You tighten each body part, hold it for a few seconds then release. Feel your muscles getting tighter and tighter then how they feel in comparison as they relax. Imagine as the muscles release, so does the stress and tension. The more stressed you are, the more often you should meditate.
Meditation reclaims lost energy and puts an end to bad nights of sleep. It puts you in control of your body and mind when life has you feeling completely out of control. The end result is a wonderful night, full of either dreamless sleep or pleasant dreams. No matter what time of day you meditate, it will have a positive affect on your sleep. By the mere fact alone that meditation releases the stress from your body, your sleep will improve. Every bit of stress you extract from your body will result in less stress that can cause you to have bad dreams.