When it comes to improving health, staying in shape, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, one aspect is frequently overlooked: sleep. Sleep is a crucial aspect in leading a healthy life and achieving the desired body for guys. However, due to work pressure and other recreational activities, a good night's sleep is disturbed, which disrupts one's overall well-being. Sleep is just as vital as exercise and eating well to ensure that the body works effectively, burns excess fat, and repairs ripped muscles after a workout.
To begin, it is critical to remember that sound sleep is about quality of sleep more than amount of sleep. Medical research supports the recommendation of seven to eight hours of sleep every night. However, deep sleep is equally necessary for maintaining a healthy body and mind.
Odd working hours caused by work from home culture, excessive use of mobile for OTT, gaming, and social networking accounts have negatively impacted many men's sleep patterns, resulting in weight gain or inability to lose extra pounds despite exercising.
Poor sleep quality can also be caused by medical problems such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), and Narcolepsy, to name a few. OSA disrupts men's sleep at night, causing them to wake up weary the next day.
However, the disturbed sleep pattern is totally curable with the help of certain meditation techniques. A meditation practice introduces physiological changes in the body which initiate sleep by bringing certain processes. Primarily, sleep is disturbed due to stress and meditation brings peace and releases stress, in the end giving you a proper sleep.
There are a couple of meditation techniques that can help men in attaining a sound seven to eight hours’ sleep without much effort. Here are some of those techniques:
Mindful Meditation
It all comes down to focusing on your current situation by increasing your awareness of your breathing and connecting with your body and conscious levels. To do this, you must remove all distracting items from your bedroom, particularly your TV and mobile phone, and turn off any bright lights that may be bothering you.
Start by lying down in a comfortable posture and concentrating on your breathing. Inhale for 10 counts, hold for 10 counts, and exhale for 10 counts. This can be done five times or more. If any other thoughts arise, make a conscious effort to eradicate them by focusing on your breath.
Guided Meditation
A guided meditation is one that is conducted by a professional. A person or an online recording provides step-by-step instructions. You can quickly select a sound or video recording and play it on your favorite device. You can listen to the audio while lying in bed and focusing on it, which may educate you to relax your body and breathe. It may ask you to imagine a scene or hear noises that may help you fall asleep sooner and more easily.
Body Scan Meditation
In this meditation approach, you concentrate on each body part with the goal of increasing awareness of your bodily sensations, such as pain, tension, or any other type of discomfort. The body scan meditation assists in relaxing and prepares you for sleep.
To achieve this, you must again lie down on your bed in a comfortable position with no interruptions. Once you've found a comfortable posture, begin focusing on each body area one by one, beginning with your forehead. ultimately, gradually shift your attention to the following body parts: eyes, mouth, neck, shoulders, and ultimately lower body.
You may feel some mental distractions but you need to avoid them by bringing your concentration to the body part. You must focus in a manner that heals the pain in your body if there is any.
Gratitude Meditation
Gratitude is a strong emotion and can fill up your body and mind with it. A gratitude meditation can not only teach us calmness for a good night’s sleep but of course can be a great help with character changes. A person who is grateful about things in his life and about other people definitely knows how to treat people and situations in a way that will bring not only peace to his own life but even to the others.
A gratitude meditation starts with deep breaths, where first the focus is drawn to the breathing pattern and then the person practicing it would be asked to focus on people in their lives. The second step of gratitude meditation involves considering all the people, places, experiences, activities and anything else that they might have felt grateful for during that week or day.
If nothing, you will be asked to focus on one person who made you feel good on a certain day and time and would be asked to feel grateful about their existence in your life. Another part of the same meditation is to feel grateful about the present moment and your meditation guide will ask you to focus on things that might be around you in that moment and feel grateful about them.
Place Meditation
We all have that one area in our lives where we either feel at home or where we feel at peace with ourselves. Many people associate the sound of waves while sitting near the sea with happiness, whilst others associate sitting on a bench overlooking a view at the top of a hill with peace and tranquility.
Favorite location meditation or a serene location Meditation elicits that emotion. Your guide will instruct you to close your eyes and focus on a location that provides you joy and tranquility throughout this meditation.
Bottom Line
Meditation is a treatment for all concerns and problems that one must investigate and practice based on their need and reason. For some, falling asleep is quite tough, but not anymore. Insomnia is the disease of this generation, and men, in particular, are falling victim to it at an alarming rate. Because of a culture that discourages men from talking about their feelings and being upfront about their emotions, an increasing number of men suffer from stress, worry, and depression, which leads to poor sleep quality or insomnia.
Meditation may be the finest practice for a man to adopt in order to overcome insomnia. Aside from the restricted medicines and treatments that a doctor may provide, meditation can help you feel better and not only overcome anxiety but also have a proper tranquil sleep, which is essential in every man's hour.
However, individuals who practice the technique of meditation should be patient. It is not a pill that may be swallowed and immediately produce the desired results. Even practicing proper meditation takes time, so expecting an instant result is absurd.
Article by: Bhawana Anand
Edited by: Puneet Kapani