When it comes to improving health, getting into a better shape and living a healthy lifestyle, one thing is often overlooked- Sleep. Sleep is one of the important factors to lead a healthy life and attain the desired physique for men. But due to work pressure and other leisure activities, a night of sound sleep is compromised which disturbs the overall wellbeing. Good sleep is as important as exercising and eating right to ensure that the body functions properly, burns extra fat and repairs the raptured muscles post-workout.
Firstly, it is important to take into consideration that sound sleep is about quality of sleep instead of quantity of sleep. Seven to eight hours of sleep is often quoted as a must that is backed by medical evidence. However, it is equally important to get deep sleep to have a healthy body and fresh mind.
Odd working hours induced by work from home culture, excessive usage of mobile for OTT, gaming and social media accounts have badly affected the sleep pattern of various men, leading to the weight gain or not being able to reduce extra pounds despite exercise.
Also, there can be some medical conditions that cause poor sleep quality such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), and Narcolepsy, to name a few. Disorders like OSA disrupt sleep at night which causes men to wake up tired the next day. Alongside poor health, there are some other long-term effects such as decreased cognitive functioning, and increased cardiovascular disturbances.
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 those techniques.
Mindful Meditation
It is all about concentrating on your current situation by enhancing your awareness of your breathing, and making a connection with your body and conscious levels. To practice this, you must remove all disturbing factors from your bedroom, especially your TV, Mobile Phone, and switch off any bright lights that might disturb you.
Lie down in a comfortable position and start focusing on your breathing. Inhale for 10 counts, hold your breath for 10 counts and then exhale for 10 counts. You may repeat this five times or more. If you start getting any other thoughts in mind making conscious effort remove them by focusing on your breath.
Guided Meditation
Guided meditation is the one that is instructed by an expert. Step by step guidance is given either by a person or through an online recording. You can easily pick a sound or video recording and play it on a preferred gadget. You can play the recording when you lie down on your bed and focus on the recording that may instruct you to relax your body and breathing. It might have you visualize some scene or sounds that can drive you into a sound sleep easier and faster.
Body Scan Meditation
In this meditation technique, you focus on each body part aiming to increase awareness of your physical sensation including pain, stress or any other kind of discomfort. The body scan meditation helps in relaxation and puts you in a relaxed condition for sleep.
Again to perform this, you need to lie down on your bed in a comfortable position without any distractions. Once you attain a comfortable position, you need to start focusing on each body part one by one starting with your forehead. Then bring your focus to the following body parts step by step like eyes, jaw, neck, shoulders and then 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
All of us have that one place in our lives, where we all either feel at home or the place makes us feel peaceful with our own selves. For many the sound of waves, while sitting near sea, gives them the happy vibe, while for others sitting on a bench overlooking a view at the top of a hill, brings peace and calm.
Favorite place meditation or peaceful place meditation brings out that emotion. During this meditation, your guide will tell you to close your eyes and focus on the place that brings you joy and peace. The point is to focus on that location and imagine yourself doing activities either while you are alone in this environment or with someone, which will bring your mind peace and joy. The meditation will fill your body with happy hormones, in the end bringing you enough joy to give you a night full of peaceful and wonderful sleep.
Conclusion
Meditation is a remedy for all issues and problems that one needs to explore and practice according to their need and reason. Indeed falling asleep for some is very difficult but not anymore. Insomnia is the disease of this generation and especially men are falling and becoming more and more victims of the disease. Due to an environment where men are not inspired to talk out their feelings and be open about their emotions, more and more men fall prey to stress, anxiety and depression which in turn leads to either bad quality of sleep or insomnia.
In order to get over the insomnia, meditation can be the best practice that a man can follow. Beyond the limitedness of medicines and resolutions that a doctor offers, meditation can make you feel better and not only get over anxiety but also have a proper peaceful sleep, which is the need of every man’s hour.
However, it is advisable that those who follow the art of meditation be patient. It is not a pill that can just be taken and will give you the desired results. Even doing a proper meditation will take time and hence expecting an instant result will be illogical.
The above mentioned meditation techniques are just some primary meditation that anyone can start off with. Although remember that it is practice that will make any men perfect, even when it comes to meditation.