Healf's Top 10 Meditations For Better Sleep

Prepping your body and nervous system for a good night’s sleep is about far more than just turning on some calming music and lighting candles. For many people, the hardest part of good sleep isn’t getting to bed earlier or perfecting their sleep hygiene routine. It’s actually the ability to switch off the mind and enter that calm, low-stress state that makes sleep possible. In today’s world, where you’re bombarded by screens and emails and texts until late in the night, that can seem like an impossible task. That’s where meditation comes in.

Guided meditations have been shown to slow brain activity, settle the nervous system, and help restless minds fall asleep faster. Di Fan, a Chinese Tui Na massage therapist, often recommends sleep meditations to clients who struggle to unwind after long, demanding days. In his experience, the problem is usually centered on mental momentum: the brain cannot always simply switch off the moment the body stops working. Think of it like the mind’s nightly digestion process: “Much like the body needs time to digest food after a large meal, the mind needs space to organise thoughts.” 

Meditation can help create that moment of pause that sets us up for success. “By summarising the day consciously during this wind-down period, we prevent the mind from doing it restlessly during sleep, which can significantly improve sleep quality,” Fan says. 

What to know about sleep and meditation 

In his famous book Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker explains that falling asleep depends on two biological forces working together: sleep pressure and the circadian rhythm. As adenosine, a signalling molecule, accumulates during the day, it gradually reduces activity in brain regions that promote wakefulness. At the same time, the brain’s internal clock triggers melatonin release, signalling that sleep should begin.

Sleep starts in the brain. As melatonin is released, brain activity then slows in stages. Fast beta waves linked with alert thinking give way to calmer alpha rhythms when the eyes close. These brainwaves slow down even more into theta waves during the first stage of non-REM sleep.

What meditation does to your brain to induce sleep

Clinical research shows that several biological processes begin to slow and stabilise as the body prepares for rest. For example:

Brain waves begin to slow

During meditation, the brain gradually moves away from high-frequency beta waves linked with active thinking. 

Studies show that in experienced meditators, similar low-frequency rhythms appear during non-REM sleep and meditation, suggesting the practice helps the brain settle into the neurological conditions that precede sleep. 

The nervous system moves into recovery mode

Researchers have also linked meditation to stronger vagal tone, which means your nervous system can more effectively activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest) to calm you down quickly after stress. 

For example, meditation techniques, such as Vipassana, are thought to activate the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC), which helps modulate parasympathetic activity specifically during sleep.

Breathing and heart rate settle

Many guided meditations incorporate slow breathing patterns that influence heart rhythm and blood pressure. 

In the research, techniques such as resonance breathing or the 4-7-8 method slow respiratory rate and synchronise breathing with heart rate, a process known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia. This physiological slowing helps reduce arousal.

How to use sleep meditation most effectively

Nadia Miller, a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, specialises in a body based approach to healing trauma, and tells Healf that she uses sleep meditation on a regular basis. “For me, it's all about the tone of voice, the pace and a gentle body scan to help focus the mind and bring me back to the body. I think it really helps, especially in difficult times. When I practice guided meditation, I like to place one hand over my heart and the other over my stomach, it helps me feel the practice in my body.”

Some more practical suggestions to get the most from sleep meditation involve keeping the setup pared back, listening in bed with the lights off so the body can begin associating the audio with sleep, and returning to the same meditation for several consecutive nights to give the mind a familiar structure to follow as it unwinds.

Why guided meditation helps racing thoughts

Leading sleep researchers have explored how relaxation practices influence the brain’s nightly pattern. Simply jumping straight into bed from a high-stress or high-stimulation activity often leads to “tired but wired” states, where the body is exhausted but the brain remains in a high-frequency, alert mode. This is what we want to avoid if we’re trying to get restful sleep.

Guided meditation gives the mind a clear point of focus through voice and breath cues, slowing mental activity. Findings from studies suggest that guided imagery has the potential to enhance attentional control by augmenting alpha power and reducing stress levels, meaning that it could actively change your brain activity to be more relaxed and focused. 

Similarly, it has been found that even short-term meditation training alters brain activity, leading to improvements in attention and concentration, from which both our conscious and unconscious brains will benefit. 

Meditations that use NSDR, Yoga Nidra, and body awareness

As we turn our attention to breathing, body scans or guided imagery, our body begins to register that we are winding down for the day.

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman often reflects on this change through Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), a protocol akin to Yoga Nidra, which is designed to place the brain and body into a deeply relaxed state while awake. 

Whilst practising NSDR, a person can allow space for the breathing to slow, heart rate to lower, and limbs to take on the heavy sensation that commonly appears just before sleep begins.

Huberman has posted a volume of YouTube videos on his channel dedicated to this practice, using his own voice and words. You may also want to check out Kelly Boys; her Yoga Nidra and NSDR videos are recommended on the Huberman site.

• Huberman NSDR Playlist: Huberman provides three different NSDR guided meditations that vary in length from 10, 20, and 30 minutes.
• Kelly Boys, Yoga Nidra and NSDR for sleep: Boys has a shorter, 5-minute meditation to help you fall back asleep if you’re struggling to resettle after awakening in the night.

In the same vein, Tara Brach, psychologist and meditation teacher, uses body scan techniques in her videos. 

• Relaxing by Day, Sleeping by Night - Tara Brach: This 17-minute meditation, led by Brach, gently guides you through a grounding, gratitude-filled session.
• Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep - Tara Brach: An 18-minute meditation for reducing anxiety to help you get to sleep. There are also 6 and 12-minute versions available.

Meditative breathwork practices

Leo Oppenheim, a breathwork practitioner, recommends a yogic technique to balance energies before bed. More specifically, he prefers a technique called Chandra Bhedana (or Moon Piercing Breath), which is believed to balance the body’s energies (the ida nadi) associated with the moon and calming energy. 

Oppenheim is on to something. Studies on Left Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing (LNB) indicate a significant reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity, which is usually elevated in people with insomnia. 

• Caren Hope Chandra Bhedana: Traditional Breathing Exercise for Anxiety: This short, 3-minute, pranayama breathing exercise, led by yoga teacher Caren Baginski, helps with anxiety to allow your body to slide into sleep more easily.  

Bryan Johnson, the entrepreneur behind the Blueprint protocol, views sleep as the “most important thing a human does”. His evening routine is strictly engineered to lower his resting heart rate, which he considers the highest-value biomarker for tracking daily sleep quality. He has produced a series of videos around this topic, such as How I Fixed My Terrible Sleep. And, while not a traditional meditation, Bryan has also said he uses the NuroSym device for 30 minutes in the evening.

Regarding meditation techniques, deep diaphragmatic breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, and Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) effectively lower resting heart rate by reducing stress hormones and calming the nervous system. 

You can get a tutorial and try these breathing methods here:

• 4-7-8 Breathing - YouTube short 
• Deep Breathing For Better Sleep 

Gary Brecka has released an abundance of content on sleep and the breath. He likes to pair breath with visualisations. 

• Gary Brecka’s Sleep Secret - 2 Minute Breathwork: This short video explains one of Brecka’s breathwork techniques, which he calls “natural Xanax.” It involves a long, slow inhale through the nose, followed by a 3 to 5-second pause where you hold that breath, and then slowly exhale (ideally, via a straw or pursed lips).

The Wim Hof Method breathing for sleep involves 3 to 4 rounds of 30 to 40 controlled hyperventilation breaths followed by a long retention (breath hold) to calm the nervous system. Variations of this have been created, made more suitable for beginners and intended to improve sleep.

• Wim Hof Breathing Technique and Deep Hypnosis 
• Wim Hof for Beginners 

It’s important to remember that the Wim Hof Method is generally considered not suitable immediately before sleep because its intense, active breathing technique is designed to energise the body, boost adrenaline, and increase alertness. However, practising it earlier in the day can improve overall sleep quality later in the day, with the potential to reduce stress, anxiety, and even lower blood pressure. The official recommendation is to do it on an empty stomach in the morning.

Healf's favorite meditations

Over at Healf, our team members also shared a few of their go-to nighttime meditations, which you can try out for yourself.

• This 30-minute non-deep sleep rest meditation on Spotify is one of co-founder Lestat McCree's favorites, which he says he uses "every night!" to help him sleep.
• This non-deep sleep rest meditation by Andrew Huberman is another top pick for Brand Director Oscar Guy.

What to remember

For some, sleep rarely arrives the moment your head touches the pillow. Instead, the brain needs a short period of time to start to down-regulate after a hectic day.

As the experts explained, guided sleep meditations effectively help create that transition, using breath, heart rate, and more to bring the body to that relaxed state. Through breathwork, Yoga Nidra, body scans or simple voice-led relaxation, they give the nervous system a clear signal that the day is ending.

Fan leaves us with his main takeaway: “Meditation isn’t a magic sleep cure; its success depends entirely on the individual.”