An Experiment with Guided Meditation for Sleep: Can You Meditate Your Way to La-La Land?

We’re talking meditation here, so you may have a repetitive “ohm” vibrating through your mind right now. Kill the background noise because it turns out there’s much more to meditating than sitting with your legs crossed and trying to force all thought from your brain. Many people now use meditation videos to make falling asleep easier or to improve the quality of their sleep. We knew that you would ask if it really works, so we took the time to seek out some of the best videos on YouTube and give them a try.

Where to Find Sleep Meditation Videos

If you’re searching for easy, affordable ways to try meditation, YouTube is all that you need. A search for terms like “sleep meditation” or “guided meditation for sleep” will lead to thousands of videos ranging from around one hour to more than nine hours in length. If you have a device that can keep the video streaming long enough, you could play a meditation video from “good night” to “good morning.”

After listening to many of the top-ranking meditation videos on YouTube, we realized that there are different ways to use meditation to sleep:

• Use guided meditation for sleep if you want to focus your mind on a human voice speaking in a slow, well-articulated manner. These videos often feature stars, forests, clouds, or other images of nature, but the voice is what matters most. You can close your eyes, rest in a comfortable position, and listen to that soothing voice until sleep overtakes you.
• Look for meditation music if you prefer to focus on instrumental guidance. Some of these videos focus exclusively on music while others mix music with a guiding voice.
• If you want to multitask, look for videos that help you sleep while working on another goal. For instance, there are videos that help you cleanse your aura, eliminate worry, or boost self-confidence all while relaxing and heading into sweet sleep.

If you’re new to meditation or aren’t sure about cleansing your aura or reviving your chakra, start with a short meditation video when you have time for a nap. Focus on relaxing into the guiding voice or staring into the soothing images without requiring yourself to fall asleep. No pressure! Your goal is to get used to the process to see if your body responds by letting loose and dozing off. You can extend the length of your meditation videos and experiment with different guiding voices and styles of meditation music as you get more into the practice.

Meditation YouTube Videos to Try

If you’re a little intimidated by the thousands of videos available on YouTube, consider some of our favorites. We tried these personally and found that they each have valuable qualities for anyone trying to fall asleep faster or enhance the quality of their sleep.

• Guided Meditation for Deepest Sleep: Ascension From Earth to Stars: This is a good video for sleep meditation beginners because it’s about one hour long and features a soothing guiding voice. The video starts off by explaining how to use guided meditation to sleep more soundly, so you get some great instruction while your body is easing into a natural sleep state. The imagery of the moving stars is quite soothing as well, but don’t be surprised if your eyes are too heavy to focus on the screen for long.
• Guided Sleep Meditation with Gentle Nature Sounds: White Noise Waterfall: This video starts out with some instruction on how to get into a comfortable position for rest. You learn how to breathe deeply, and then a guiding voice starts to wind your mind down for sleep. The final 2.5 hours of the video features natural waterfall sounds without the guiding voice. We liked this video because it offers more than just a voice or a soothing noise. You receive valuable instruction on how to use guided meditation for sleep as well as for general relaxation. You can use these skills anytime you need to relax or shake off the stress of daily life for a few minutes.
• Calming Mindfulness Meditation Before Sleeping (Spoken Guided Sleep Hypnosis) Let go and sleep well: We didn’t find the guiding voice in this video as relaxing as the voice in some others, but we enjoyed the video for the imagery. Look for elegant elephants playing in water, expansive ruins with interesting lighting, and bright red leaves being whisked away by the wind. The soothing voice is backed up by music that many should find relaxing as well.

After spending hours listening to videos on YouTube, we believe that it is possible to use mediation to sleep more soundly or to fall asleep faster. Listening to any of these videos is definitely more effective than watching television or staring at the clock as the minutes tick by. If you suffer from insomnia or have trouble slipping into a deep, restorative sleep, give mediation videos a try. No vibrating “ohms” required, and you can trade the yoga pants for your comfiest pajamas.