10-minute body scan meditation for falling asleep, in a five-minute break

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for falling asleep. A body scan session you can do in a five-minute break. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: falling asleep

Falling asleep is a passive process. The harder you aim at it, the further it moves, because the effort itself is arousal.

It tends to show up as:

• Watching the clock
• Getting frustrated at being awake
• Sleep only arriving after giving up

Attention on something boring and continuous is the oldest trick there is. That is all a sleep story is doing.

Doing this on a break

• Leave the room if you can
• Do not start anything else in the same gap
• Set a timer so the break has an end

A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

How body scan works

A body scan moves attention systematically through the body, region by region. It does not try to change what it finds — it builds a map of what is actually there, which is often different from what you assumed.

• Move slowly, head to feet or feet to head, and do not skip the uncomfortable areas
• Meet each region with plain curiosity rather than a verdict
• Numbness and absence of sensation are findings too

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Let your next exhale be a sigh, if a sigh is what's waiting there.
2. 0:14Move at the speed of your attention, not the speed of a checklist. There is no schedule to keep.
3. 0:30Nothing here needs to be pleasant. Neutral is fine. Dull is fine.
4. 0:43If it helps, imagine your attention is a torch beam. Right now it's wide and soft.
5. 0:58Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
6. 1:11Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
7. 1:24Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
8. 1:36Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
9. 1:49Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
10. 2:01Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
11. 2:12There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
12. 2:30If you catch yourself fighting the thoughts that keep the light on, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
13. 2:49Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
14. 3:02If a region feels numb, that is a finding too. Note it and move on.
15. 3:16Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
16. 3:28If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
17. 3:41We will travel down through the body, one region at a time, and leave each one softer than we found it.
18. 3:58Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
19. 4:09If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
20. 4:22Start at the crown of the head and move down slowly. Do not skip to the parts that hurt.
21. 4:38Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
22. 4:49Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
23. 5:03Let the quiet do its work.
24. 5:13Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
25. 5:23Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
26. 5:37Let your body keep settling.
27. 5:46Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
28. 5:58Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
29. 6:11Let it be this simple.
30. 6:20Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
31. 6:34Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
32. 6:50A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
33. 7:01Let the surrender at the end of the day be exactly as big as it is, and let your breath be exactly as slow as it is. They can coexist.
34. 7:22Think of the slow drift toward sleep as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
35. 7:40Let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath, without forcing it.
36. 7:53Picture the thoughts that keep the light on as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
37. 8:12If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
38. 8:27Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
39. 8:39I'll step back. You stay here.
40. 8:49Your only job is to notice what is there, region by region, without fixing anything.
41. 9:03No rush to move on.
42. 9:12Notice whether you feel any different. If not, that's also normal.
43. 9:24Roll your neck once, slowly, in whichever direction feels good.

Questions people ask

Meditation is a practice, not a treatment. If you are dealing with ongoing distress, please also reach out to a professional.