Body scan meditation for insomnia (7 min), beside your desk

About this practice

7 minutes to meet insomnia with less of a fight. A body scan practice, beside your desk. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: insomnia

Insomnia is often maintained by the fear of not sleeping. Anticipating a bad night raises arousal at bedtime, which produces the bad night.

It tends to show up as:

• Dreading bedtime
• Hours awake with a busy mind
• Sleeping worse as the week goes on

Removing the pressure to sleep is the active ingredient. This gives you something to do that is not trying.

Doing this at your desk

• Feet flat, back supported, screen away from your eyeline
• You can do this with your eyes open if the office makes closing them awkward
• Unclench the jaw and drop the shoulders first, before anything else

Nobody needs to know you are doing it. Keep it invisible if that makes it possible.

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. 0:00Notice whether you're leaning forward. Most people are, slightly, all day.
2. 0:12Move at the speed of your attention, not the speed of a checklist. There is no schedule to keep.
3. 0:28We're going to move through the body in order, roughly from top to bottom.
4. 0:42There's a difference between relaxing and stopping. We're aiming for the second one, gently.
5. 0:56Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
6. 1:10Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
7. 1:24Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
8. 1:35Feel your calves, front and back.
9. 1:45Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
10. 1:57Whatever the wide-awake mind at 2am is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
11. 2:12Think of the counting of hours until morning as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
12. 2:30Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
13. 2:42Stay here a little longer.
14. 2:51Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
15. 3:05Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
16. 3:17Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
17. 3:30Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
18. 3:42Start at the crown of the head and move down slowly. Do not skip to the parts that hurt.
19. 3:58If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
20. 4:12Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
21. 4:25I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
22. 4:37You do not have to like the frustration of not sleeping to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
23. 4:54When the wide-awake mind at 2am arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
24. 5:13Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
25. 5:26Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
26. 5:38Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
27. 5:49Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
28. 6:00Visit each area with plain curiosity, not with a verdict. Sensation is information, not a problem.
29. 6:15Notice whether you feel any different. If not, that's also normal.
30. 6:27Let your eyes open when they're ready, not when the words end.

Questions people ask

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