Breathing meditation for falling asleep (15 min), in the evening

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for falling asleep. A breathing session you can do in the evening. A guided session of about 15 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 in the evening

• Dim the lights first — bright light works against the point
• Put the phone in another room
• Keep it slow rather than interesting

Something too engaging will wake you up rather than wind you down.

How breathing works

A breathing practice uses the breath as the object of attention and as the control lever. Because exhaling slows the heart through the vagus nerve, it acts on the nervous system directly rather than through thinking.

• Keep the exhale longer than the inhale — that is the active ingredient
• Count the exhales and start again whenever you lose count
• Do not force depth; let the breath find its own level

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Turn your phone face down if it's within reach. If it's in another room, even better.
2. 0:15If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
3. 0:28Notice the pause at the end of each breath. It's short, but it's there.
4. 0:42We'll be quiet for a bit longer than usual. Stay with whatever shows up.
5. 0:56Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
6. 1:10Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
7. 1:23Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
8. 1:35Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
9. 1:46Feel the tops of your thighs.
10. 1:56Notice your breathing, without changing it.
11. 2:06Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
12. 2:20the slow drift toward sleep may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
13. 2:38Nothing about the thoughts that keep the light on has to be explained or justified in this room.
14. 2:54Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
15. 3:07If the surrender at the end of the day starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
16. 3:25Imagine softening the edges of the slow drift toward sleep. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
17. 3:43Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
18. 3:55Stay with it.
19. 4:03Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
20. 4:14Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
21. 4:28No need to open your eyes yet.
22. 4:38Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
23. 4:51Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
24. 5:03Remain here for a few more breaths.
25. 5:13Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
26. 5:27Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
27. 5:39Keep following the air.
28. 5:48Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
29. 6:01Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
30. 6:12No rush to move on.
31. 6:21Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
32. 6:35Notice your ears, which mostly just receive things.
33. 6:46Take the next breath slowly.
34. 6:55A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
35. 7:06Let this be easy, if easy is available.
36. 7:17Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
37. 7:28Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
38. 7:39You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
39. 7:52If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
40. 8:05I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
41. 8:18There's no need to try harder than this.
42. 8:29You might be planning something. Notice the planning, then come back.
43. 8:41Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
44. 8:52Nothing here needs to be efficient.
45. 9:02If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
46. 9:15Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
47. 9:27Small efforts are the whole method.
48. 9:37Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
49. 9:50Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
50. 10:02We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
51. 10:12If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
52. 10:24Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
53. 10:38Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
54. 10:50You have been carrying the thoughts that keep the light on for a while. You can set it down for the length of this session and pick it up after.
55. 11:11You do not have to win against the surrender at the end of the day. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
56. 11:30Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
57. 11:45If the slow drift toward sleep shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
58. 12:05When the thoughts that keep the light on presses in, put a hand on your chest or your belly. Warmth and pressure are anchors your body already trusts.
59. 12:25Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
60. 12:36If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
61. 12:47If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
62. 13:00If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
63. 13:15Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
64. 13:27We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
65. 13:41Just the breath, still.
66. 13:50Let the last minute of quiet be the last minute of quiet.
67. 14:03Come back to your body first, and the rest of the day second.
68. 14:16Let it be this simple.

Questions people ask

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