Insomnia: 20-minute breathing meditation, on a break

About this practice

When insomnia shows up on a break, this 20-minute breathing session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 20 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 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 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

0:00Let your eyes soften. Not closed, just less busy.
0:11Follow the air from the nostrils down to the belly, then back out. One full trip at a time.
0:27Let your body be exactly as tired as it is.
0:39For the next few minutes, the only job is to notice what's already happening.
0:53If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
1:07Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
1:20Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
1:34Feel your forearms, from the elbow down to the wrist.
1:46Feel the front of your chest. Notice it rise and fall once.
1:59Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
2:12Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
2:24Picture the wide-awake mind at 2am as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
2:43This is not the last time the counting of hours until morning will visit. That is not bad news. It means you will get more practice.
3:02Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
3:15There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
3:33You do not have to solve the wide-awake mind at 2am in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
3:52Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
4:05If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
4:18If the breath feels tight, do not deepen it. Just watch it, and let it find its own depth.
4:34Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
4:45Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
4:57Let the counting do the work. When you lose the count, start again from one — no penalty.
5:13A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
5:24Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
5:38Your anchor for the next few minutes is the breath itself. Nothing else needs following.
5:52Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
6:04If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
6:17There is no target number here. Only the next breath, and then the one after it.
6:32No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
6:43If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
6:56No rush to move on.
7:05Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
7:18Feel the tops of your thighs.
7:28A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
7:39Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
7:52Just the breath, still.
8:01Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
8:12Notice the backs of your knees, which you feel more than you think.
8:25Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
8:37If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
8:48A few seconds more.
8:57Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
9:10Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
9:22A short silence. Let it be empty.
9:32Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
9:46Remain here for a few more breaths.
9:56If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
10:11I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
10:24Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
10:36Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
10:50Take the next breath slowly.
10:59Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
11:12Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
11:23Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
11:34Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
11:47No need to open your eyes yet.
11:57Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
12:10I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
12:22Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
12:34Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
12:47Let the quiet do its work.
12:57Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
13:09Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
13:24Nothing changes for a moment.
13:33Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
13:46Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
14:00Let your body keep settling.
14:09Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
14:22Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
14:36Let this one be unhurried.
14:45Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
14:56When the counting of hours until morning arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
15:15Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
15:26You have been carrying the frustration of not sleeping for a while. You can set it down for the length of this session and pick it up after.
15:46Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
15:57the wide-awake mind at 2am may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
16:15If the counting of hours until morning shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
16:36Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
16:49You are allowed to be unimpressed by the frustration of not sleeping. Indifference is a legitimate response.
17:04Imagine softening the edges of the wide-awake mind at 2am. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
17:22Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
17:33If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
17:48Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
17:59If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
18:13Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
18:24Keep the exhale a little longer than the inhale. That is the entire technique.
18:38Keep following the air.
18:47Wiggle your fingers and toes, gently, like you're testing that they still work.
19:00Notice if anything has loosened. Even slightly counts.
19:11Stay here a little longer.

Questions people ask

What does this session help with?

Insomnia is often maintained by the fear of not sleeping. Anticipating a bad night raises arousal at bedtime, which produces the bad night. Removing the pressure to sleep is the active ingredient. This gives you something to do that is not trying.

Where and when should I do this one?

Leave the room if you can. A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

What actually happens during the 20 minutes?

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