Meditation for falling asleep: 7-minute grounding session, at the weekend

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for falling asleep. A grounding session you can do at the weekend. A guided session of about 7 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 at the weekend

• Do it without a schedule to justify it
• Later in the morning, in better light, usually works well
• Let the length be open-ended if the time allows

Recovery is not something you have to earn first, and treating it as a reward keeps it conditional.

How grounding works

Grounding brings attention to physical contact and the immediate environment. It works on the principle that the body cannot be somewhere else, so contact with the surface you are on is always available as an anchor.

• Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back — and let them take your weight
• Use the senses deliberately: what you can see, hear, touch
• Return to solidity whenever attention drifts

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Rest your hands somewhere they don't have to do anything.
2. 0:12The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
3. 0:26We're going to let the body lead and the mind follow for a while.
4. 0:40Notice whether your breathing is high in your chest or low in your belly. Just notice. No fixing.
5. 0:56Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
6. 1:10Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
7. 1:21Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
8. 1:32Feel your ankles. Let them be loose.
9. 1:42Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
10. 1:55You do not have to win against the slow drift toward sleep. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
11. 2:13If the thoughts that keep the light on starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
12. 2:31Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
13. 2:43Take the next breath slowly.
14. 2:52Let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath, without forcing it.
15. 3:05Notice the backs of your knees, which you feel more than you think.
16. 3:18Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
17. 3:31A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
18. 3:42Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
19. 3:56Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
20. 4:08Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
21. 4:21Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
22. 4:33If the surrender at the end of the day has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
23. 4:52There is no correct amount of the slow drift toward sleep to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
24. 5:10Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
25. 5:24If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
26. 5:37If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
27. 5:51Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
28. 6:02Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
29. 6:18Roll your neck once, slowly, in whichever direction feels good.
30. 6:30Notice the quiet you made, and let it close gently.

Questions people ask

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