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Meditation 71 · 5 February 2025 · 12:29

A Simple Meditation for Deep Sleep

Falling asleep is not something you do. It is something you allow. Eight minutes of getting out of the way.

Subject: Sleep & Bedtime

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Inner Peace Meditations · Meditation 71

Length12:29
SubjectSleep & Bedtime
Best timeIn bed, ready to sleep
PositionHowever you actually sleep
StyleA sleep meditation. Mostly tense and release. No bell, no count back. Music underneath, and it keeps going after the voice stops

Falling asleep is not something you do. It is something you allow. Eight minutes of getting out of the way.

About 8 minutes, mostly tense and release. Only listen where it is safe to sleep.

Toes, calves, thighs, arms, face, then everything at once. Tense and let go. It is the quickest reliable way into sleep there is, and it is nearly all of this episode. Somewhere in there the limbs stop feeling like yours to carry. The body goes first and the mind follows, which is the right way round.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Who this is for

You are lying there trying to fall asleep, which is the one thing that cannot be done on purpose.

Falling asleep is something you allow rather than something you make happen. Eight minutes of getting out of the way.

Only listen where it is safe to fall asleep.

What happens in this meditation

Almost all of it is tense and release, which is the point rather than a warm up.

Toes curled and let go. Calves, as though pressing your feet into sand. Thighs. Then the whole of the legs and hips together. Then arms, belly and chest and hands. Then the neck and face. Then absolutely everything at once.

Somewhere in there the limbs stop feeling like yours to carry.

The body goes first and the mind follows, which is the right way round and the bit most of us have backwards. Then thoughts dissolving like something stirred into water, until the water goes clear.

How to get the most from it

The file runs about twelve minutes, and roughly eight of that is me talking. It does not bring you back at the end.

Do the tensing properly rather than thinking about it. Hold it, then let it go completely. That is the whole mechanism.

If a thought turns up, smile at it. You have thoughts and you do not have to do anything with them, and that is as true at midnight as at noon.

Questions people ask

Why is it so short compared to your other sleep ones?

Because there is no story in it. This is the mechanical route into sleep with nothing built on top, and some nights that is exactly what you want.

What if I am still awake at the end?

Start it again. Nothing has gone wrong, and the body is further along than it was eight minutes ago.

Should I use this or one of the sleep stories?

Use this when your body is wired and your head is not especially busy. Use a story when the head is the problem.

Read along

The transcript

It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.

sleep · breath · body-scan

Read the transcript

Welcome to a simple meditation for deep sleep.

I'm Stephen Webb.

Let's begin by settling into this space.

Feel the comfort of the bed beneath you, the gentle weight of

your covers and the quiet around you.

And all just surrendering to this moment.

And falling asleep is something you allow to happen.

It's not something you make happen.

It's not something you can do.

You just allow your body to fall asleep in this moment and just

become aware of your breath and just let your breath go with

a little sigh, releasing anything you need to sleep.

Sleep arrives when we let go of this moment and when we trust

this moment is enough.

We just end up falling asleep.

If thoughts tug you in any way, imagine them just floating past.

No need to do anything with them.

You are safe right here.

Now, just breathing in, calm, breathing out, relax.

And almost with every breath, breathing in, calm.

And when you breathe out, relax just the body's just relaxing

a little more each time, just 1% or 2% more each time.

With every breath, the body can relax just a little more.

And bring your attention to your toes and let them curl slightly

and hold them and then let them release and feel them grow warm

and loose.

Now gently tighten your calves as if pressing your feet into the

sand and hold them.

And then let them go.

And doing the same with your thighs, just squeeze lightly and

then release, sinking deeper.

Now do the same with your all of your legs, including your hips

and your feet and your toes.

And now just let them go.

And now we'll do it with the arms and the belly and the chest,

just tightening all of it, including your hands, and just letting

it go in this moment.

And now we'll just gently do the neck and the face and just tense

it all up.

But now just letting it go.

And now we're going to finally do every part of the body, every

single muscle you know.

And just when you're ready, just tense everything up, really

hold it tight.

And now just let everything go.

It just floods the body with relaxation and all the chemicals

it needs just to relax into this moment now.

Breathing in calm, breathing out, relax, Breathing in peace and

quiet.

And as you're breathing out, just deeper into sleep.

And just notice how the body feels like it's no longer yours to

carry.

Each limb is numb and distance as sleep just wraps around you.

The body's falling asleep.

And it's very often the body will fall asleep before the mind.

That's okay.

The legs have already fallen asleep, your arms are falling asleep,

your hands and all just surrendering to this moment.

And Falling asleep is something you allow to happen.

It's not something you make happen.

It's not something you can do is allow your body to fall asleep

in this moment.

And if your mind starts wandering in the story, just little

gentle smile.

Thank you.

But we're just here peacefully breathing in calm, breathing in surrender,

breathing out sleep.

And now it's just time to let your mind follow.

Thoughts may drift by just like you're dissolving them in water.

And the water slowly becoming clearer.

And just like allowing the mind to go sleep, it's like allowing

the body to go sleep, you just allow the foot and the leg and the

body and the arms, just allow all the parts to go sleep.

With the mind, you just allow it to fall asleep.

And if a thought just come up, just ah, there's a thought.

I'm going to allow that thought to just carry on its way.

I may have thoughts.

I don't have to do anything with those thoughts.

And with every exhale, let your mind grow quieter, emptier,

until even the idea of thinking even fades.

And as you're falling into deep sleep, you feel safe.

As you're falling deeper into deep sleep, you feel still.

Just let the silence hold you.

And with every breath in and every breath out, you're going deeper

and deeper into sleep.

There's no words now.

There's no thoughts now.

It's just awareness of falling asleep, Just awareness of sounds.

Awareness of here.

Awareness of peace, awareness of quietness.

And in this quietness, you sleep.

Sa Sa Sa Sa Sa Sa Sa Sa Sa.

Sa.

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