Sleep is a natural human thing. Therefore, it should come naturally. But, if you’re like most people living in this busy, stressful world, you’ve found it hard sometimes to turn off your thinking mind, quiet negative thoughts, relax, and fall asleep. Your mental chatter is what many call the “monkey mind.” And to get good sleep, you need to learn how to tame your monkey mind.

That’s why I created a free Taming the Monkey relaxation meditation. This meditation is designed to help you fall asleep and get back to sleep once disrupted.

In addition, you can use this guided meditation and the easy breathing and relaxation techniques it employs to quickly quiet incessant mental rumination and tone down high beta brain waves to ease the pace and intensity of your thoughts, gain clarity, and open your focus.

Why Tame Your Monkey Mind

According to the Centers for Disease Prevention 2020 study, 14.5 percent of American adults had trouble falling asleep and 17.8 percent had difficulties staying asleep over the one-month research period.

For some people, falling asleep can be a problem more often than not. Others experience occasional difficulties. Another challenge is to stay asleep throughout the night. The truth is falling asleep and getting a good night’s rest can be tough for anyone with a busy life, many responsibilities and expectations, and a restless mind.

Adequate sleep is necessary for all human beings. Exactly how much sleep the average adult needs depends on the individual, their age, health status, lifestyle, and circumstances. You need to pay attention to your mind and body and discern what amount of sleep is right for you.

Inadequate sleep, on the other hand, can cause or exacerbate numerous health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and some cancers such as breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancer.

In addition, sleep deprivation can lead to a higher incidence of brain fog and confused thinking, personal injuries, mood swings, depression, and substance abuse.

Sleep Verses Deep Relaxation

When people talk about going to sleep, they tend to think of or, at least, talk about sleep as though it were something to do, achieve, or turn on and off.

But, in reality, sleep is a deep state of relaxation. It’s the end stage of a slowing down process. So, it’s better to approach sleep by slowing down and becoming more and more relaxed.

This is why progressive relaxation techniques can and do make us fall asleep. So, instead of trying to sleep, relax!

Making yourself fall asleep may seem like an impossible task. But, relaxing more is something you can imagine. It’s possible. For example, you can take a few long deep breaths or lie down and feel more relaxed. You can also take progressively more steps to deepen your relaxation, e.g., lie down AND take a few long deep breaths.

Create Better Sleep Habits – Better Pre-Bedtime Behaviors

Knowing why you’re having difficulty relaxing, falling asleep, and getting a good night’s rest can help you find the solution that works for you. Review your habits and lifestyle. Consider what might be causing poor or inadequate sleep.

Do you have habits that make it difficult to relax and fall asleep? Can you adopt behaviors to make it easier to drift off to sleep? Everyone is different and we all change with age. Nevertheless, there are some useful general tips you could consider.

Behaviors That Inhibit Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, and Falling Back Asleep

• Wanting TV within 30 minutes before bed. That includes watching TV in bed.
• Working or playing on the computer or cell phone within one hour (or even two hours) before bed. According to Sleep.org, the blue screens of TV, cell phones, and computers impede the production of melatonin, which is critical to your sleep-wake cycle.
• Working right up to lights off. When you’re working, you’re typically in a wakeful, thinking state, and your brain is functioning in a Beta state. Depending on how intensely focused you are, you could be in a high beta brain state or beta brain state. Sleep requires lower longer frequencies like Alpha, Theta, and Delta.
• Reading fascinating books just before bed.
• Eating, especially sweets and heavy foods, within two to three hours of bedtime.
• Drinking alcohol in the evening can disrupt sleep, including waking you up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep.
• Drinking caffeinated drinks in the evening. Some people need to from coffee after midday.
• Going to sleep late. The body works best with a bedtime before 10:00 pm.

Behaviors To Tame Your Monkey Mind and Facilitate Sleep

• Avoid any of the above behaviors.
• Exercise regularly during the day. Exercising just before bed can be too stimulating.
• Create a calm and comfortable environment where you sleep.
• Create a darker more peaceful atmosphere by turning off all of the lights (including night lights and LED lights) and closing the drapes.
• Drink warm milk or hot calming tea like German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) before bed.
• Take a warm bath and include aromatherapy or essential oils that induce relaxation and sleep.
• You don’t have a bathtub? Take a warm aromatic foot bath.
• Diffuse appropriate essential oils for relaxation and sleep.
• Stretch and relax your muscles, especially those where you tend to hold tension.
• Use an ambient noise generator or earplugs to dull or eliminate distracting noises.
• Establish a “winding down” routine that you initiate about one hour before going to sleep. This should include relaxation and taking your mind off your busy day, worries, etc. If an hour seems too long, start with 20 minutes and work up to an hour.
• Use relaxation-inducing breathing exercises such as taking slow deep regular breaths; comfortably extending the length of inhales and exhales and sending the breath to areas of the body that are tense or need attention (e.g., Starchaser Relax, Ground and Clear guided meditation).
• Listen to relaxation recordings or independently go through a relaxation exercise (e.g., Starchaser Taming the Monkey guided meditation).
• Visualize a relaxing environment by listening to guided imagery recordings or independently going through a visualization exercise (e.g., Starchaser Taming the Monkey guided meditation).
• Activate acupressure points related to relaxation as well as sleep quality and inducement.
• Adopt and derive the benefits of a regular meditation practice.

It’s worth noting that whatever you do to manage stress will ultimately lessen your mind chatter, address your overactive high beta brain, and tame your monkey mind.

Free Guided Meditation For Relaxation and a Good Night’s Sleep

The best-guided meditation for relaxation and inducing sleep should relieve stress, clear your overactive thinking mind, and lull you to sleep.

This Starchaser Taming the Monkey guided meditation offers three methods: 1) simple, gentle breath work; 2) progressive muscle tensioning for full body relaxation, and 3) visualization to reduce the mental clutter and create comfortable space and calm.

The meditation uses a slow, soothing voice to guide you through the steps that help you let go of your monkey mind and cultivate deep relaxation and sleep.

Try my free downloadable guided meditations. There is one specifically for Taming the Monkey.

Updated October 2, 2024