A Body Scan Meditation to Prepare Mind and Body for Sleep

If you’ve been having trouble falling asleep lately, this body scan meditation with Diana Winston offers a gentle, soothing way to be with the tension in our minds and our bodies. Take a deep breath, let go, and ease into rest.

Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of several books including The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness.

A quick note: Since this is a sleep meditation, you won’t be hearing a closing bell or statement like usual, but instead just a drifting off into silence.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.

Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup

Show Notes

Find more from Diana Winston here.

Go Deeper

Reconnecting with our body and its signals is a key part of being able to drop into full relaxation and rest. Here are two more articles that can help you increase body awareness:

• How to Befriend Your Body
• The Science of Embodiment: Connect to Your Body’s Wisdom

For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Letting Go of Stress and Falling Asleep

And more from Mindful here:

More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation

Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing [e-mail].