Meditation can help you calm your mind and body when you’re experiencing a moment of severe anxiety, or help you feel more centered if you’re having a crummy day. But did you know that the mindfulness practice also has benefits when it comes to your sleep?
Sleepopolis has covered the benefits of meditation for your sleep before, and there are many techniques out there that are designed to help you meditate yourself to sleep. These methods usually involve deep breathing, and doing your best to check in with the sensations that your body is experiencing as you fall asleep. You might’ve heard of the 4-7-8 method, or maybe even body scanning.
However, an influencer, Emily Kessler (@emilymeditates) recently shared her unique meditation hack for falling asleep. In the video, which has amassed 1.9 million views and 155k likes on TikTok, Emily breaks down her hack, which she says “sounds like it makes no sense, but it’s helped [Emily] and literally everybody else [she’s] ever told it to.” (1)
Read on to learn more about Emily’s meditation hack, and whether or not this hack really works.
What Is This Influencer’s Nighttime Meditation Hack?
In the video, Emily describes her mediation hack as imaging yourself walking through a house. Before getting started with your visualization practice, Emily says that you’ll want to take a couple of deep breaths before beginning this practice, just to get your mind and body in the right headspace.
Then, it’s time to visualize the house. Emily clarifies that you shouldn’t visualize your own house, but instead a house “that you know really well.” For example, Emily shares that she uses her grandmother’s house when she uses this meditation technique. (1)
According to Emily, the next thing you’ll do is “basically visualize yourself walking up to the house, noticing all the details about the outside, going up to the door, opening the door, walking in, seeing the layout, and then slowly going through each room.” While you walk through each room in your mind, Emily notes that you’ll want to notice things in the room with as much detail as you can manage. (1)
She notes that “there is something about this that distracts your thinking busy mind enough to let you fall into sleep.” (1)
Emily then shares how the hack works for her when she’s using it to fall asleep at night, sharing that she’s never even made it upstairs in her grandmother’s house when using this visualization technique to fall asleep at night.
Does This Meditation Hack Really Work?
Dr. Seema Khosla, spokesperson for the AASM and medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep told Sleepopolis that “It’s not terrible advice – it’s a form of distraction technique with visualization. The idea is to draw your focus on something inconsequential and away from the racing thoughts in your mind.” (2)
Dr. Kholsa elaborates that “There was some data a few years ago that found that images, like the house, were better than counting sheep (images over numbers). Many people go to their happy place — mountains, a beach, a cabin in the woods, etc. The idea is to marry those happy/relaxing/peaceful thoughts with your bedroom so that you associate going to bed with something that allows you to fall asleep.” (2)
Long story short — while there haven’t been any official studies on the validity of this technique, if it works for you there’s no harm in using it to sleep easier.
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Sources
- Kessler, Emily. August 1, 2024. https://www.tiktok.com/@emilymeditates/video/7398288945273965866?lang=en
- Kholsa, Seema. Personal Interview. November 4, 2024.
