Many of us associate good sleep with comfortable beds, quiet rooms, and nighttime routines. But what about your mental and emotional health? For me, I can easily have all the ingredients for a comfortable bedroom, but if I am distracted, I won’t fall asleep.
Mental exercises, much like physical ones, can be used to stop and assess your sleep health. If your mind races when your head hits the pillow, or if stress lingers long after the day ends, your sleep may benefit from a few mental habits.
Practicing mental exercises can help calm your nervous system, reduce anxiety, and promote healthy sleep patterns.
Defining Mental Exercises
Mental exercises are techniques or thought-based practices that encourage relaxation, mental clarity, or emotional release before bedtime. Mental exercises train your brain to wind down and recognize that it’s time for rest. And just like a pre-sleep skincare routine, they can become part of your consistent nighttime ritual.
- Mindfulness meditation is focusing your awareness on the present without judgment.
- Gratitude journaling is about writing three to five things you’re thankful for daily.
- Breathwork uses controlled breathing to calm the mind and body.
- Visualization helps you mentally walk through a peaceful place or memory.
- Affirmations are positive statements like “It’s time to rest” to say outloud.
Mental Readiness
Mental exhaustion and overstimulation can negatively affect your sleep just like your physical health. Assessing your mental readiness for sleep each night can help you build better sleep habits.
Ask yourself these simple questions Calm suggests:
- Have I taken time to wind down mentally today?
- Am I feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or restless?
- Do I use screens, read stressful emails, or think through tomorrow’s to-do list at bedtime?
- Can I recognize when my mind is tired but overstimulated?
When you check in with your mental state, you can begin to notice patterns. Is looking at your work email on your phone creating stress? Are you feeling overwhelmed with your to-do list? Awareness is the first step toward change.
The Calm blog recommends turning your attention toward positive or neutral thoughts at night, using practices like gentle breathing and gratitude reflection to move away from rumination.
Create a Routine
Consistency is key to making any sleep strategy work. By integrating just one mental exercise into your evening, you can start to build a ritual that your body and mind associate with rest.
The Sleep Foundation suggests these routines don’t need to be complicated or long—just intentional. Five to ten minutes of mental calm can make a big difference.
Try combining physical and mental cues like:
- Dimming lights and playing soft music
- Drinking non-caffeinated tea while writing in a gratitude journal
- Practicing guided breathing while lying in bed
- Repeating a calming affirmation as you turn off the lights
The Mental Wind-Down
Here’s a simple, repeatable mental exercise to help you prepare for sleep. First, start with what you need to bring to the wind-down:
- 5 minutes of quiet
- A notebook or journal
- A comfortable place to sit or lie down
- Gentle background music
- Settle in. Turn off bright lights and remove distractions. Sit or lie down comfortably.
- Breathe. Inhale slowly for a count of four, hold for four, exhale for six. Repeat for one minute.
- Reflect. Write down three things you are grateful for today.
- Visualize. Close your eyes and imagine a peaceful place. Picture the sounds, smells, and sensations for 2-3 minutes.
- Affirm. Say to yourself, “I did enough today. It’s time to rest. I welcome peace.”
Repeat this nightly, adjusting as needed. Over time, this exercise can help retrain your brain to relax and feel safe at bedtime. For more mental exercise options, go online.
Start clearing your mind at bedtime to improve your sleep quality. If you follow these best practices from today’s blog, it will help you create routines that lead to sleep quality. Connect with the Alaska Sleep Clinic if you are still having issues falling and staying asleep after practicing your mental exercises. We are here to help.
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