This is a breathing meditation to help calm and soothe your mind for deep and restful sleep. There's a gentle wind down followed by a variation on box breathing – where we'll hold the breath at the top and bottom of the breath. In traditional box breathing we breathe in for the count of 4 hold for 4, exhale for 4 and then hold the breath for 4. In this meditation I encourage you inhale, exhale and hold for as little or as long as feels natural and comfortable for you today. Some days you might feel a short pause feels more comfortable, other days you might find you need a longer pause to calm an especially active mind.

If you're experienced and familiar with breath retention you can hold the breaths for a count of 30 or more, which is especially helpful if you struggle with insomnia. Breath holds of 30 seconds release nitric oxide into the bloodstream, which dilates the blood vessels and can help with falling asleep. Low nitric oxide levels are often correlated with insomnia. Make sure you're not effortfully straining, only hold in a way that feels comfortable and relaxed and if you're not used to holding your breath start with a count of 4 and build up gradually to longer breath holds over a few weeks.

We'll follow the controlled breathing with a full body relaxation to help you soften into a really restoring sleep.

The guided meditation is 25 minutes and then there's 25 minutes of music with no talking to give you some still space to end your day in Peace :)

Insight Timer
You can listen to this meditation on Insight Timer:
https://insig.ht/jB26019fnDb?utm_sour...
Aura
You can also listen to Caroline’s meditations on the Aura Health app:
https://www.aurahealth.io/coaches/car...
For a 30 Day Free Guest Pass for Aura use this link:
https://www.aurahealth.io/guestpass/c...

Download…
You can download this meditation on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/soothe...

Music Only….
You can listen to the music without any talking on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/posts/musico...

Voice Only Version...
https://www.patreon.com/posts/nomusi...

Patreon also gives you access to completely ad free content, exclusive music only videos, vocal only videos and downloads for offline listening, as well as helping to support the channel.
  / carolinemccready  


More Sleep Meditations on YouTube
These are some more sleep meditations you might enjoy:
Dissolve into Sleep:    • Dissolve into Sleep | Breathing Medit...  
Whole Body Breathing for Sleep:    • Whole Body Breathing for Restoring Sleep  
Body Scan with Singing Bowls:    • Body Scan with Soothing Singing Bowls...  
2 hr Peaceful Deep Sleep Meditation:    • 2 hr Peaceful Deep Sleep Meditation f...  
Ocean Breathing for Sleep:    • Deep Relaxation for Sleep | 'Ocean Br...  
Bone Deep Sleep:    • FullBody Relaxation and Guided Breat...  


Thank you…
Thank you so much for watching. Comments and feedback are so welcome so please get in touch in the comments.

https://www.carolinemccready.com
Copyright 2023present, all rights reserved (it is illegal to copy or use any part of the audio from this video)
Original music by Caroline McCready
Video licensed by iStock

Timestamps…
00:00 Introduction
02:14 Wind Down
07:30 Belly Breathing
10:50 Box Breathing
15:35 Relaxation
26:36 Music Only

There are lots more meditations on the channel so be sure to check out the homepage to find more videos to help support your meditation practice:    / @carolinemccready  
Wishing you deep rest and restoring sleep!