Studies show that guided imagery is helpful for sleep and specifically for sleep quality.
It has also been proven to reduce anxiety and is clinically recommended in NHS Insomnia Services.
Guided imagery is relaxation technique that is a way of imagining yourself in a place that brings you happiness.
The most effective way of practising guided imagery for sleep is to create your own destination in your mind, a place that’s personal and unique to you, somewhere that has very happy and peaceful associations for you e.g. your favourite holiday spot, your favourite beach as a child etc. You can let your imagination run riot and get as creative as you like. The place doesn’t have to be real e.g. if you like astronomy, you can imagine your favourite galaxy. The more personalised is, the easier it is to engage with this technique and the more effective it is.
We encourage you to cycle through your five senses as you practise this i.e. what can I see, what can I hear, what can I smell, what can I touch, what can I taste. By doing this, it will help transport you to that place, and provide competition for any racing thoughts or worries going through your mind at night.
In preparation, we ask you to think of a menu of 5 different places that really are happy for you. We suggest a few places rather than just one so that you don’t get bored by visiting the same place each time.
This technique can be helpful when in bed and wishing to fall asleep or to fall back asleep after waking during the night.
It’s very likely that your mind will wander during it. If this happens, don’t beat yourself up, just gently leave that thought alone and come back and join us on the guided practice.
The link here contains a library of guided audios that The Sleep Sphere has designed and created to help you - these can be used as templates to help familiarise yourself with this practice or to help you if you become stuck when trying to imagine your own personal place.
Note: If you feel you have chronic insomnia (i.e. difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep for 30 minutes or more, on 3 or more nights a week, for 3 months or longer, with daytime symptoms) then this technique alone is unlikely to resolve your difficulty. The structured programme of techniques known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia is the gold standard treatment scientifically proven to help people overcome chronic insomnia.
The article was written by Michelle Ni Raghallaigh
https://www.salus-wellness.com/…/michelle-ni-raghallaigh/
Image credit: Adrian Pelletier on Unsplash
