Mind Mastery Classes Paid Off

I have briefly spoken about how I use meditation to help me wind down and fall asleep. I want to elaborate further with this article.

As I've mentioned before, I first learned meditation when I was 8 years old. During the summer, my mom signed my older sister and me up for what was called a "Mind Mastery" (meditation) class for beginners. My sister and I were the only kids in the class, and everyone else was either an adult or senior citizen.

Learning how to meditate as a kid

We first learned about quieting our minds. We were told that it is okay if thoughts pop into your head and not to be upset by that. Just clear your mind again and continue on. After doing that once more, we began to do meditation guided by our instructor for a couple of classes.

In grade 4, my teacher brought in the instructor to teach a "Mind Mastery" lesson for 1 day. I remember the instructor telling the class that when you have done this enough times, you can do it lying down. As I had done her summer class, I asked if I could lie down, and I was the only one allowed to. I felt a sense of pride.

Using meditation to help me fall asleep

When I started having issues falling asleep around age 10 or 11, I remembered that I could use meditation to help quiet my mind. I stayed lying in bed and began to meditate. I don't know how long that lasted before I ended up falling asleep, but I was very happy that I fell asleep faster than when not meditating.

I continued using meditation to help me fall asleep almost nightly. There were still times when sheer exhaustion would let me fall asleep without meditating. I think this ended up being something I used for a couple of years when I would have issues falling asleep, especially due to my restless legs syndrome (RLS) acting up. I don't fully remember now. Even though my legs ached and needed to move, meditation could help me focus enough to be able to fall asleep.

Adding meditation to my sleep routine

Last year, when I was sent to the sleep clinic, they told me I needed to follow a sleep routine. I needed to find something relaxing to do an hour before bed, and I decided for the last part of winding down, I was going to meditate. That way, I would have something to focus on when my RLS would start to do its nightly routine and hopefully avoid it interfering with my sleep routine.

My favorite meditations

I found a short guided meditation on YouTube from a channel with lots of followers and likes. I listened to it once and now just repeat it in my head when I am meditating.

A couple of months ago, when my RLS started to flare up and make falling asleep a challenge, I tried checking out a guided meditation app. It wasn't easy to use, so I ended up deleting it. I did one guided meditation that I really enjoyed, so I also do that one when my RLS is making it difficult to fall asleep.

Do you practice meditation? Does it help you manage sleep problems or RLS symptoms? Share with us in the comments below.