Developed by a Licensed Psychologist, this five-day sleep challenge is designed to provide you with several meditations, resources, and wind-down stretching routines to help improve the quality and quantity of your sleep.
I know from personal and professional experience that a lack of sleep can lead people to throw any and every solution at the problem. Because it impacts our full being and sense of self, we become desperate to solve our sleep struggles. This program is designed to provide you with tools backed by science to help you sleep. If you experience insomnia or other sleep-related medical conditions, also be sure to reach out for medical and/or mental health treatment.
In this program, you will engage in meditation each day, with related articles throughout to help improve your sleep. Ideally, you will work on implementing positive sleep habits while also practicing mindfulness meditation. I've also added some optional stretching and yoga practices on days 1, 3, and 5, because we know that daily movement and relaxation are critical to a good night's sleep. Hopefully, with this challenge, you will find the right combination of behaviors, environmental conditions, and practices that best support your sleep.
The guided meditations range from 7–16 minutes and the readings are estimated at 7–10 minutes each, totaling 15–25 minutes per day. Of course, adding the optional stretching/yoga will increase that time, but is highly recommended if you have the time. Most of the meditations are designed to be practiced at bedtime, but day 4 is a mindful wake-up routine designed to be practiced first thing in the morning. So, be sure to plan ahead so you have that ready to go on the morning of day 4. The articles can be read at any time of day.
Another important call-out for this program is that I put an optional “Soothing Meditation to Get Back to Sleep” on each day. This is so that you have it handy on your calendar each night if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get back to sleep.
This is an exciting challenge because you can do it over and over again — even back to back if you would like — and as many times as you would like. One suggested way to use the program is to make a list of all the things you want to change about your sleep hygiene. Choose one task for each week to implement in order to give yourself ample time to see if it makes a difference. So, for example, if you have a list of 6 strategies you want to try out, then do this program 6 times (either in a row or as you have time), implementing each strategy one at a time.
Be sure to pay attention daily and weekly (if you repeat it) to how this challenge impacts your sleep. Each day, reflect on how the guided practice impacted your sleep for the previous night. At the end of the week, reflect on the strategy you implemented and how the series of practices impacted your sleep and overall well-being in sum. This is intended to serve as a check-in or assessment so you can track your progress.
How to get the most out of this program
Plan ahead: People often either have a very strict bedtime routine or don’t have any routine at all. Either way, it can be hard to fit in 15 minutes of meditation into our nights. Therefore, make sure you plan ahead so you are able to carve out time to follow along. This might mean going to bed 15 minutes early so you aren’t cutting short the amount of sleep you get in the night.
Make a commitment: Commit to this program fully. Often, the most rewarding things we do are challenging and make us want to stop. However, sometimes that is a sign we need to lean in and be more open to the experience. At only a week long, there is little risk if you complete the whole thing and still don’t find it helpful for you. However, my guess is by the end of this, you will find it rewarding! A commitment at the beginning means you will make the time to get it done at some point, while giving yourself grace if you need to delay a day or two.
Stay open-minded: A lot of times when it comes to sleep, it is easy to brush something off as not being helpful for us without even trying it. However, without trying it, there is no way to know whether or not it will work for us. Try to stay open to many options and, if something doesn’t work, that’s okay! Try something else. The strategies presented here are low-stakes but have a potentially high reward.
As always, be sure to share any thoughts, progress, or questions you have with the community as you engage in this program.
Sleep well!
Haley, Licensed Psychologist