The benefits of meditating in bed are many and have a positive impact on physical health, emotional state and psychological balance. Among the many benefits of meditating, we highlight the following:

• Reduces stress levels associated with life in western societies.
• Provides an optimal and peaceful night’s rest : the body rests for the necessary time and returns to active duty recovered. This period of time varies from person to person depending on factors such as age, routine or diet, among others.
• Allows you to regain vital strength , motivation and joy.
• Contributes to restoring physical health .
• Rebalances the psychic and emotional states.

How to meditate in bed? Before going to bed and starting the meditation, it is important that you have completed the following steps:

• Put all your affairs in order for the next day.
• Go to the bathroom and drink water before starting, if you usually do before going to bed.
• Set aside a classical music score of half an hour or more to accompany you during the meditation. We recommend some by Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Tchaikovsky etc.
• Wear comfortable clothes and cover up so you don’t get cold or hot. As you enter a state of relaxation, your body temperature drops and you may feel a little chilly.
• Prevent any possible interruption : try to deal in advance with any matter that may interrupt the meditation and, with it, its positive effects.

Once it starts, turn on your chosen piece of music at a soft volume and lie down on your bed. Look for a posture in which you feel comfortable , not for sleeping, but for starting meditation. The most recommended postures for meditating lying down are:

• Prop yourself up on the pillow , with your whole body stretched out and your hands on your abdomen, or your arms stretched along your body.
• Take your head off the pillow , or place a small pillow behind your head and bend your knees. The arms must be stretched along the body or with the hands on the abdomen.
• Sitting on top of the bed : sit with your spine straight on top of the bed and with your legs crossed. If you’re just starting out, we recommend using the wall and a pillow to support your spine, so you support your spine and get used to the position.

Mindful breathing is key to meditating in bed. The purpose of this step is for you to become aware of your breathing and take it in a deep and slow way. A good way to put it into practice is to inhale through your nose counting to 4 and exhale through your mouth in 8 counts .

If you want to meditate before going to sleep, you should take between 10 and 15 deep breaths, being aware of doing them correctly. After these initial breaths, continue meditating without giving up this type of breathing.

This step is important because we are not usually aware of how we breathe, so it is likely that in the first few days of meditation you will lose the conscious rhythm of your breathing. If this happens, you should return to conscious breathing and, little by little, with daily practice, you will be able to incorporate it as the basis of your night meditation.

Meditating lying down without respecting conscious breathing does not provide the same benefits, which is why it is important that this habit is incorporated when you meditate.

When you are already breathing consciously, you can add to the process some small visualization that will help you to get closer to the internal spiritual states that you want to reach, be it inner peace , joy, vital force, union with others, cleaning of internal impurities, etc.

On the one hand, visualization consists of internally creating a mental image that helps you achieve the internal state you desire. For example, bright images of natural landscapes bring peace, quiet and inner joy. That way, you can preview those images.

Viewing these images provides a state of balance and inner well-being. Repeated use of visualization during meditation will allow you to resort to it in your daily life when you need to regain lost peace or strength.

On the other hand, verbalization refers to the use of certain words or phrases that, in the same way as visualization, will help you reach or approach the desired states. In this case, we recommend that you use words like peace, quiet, calm, joy, cordial union, love, purity, goodness, etc. In turn, the following phrases will also bring you closer to states of calm and happiness:

• I remain calm.
• I am a child of light.
• I am one with my neighbors.
• I’m not alone.
• My soul is light, strength and joy.

After the visualization or verbalization practice, you should resume conscious breathing , and after 10 or 15 breaths, give yourself up to a nice quiet rest.

Another option would be, instead of performing a visualization or verbalization, to do a progressive relaxation and go through the whole body mentally, observing how, with breathing, each part of your body relaxes. After this progressive relaxation, do the same 10 or 15 conscious breaths and end the meditation lying down with the intention of initiating the dream.

Above all, it is recommended that you try to end the meditation lying down completely. If this is difficult for you, you can shorten the practice and end it before you have completely rested. You can leave the music playing to accompany you while you sleep. In this text, discover how music influences us.