How to Manifest Deep, Restful Sleep Each Night

When we think of manifestation, we often think of the process of acquiring tangible items. Many people associate manifestation with efforts to acquire money, cars, homes, or opportunities to travel. Manifestation is simply the process of cultivating the desire and the feeling of what we want, and having it arrive for us. If what we desire most is a full night’s rest, why not manifest deep, restful sleep?

Growing up, the joke in my family was that we could sleep, sometimes 12-14 hours a night with no problem. It didn’t even have to be at night. I, myself, was always a night owl. I would stay up until 2 a.m, and then sleep until 2 or 4 p.m. the next day. I loved the quiet of the night. It was peaceful for reading, watching movies, or just enjoying a hot cup of peppermint tea to settle me. It was a magical time to relax and reflect, where no one wanted my time, and when I could recharge my energy.

Deep Sleep: Easier While You’re Young

In my younger years, I enjoyed those peaceful hours of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation of mind, body, and spirit. I looked forward to bedtime, where I would read a good book and relax after a full day of school, work, and family time. Bedtime was a time for ritual to end the day, and I looked forward to that deep, relaxing 8-10 hours of dreamy bliss. Dream time would find me as soon as my head hit the pillow.

And then, as we start families or take on caregiving for elder parents, we lose time in our 24-hour cycle, preventing us from having the time for the rituals of relaxation that often ensure the best sleep. We are exhausted, overwhelmed, overextended, and overstimulated.

When we do not feel safe and stable, we cannot relax. Our sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive in fight-or-flight trying to help us to get to safety. We can get stuck in a destructive pattern of not being able to relax enough to get deep, restful sleep.

Relationships and Their Impact on Sleep

Another factor impacting our lack of sleep is our relationships. Whether you have a partner or are single, whether you have supportive friends, or whether you have a loving family, relationships can weigh on us. Relationships are complicated and messy on any given day, and they are always in need of attention, especially in this age of constant communication, when our phones are going off around the clock. We are constantly distracted, keeping us from being able to take breaks of relaxation that promotes less stress and easier, more restful slumber every night.

As we get older, hormones become a factor in our sleep cycle. For women, estrogen and progesterone levels throughout perimenopause and menopause affect the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep for lengthy periods of time. And for men, growth hormones and decreased testosterone levels can keep them from sleeping well. As we age, our biology fights against us getting the much needed deep sleep of our youth. We struggle to get to sleep, we sleep less, and we don’t sleep as deeply as needed for the rejuvenation benefits of a full eight hours.

This was the point in my life when I dug deep and asked my guides: “How could I manifest a healthy sleep rhythm to get back into that slumber state easily and gracefully?”

How to Manifest Deep Sleep at Any Age

This will be a visualization, and if you struggle with visualizing, then you can use your imagination in whatever way is most natural to you.

As you lie in bed, imagine everything that's sitting on your shoulders, or in your heart, or cycling in your mind, every …

• responsibility

• person

• task

• fear

• trauma

• hope

• dream

• resentment

• abandonment

• could've, would've, should've

• worry

… all as little bubbles floating above you.

Visualize popping them one by one, feeling the weight of that bubble being released from your field of consciousness, helping you feel lighter.

Do this for as long as it takes for all your bubbles to be popped to let go of all that is weighing you down. Let go of the illusion of control.

Then, allow your body to relax, breathing deeply. Keep gently repeating the word relax in your mind until you release any remaining tension. Sleep will overcome you; the deep, restful sleep restored by all those thoughts that have been keeping you from achieving rejuvenating slumber.

As children we are made to sleep often: Regular naps, bedtimes, and routines all helped us reach deep sleep easily. Today, with all the demands of modern life, we need strategies and tools to help us manifest that peaceful bliss that is deep, restful sleep. Sleep well, my friends.

Shake up your evening routine and try this Norse mythology-inspired sleep hack.