Hey, welcome to this sleep meditation.

In this session, we're going to explore

falling asleep with a sleep buddy.

Now I'll explain what this means

in a bit, but first you're going

to need to find your sleep buddy.

And this is just anything that you'd like

to hold on to, something that makes you

feel comfortable and safe, like a stuffed

animal, a pillow, or even a blanket.

So, if you want to pause this to

find a sleeping buddy, you can.

And just come back when you're ready.

So now that we have our sleeping buddy,

we're just going to start to get cozy.

So you can start to curl up

under the covers, feeling the

coolness, maybe of your pillow

and the warmth of being tucked in.

And then notice what it's like to

be holding your sleeping buddy.

Maybe pulling it into your

chest, snuggling with it.

Sleeping buddy is here

to help you feel safe.

Sleeping buddy is here

to help you feel calm.

And sleeping buddy is here

to help you fall asleep.

So in your own mind, you can just say,

thanks for being here, sleeping buddy.

I'm looking forward to

falling asleep with you.

And so the first thing sleeping

buddy is going to help you do

is just take some deep breaths.

So let's start by taking a deep

breath in through the nose.

Breathing in.

And slowly out through the mouth.

Good.

And let's do that again.

And this time, feel that sleeping

buddy is helping you breathe in.

Taking a really deep breath and then

helping you relax as you exhale.

Okay.

Breathing in through the nose.

And slowly out.

Letting yourself relax and melt

into the surface beneath you.

Let's take one more deep breath

like that with sleeping buddy.

Breathing in.

And letting it all out.

Good job.

You can now just let your breath

come back to its normal rhythm.

You don't need to try to

make it longer or deeper.

You're just breathing

normally with sleeping buddy.

Both of you getting a little

more comfortable with each other.

And we'll even pretend that sleeping

buddy needs to fall asleep as well.

So as you're breathing with

sleeping, buddy, imagine that your

calmness, your ease is helping

sleeping buddy, relax as well.

Because maybe sleeping buddy had a

really long day and had to go to work and

people needed things from sleeping buddy.

So we're just going to help

sleeping buddy relax as well.

In the same way sleeping

buddy is helping you relax.

So you're both just helping each other.

Breathing.

And relaxing.

And the next thing sleeping buddy

will do is to help you soften

and relax any tightness that you

might be noticing in your body.

So one of the magical superpowers of

sleeping buddy is that if you give

it some of your stress, some of your

tension, it can take that away and

turn it into calm and relaxation.

So notice if there's any

tightness in your face.

You know how sometimes we scrunch

our face throughout the day here.

Here, we're going to let

the face be really relaxed.

Relaxing your mouth and your jaw.

Relaxing the eyes, the

forehead, the cheeks.

And anytime you feel yourself

relaxing, imagine that tightness and

that tension just going to sleeping

buddy, and then sleeping buddy

transforming it into more relaxation,

more calmness and more sleepiness.

And you can notice anywhere

else in your body that you might

be feeling a little stressed.

Is there any part of you

that feels really energized?

Is there any part of you

that really wants to move?

And so all of that energy, just feel

like you're breathing it into sleeping

buddy and sleeping buddy smiles

when you send that energy to it.

And then it transforms it like

magic and turns all that energy into

sleepiness, relaxation, calmness.

So just take a few breaths like that.

Exhaling all of the

energy to sleeping buddy.

And each time you do, feeling

yourself relax even more.

Feeling more calm.

Starting to get even more sleepy.

Feeling yourself sinking

into the surface beneath you.

Your pillow, the soft mattress.

Feeling the warmth of your covers.

And feeling the coziness of

having sleeping buddy here.

Now, at times, you may notice that

your mind starts to think about things.

Maybe it thinks about something

that happened earlier today.

Something that was hard,

something that made you mad, or

something that made you scared.

Maybe the mind is thinking

about those things tomorrow.

And so sleeping buddy

can also help with this.

Anytime your mind thinks about

something, you just have to hold

sleeping, buddy a little closer and

sleeping buddy will help calm your mind.

You can even imagine sleeping

buddy saying, it's okay.

They're just thoughts.

They're not here to hurt you.

Right now, you're in bed.

There's nothing you need to

worry about and you're safe.

What do you think sleeping buddy

might say to you if it were

trying to help you be calm?

And if it were telling you

that everything were okay.

Just imagine that in your own mind.

Imagine sleeping buddy talking to you

in a really nice, loving, and calm way.

Sleeping buddy is like a good friend.

It just wants to help.

It just wants to let you

know that you're okay.

It's here to help you fall asleep.

So just continue taking some

breaths with sleeping buddy.

And it's helping you relax.

You're helping sleeping buddy relax.

And the great thing about sleeping

buddy is that they'll be here all night.

If you have any bad dreams, sleeping,

buddy will help you through that.

If you gets scared, sleeping

buddy will help you through that.

If you wake up in the night and need

to fall back asleep, sleeping buddy

is here, will help you through that.

So I'll let you and sleeping

buddy fall asleep now.

I wish you both sweet dreams.

Thanks for meditating with me.

And I'll talk to you soon.

Good night and take care.