transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:11] Hi, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for being here, for listening, spreading the word, spreading the vibe. I'm so grateful for you all. I'm not gonna do any shout outs or anything tonight because this episode is about falling asleep quickly. So let's get to it. Tonight, fall asleep quickly and easily. But before we get started, I want to amend this title a bit. Because as soon as we think about falling asleep quickly, we create an expectation that produces pressure, and that's the opposite of sleep inducing. Whenever I feel pressure to sleep, guess what? I can't sleep. The pressure itself makes me secrete stress hormones, which work against my goal. Because we can't force sleep. But we can get around this conundrum and still achieve our sneaky goal. Because the benefits of sleep aren't so much about how quickly we get into it, but about how deeply you get into it. Depth is the key to quality. And by relaxing deeply, sleep comes more quickly, more easily. So let's reframe this thought. You clicked on something that said fall asleep quickly, but you've actually landed in the place of fall asleep deeply. Hmm, that feels better. Falling deeply is easy. Falling deeply is natural. That's just gravity, dude. So tonight we're going to relax deeper and deeper and deeper. And lucky for us, relaxation lives right next door to sleep. Before we begin, our only ad break, which makes this magic possible. To listen ad free, follow the link in the show notes.

Speaker 2:
[02:46] So you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a free night's stay anywhere? Anywhere. What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris? Yeah, Hilton Honors, baby. Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad and Tulum?

Speaker 1:
[03:00] Hilton Honors, baby.

Speaker 2:
[03:02] What about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives? Are you gonna do this for all 9,000 properties? When you want points that can take you anywhere, anytime, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Book your spring break now. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, an original and cherry vanilla. That Pepsi taste you love, with just 30 calories and no artificial sweeteners. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola. Unbelievably Pepsi. K-Pop Demon Hunters, Saja Boys Breakfast Meal and Huntrix Meal have just dropped at McDonald's.

Speaker 1:
[03:36] They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi?

Speaker 2:
[03:40] It's not a battle. So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day. It is an honor to share.

Speaker 1:
[03:47] No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor. No, really, stop. You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side.

Speaker 2:
[04:00] I participate in McDonald's while supplies last.

Speaker 1:
[04:02] Hi, everyone. I hear from you guys all the time about those nights where your thoughts just won't switch off, no matter how tired you are. It's exactly what we work on together here with Sleep Magic, and it's also the idea behind another podcast called Nothing Much Happens, hosted by Katherine Nicolai. Her show, like ours, is all about calming your nervous system with gentle storytelling. Nothing stressful, nothing dramatic, nothing you need to keep track of, just soft narration and repetition to help you drift into rest. Millions of people around the world listen to Nothing Much Happens, to quiet their minds before bed. I recently checked out an episode called From the Hammock, on one of those nights where my thoughts wouldn't quit, and it really relaxed me. So if you'd like another tool in your bedtime kit, it could be worth adding this to your listening routine. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens, wherever you get your podcasts, episodes every Monday and Thursday. Enjoy. Now, get yourself into a safe and comfortable position, and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. I generally take a nice deep breath. After saying that, maybe you do too. Now, bring your awareness consciously to your breath. You don't have to do anything with your breath. I just want to invite your awareness to the breath. Invite your awareness back home. Your awareness has been out doing stuff all day. The awareness is a very active little monkey. And it doesn't like to hang out for too long anywhere. So we're just inviting it back to the breath just for a second. As you invite the awareness. Now, please bring your awareness up into your eyelids. Imagine now that your eyes are feeling very sleepy, heavy, like you've been up late reading a book and you just can't keep them open anymore. Good. Now, really allow this heaviness to take over your eyes. Just imagine it and it becomes heavier. Now, I'd like you to accept the suggestion that your eyelids are so heavy, they won't open. Now, if you're new to Sleep Magic, understand that this is just a silly suggestion, and I'm asking you to pretend that you cannot open your eyes. So accepting the suggestion that your eyelids are so heavy, you cannot open them. I want you to wiggle your eyebrows just for a moment, give them a little tug while your eyes remain closed. And yes, you're faking this, but that's okay. Pretending brings us to a whole different part of our minds, and that's where we want to hang out tonight. So, wiggle your eyebrows. Good. Now, you can stop. And now imagine this heaviness moving up from your eyelids into your forehead, taking over your forehead, spilling back and up into your scalp, your scalp softening, and your head feeling nice and heavy on the pillow. And now, the heaviness around your eyes and in your eyelids is spilling back directly into your brain. Just imagine your brain soaking in this lovely, warm, heavy relaxation as all mental tension disappears. All of the responsibilities you carry on those shoulders have fallen to the floor. Responsibilities you feel to your family, to your work, to your friends. The responsibilities you feel to your community and to the world at large. The responsibilities you feel to the future. They've fallen to the floor, and you are free of them tonight. And you will pick some of them or all of them up in the morning. But this is your time to restore yourself, to be restored by nature. So you can be a better you tomorrow. Everyone gets this time. Restoration. It's built into your DNA. And build into the rhythms of nature. So you are receiving it. This lovely nourishing restoration. And your fingers, your hands may tingle a little. Let's move it down, down your back, the muscles of your back becoming soft, supple, and relaxed. Like they're on vacation. And now this lovely heavy feeling that began up around your eyes is moving down inside your torso as a mist, a softer warm mist. Moving inside your chest, imagine this mist, a lavender mist, circulating around your heart and your lungs, filling your chest cavity with this lovely, soft. And imagine you're holding your own heart. Like your hands are made of mist, and you hold. In the last little while. So it's nice to just hold it. Sleep is disappearing into the mist. And evaporate. Because you're just here now. As you go deeper and deeper, and that lovely warm relaxation is rolling down your legs. And all the sounds going on around you. Any sounds happening in your environment. They're taking you deeper and even deeper into relaxation. Just as the sound of my voice. It's taking you deeper. Imagine now that you are standing at the top of a beautiful staircase. It is wide and sturdy and has ten steps. The stairs are carpeted in a thick, soft runner, and it feels plush beneath your bare feet. You reach out and touch the banister. It feels cool and smooth beneath your fingertips. And with every step you take, you will bring yourself deeper and deeper into relaxation. You take the first step. Your body is softening even more. Shoulders dropping. Nine, you take the next step down, the air feeling warmer, calmer. Your breath, dropping even deeper into your body, feels so nice, so relaxed. Your legs are feeling heavier now. Pleasantly heavy. As you go deeper. As your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing. And as your mind is relaxing, your body is relaxing. Five. Halfway down. Your thoughts are drifting further apart. Your mind is feeling spacious. Relaxation inviting you. You feel yourself dropping even deeper, turning inward. You are at the bottom of the staircase, and a door opens into a beautiful, luxurious bathroom. There are small clusters of candles placed all around the room. This is your private sanctuary where you are restored. Step forward and feel the smooth polish stone beneath your feet. You smell the subtle fragrances of lavender and vanilla. The steam is rising from the water, the slow silky ribbons curling upward into the air. The surface of the water appears perfectly still until you get a little closer and you detect the faintest movement of fragrant oils drifting across the top of it. You start getting undressed as you go deeper and deeper releasing the day with every garment. As you release all the roles you play in this world. Fingertips in the water, and it's the perfect temperature for you tonight. One foot and then the other. As the warm water envelops your feet and your calves. Your hips settle beneath the surface, and as you go deeper, your belly, your chest, your shoulders, and now you are immersed in the water, held by the water. And the warmth is moving into your muscles, softening them, melting them. Your arms are floating lightly at your sides. Your fingers drifting through the water. You watch the tiny ripples expanding outward from every movement. You relax your neck, lean back and close your eyes. You smell the fragrances rising around you. Warm vanilla. And you feel the steam kissing your face. Your eyes grow heavier. Your whole body is dissolving into warmth. We're slowing down. Drifting. Like steam in the candlelight. As you sink into the bath. You are sinking into rest. How you carry that same delicious heaviness, this lovely warm. Sleep with you into bed, and you are aware of the bed beneath you. You feel the mattress, the sheets. Supporting every part of you. And just for a moment, you allow your awareness to rise just slightly, as though floating gently up toward the surface. Just enough to notice your breath, the room around you, the feeling of being here. And to your body. And to rest. And now again, allow your awareness to rise slightly. A light floating sensation. One final time, your awareness rises just a bit, barely at all like the crest of a wave, and then settling down again, twice as deep as you were before, your body is sinking into the mattress, every muscle, loose and limp, your breath, deep in your belly. As you go deep. Yes, you are.