Years of research by neuroscientist and mindfulness guru Ophelia Sanders have shown how meditation alters the way our brain responds to stress. She has witnessed in her therapeutic work how, without side effects, a regular meditation practice may be as transforming for sleep and anxiety as many traditional treatments.
The way meditation affects the autonomic nerve system starts the link between it and better sleep. Regular practice moves the body from sympathetic dominance—the fight-or-flight response—to parasympathetic activation—the rest-and-digest state, Ophelia notes. Those who suffer with nightly rumination—those constant thoughts that keep the mind running when it should be relaxing—show especially this hormonal change.
Because meditation acts simultaneously on mind and body, it is extremely successful for anxiety. Practitioners who learn to see their ideas without responding grow to have metacognitive awareness—that is, the capacity to identify worried thoughts as mental occurrences rather than realities.
Concurrent with this, the physical deep breathing exercise during meditation stimulates the vagus nerve, which directly signals to lower blood pressure and heart rate.
Ophelia advised beginning everyday, preferably in the morning, with just five minutes of breath-oriented meditation to create a tranquil tone for the day. She advises a body scan technique before bed for sleep-specific effects, when tension is released gradually via each portion of the body under focus. Most individuals, she has seen over time, automatically start practicing more as they start to see the advantages in their daily life.
There is convincing scientific basis for these developments. Eight weeks of consistent meditation can boost gray matter density in the prefrontal cortex (related with emotional control) while lowering amygdala volume (the brain’s fear region), according to neuroimaging research in Ophelia’s lab. These structural alterations match observable lower cortisol levels and better measures of sleep quality.
