--- title: How Mindfulness Meditation Can Improve Your Sleep description: A new study suggests that mindfulness meditation could help people complaining about poor sleep getter a better night's rest. canonical: https://time.com/3709717/mindful-meditation-sleep/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-16T16:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:19.591Z article:section: Health og:title: How Mindfulness Meditation Can Improve Your Sleep og:description: A new study suggests that mindfulness meditation could help people complaining about poor sleep getter a better night's rest. og:url: https://time.com/3709717/mindful-meditation-sleep/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97128e37aacbbd12/69877f52428a9e397dcc7253/482143783-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5127 og:image:height: 2884 og:image:alt: 482143783 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Mindfulness Meditation Can Improve Your Sleep twitter:description: A new study suggests that mindfulness meditation could help people complaining about poor sleep getter a better night's rest. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97128e37aacbbd12/69877f52428a9e397dcc7253/482143783-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is The Easiest Way to Get Better Sleep > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=62bcb2ec-a637-4add-aeac-6574a6a58fe4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Sleepiest City In The World Is … [Watch (HLS stream): The Sleepiest City In The World Is …](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o6MWvmzM.m3u8) (1:26)  _Published 2014-08-19. Jawbone, the make of smart fitness wristband UP, tracked its users’ sleep habits and steps to figure out which major city gets the most and least Z’s in the world._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 16, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  Hispanic woman meditating in lotus position near lit candles Hispanic woman meditating in lotus position near lit candles Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 16, 2015 4:00 PM UTC Half of people over age 55 [have a sleep problem](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2842167/), but a [new study](http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081%20) suggests meditating can improve sleep in those who can’t seem to get enough. In the study, published in the journal _JAMA Internal Medicine_, researchers looked at 49 men and women around age 66 who were experiencing poor sleep but didn’t have a diagnosed sleep disorder. About half of them enrolled in a standard sleep hygiene education program, and the other half learned mindful awareness practices. For six weeks, the mindful group spent two hours a week learning a variety of mindfulness and meditation practices, including mindful sitting, eating, movement and meditation. They were asked to practice what they learned at home—but throughout the program, the group never discussed sleep. “A lot of individuals who are undergoing sleep problems don’t want to talk about their sleep anymore. It just further exacerbates their issue,” says study author David S. Black of the University of Southern California. “I wanted to look at a program where you wouldn’t have to talk about sleep and it would indirectly remediate some of those problems that go along with sleep, like worrying about it.” At the end of the sessions, the researchers measured everyone’s sleep quality and found that the people learning mindfulness scored higher in better sleep than the other group. They also had improvement in areas like depression, insomnia symptoms and fatigue. The two groups had similar results for anxiety and stress. The researchers speculate that mindfulness meditation improves nervous system and cognitive system processes that relate to arousal and stress. “Before going to bed, people who can’t sleep worry a lot, and they start ruminating about not being able to sleep,” says Black. “Through mindfulness practice, people learn how to observe thoughts without having to elaborate. It allows people be present without further interpretation of their symptoms.” Another possibility is that by curbing mood disturbances, meditation can lessen anxiety and let people relax more. Mindfulness might also simply make people think they’re getting higher quality sleep. The findings are still preliminary, and while they’re not yet robust enough to make clinical recommendations, Black says he envisions mindfulness as a simple, inexpensive intervention for people who don’t have serious sleep problems, like those enrolled in the study. “This trial was intended for the majority of older adults who face sleep problems but do not have a clinical diagnosis of insomnia,” he says. “It opens it up to a broader audience.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Get some coffee quick. We're about to either make you very jealous of the best rested cities in the world, or feel very bad for Tokyo. Guess that pretty well gives it away that Tokyo residents don't seem to shut it down. Sleeping less than people in any other major city on earth at an average of just. Five hours 44 minutes a day. The Wall Street Journal published a list of the cities that get the most and least zzz through a one year dataset provided by Jawbone. Jawbone is the maker of Up, a smart fitness wristband that tracks whether you're awake or asleep and how many steps you take in a given day. The city with the most sleep, try to control your envy for Melbourne, Australia. The city's residents logged an average of six hours, 58 minutes of sleep at night, a pretty significant hour and 14 minutes longer than their exhausted neighbors to the north in Tokyo. Wake up, Prime Minister. Other notable cities to make the list, Brisbane was voted the earliest to bed and to rise. Calling it quits at 10: 57 p. m. and waking up just before 6: 30 a. m. Moscow stays up and sleeps in, the latest. 12: 46 p. m. for average bed time and they don't get up until 8: 08 a. m. Nice wake up time. In a word, duh! And as for the city that never sleeps. Sleeps, well, apparently you do, New York. 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