Sleep Resources

As you've learned, or will learn, in the Sleep Easy method, there is a way you breathe when you are asleep, which has nothing to do with deep or abdominal breathing.

If you've ever heard someone breathing when they are sleeping (and not snoring), aside from that it might have bothered you that they're sleeping and you're not, you might have heard that when someone is asleep, the sound of their breath sounds like it's coming from deeper inside their body, not just the nose or mouth.

The Sleep Essence recording gives you an easy was to breathe how you breathe when you are asleep. Your mind and body recognize that breathing and it gently pulls you toward sleep. While Sleep Easy is effective without using an earplug, using even one earplug makes it easier to hear that quiet inner breath sound.

And using one earplug allows you to hear the Sleep Easy recordings.

If you are a parent, are on call, of have other reasons you need to be able to hear things in your environment, using even just one earplug will help you hear your quiet Inner Sleep Breath sound.

Using an earplug has a second major benefit: The feeling of inner safety makes sleep easier. This is explained in the Introduction and Making Sleep Easy daytime recordings. Having an earplug in gives you a feeling of being inside your body, protected and safe, away from the concerns in your life.

How does that happen? When your eyes are open, you're looking outside you. When you close your eyelids, your awareness is inside you. Well, our ears don't have earlids. Using even one earplug closes that ear to the outer world, which brings your awareness inside you, protected and safe.

When your mind is thinking it's like flying around outside you. When your awareness is inside you, resting in comfort in your chest and abdomen, your mind gets quiet because it's inside you resting, not outside you flying around.

So using an earplug helps your mind become quiet.

If you awaken too early, if you don't already have an earplug in, put one in because having the feeling of being inside yourself, protected and safe, makes it easier to fall back to sleep.

If you listen to the recording through earbuds, you can try one earbud for hearing the recording and put an earplug in the other ear to make your Inner Sleep Breath easier to hear. When you use the method without the recording, and if you don't have to be able to hear sound around you, try using two earplugs for an even deeper feeling of being inside yourself, protected and safe.

Using an earplug isn't necessary, but I do recommend you try it even a couple times to discover if you find it to be helpful.

The most comfortable specialized earplugs are Insta-Putty by Environmental Acoustic Research.

Instructions for Use of Specialized Earplugs

Open the box and you'll see two pieces.

Some earplugs are foam cylinders and they're uncomfortable. Some earplugs are hard silicone like wax and they're uncomfortable. The specialized earplugs you now have are soft silicone like putty. As they warm up from your body, they shape to your ear so are very comfortable.

Okay, here are the steps. In between each step, I'll pause a little to give you time with that step.

• Take out one of those pieces.


• Pull that piece in half and put the other half back in the box. You now have a half of one of those pieces in your hand, and the box has a complete piece and a half of a piece.


• Now with that half piece in your hand, pull off a little more to make it a bit smaller. Whatever small piece you just pulled off, put that back in the box. When you have four of those small pieces, you'll be able to roll them firmly together (to make sure there are no smaller pieces) and you have another earplug.


• With the piece remaining in your hand, roll that into a ball. Not a cylinder, but a ball. Pressing it firmly to make sure it is all pressed into one piece with no smaller pieces in it.


• If you have long hair, pull your hair back. Put that earplug ball in the opening of one ear. Use your finger to flatten that ball to make a pretty good seal. Don't push the earplug deep in your ear, just to plug the ear opening.


• If you have tinnitus, put the earplug into the ear that is quieter.


• If you need to make the earplug smaller, fine. Just not too small.

We encourage you to use one earplug regularly in the beginning, as it will help you sleep more easily and deeply.

If you awaken too early, if you don't already have an earplug in, put one in because having the feeling of being inside yourself, protected and safe, makes it easier to fall back to sleep.

Use your earplug until it's dirty. And in your plastic box you have putty for more earplugs.

Remembering that when you have a half of one of those large pieces in your hand, then you pull off a little bit, just to make it smaller. That means you'll end up with four of those tiny pieces in the earplug box. You can then roll those together to have another earplug. When you do, press and roll those four tiny pieces firmly together to make sure it's all one piece with no smaller pieces in it.