Step aside Military Sleep Method, there’s a new mediation technique I rely on to fall asleep fast and sleep through the night: forest bathing. An ancient Japanese mindfulness practice, forest bathing involves unwinding by immersing yourself in nature.
If it sounds difficult, it really isn’t. In fact, I fell into forest bathing entirely by accident. One minute I was walking home through the woods after dropping my kids to school, the next I was following the sound of a woodpecker as it made its way through the green forest canopy.
I began to notice that on the days when I had these slow ambles through the woods, rooting myself in the surrounding nature, my stress levels dropped and my sleep that night was deep and undisturbed.
Below, experts help explain what forest bathing is and how it can benefit sleep as it is mine.
