By David Hennessy, Clinical Psychologist, Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast, QLD
Audio Player
This guided relaxation invites you to let the day settle, soften physical tension, and allow your attention to narrow gently toward rest. The pace is slow and steady. You are encouraged to notice your breathing, relax different parts of the body, and allow thoughts to come and go without needing to solve them.
The recording uses calm, repetitive cues consistent with CBT-I informed sleep support. The aim is not to force sleep, but to create conditions that make sleep more likely by reducing physical arousal, stepping back from mental effort, and returning attention to a simple, restful focus.
If you are still awake at the end, that is okay. The practice can still be useful as a period of quiet rest. With repetition, many people find that this kind of settling routine becomes a helpful cue for winding down at night.
This recording is provided for educational and general wellbeing purposes. It is not a substitute for personalised psychological assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. It may be a helpful adjunct for people working on sleep difficulties, particularly as part of a broader CBT-I informed approach, but it is not intended to replace individual clinical care.
Please use this audio only when it is safe to do so. Do not listen while driving, operating machinery, or in any situation where you need to remain fully alert. If you have severe insomnia, trauma-related symptoms, panic symptoms at night, untreated sleep apnoea, seizures, or any other health concern that may affect your sleep or safety, consider obtaining individual advice from an appropriately qualified health professional.
This guided relaxation is designed to support settling and winding down. It does not aim to make sleep happen by force. In CBT-I informed work, the general principle is to reduce effortful striving around sleep and instead create calm, consistent conditions that support sleep opportunity.