A few days back , Yumi asked about sleep techniques and methods to improve Quality of sleep. I think it is a great topic to discuss as many of us suffer from disturbed or light sleep. My sleep used to be very light for last many years. I remember, as a kid I used to fall asleep within five minutes of lying down on my bed at night. I could clearly recall what used to happen in those five minutes. I used to feel that I am in a cradle and the cradle is swinging gently until there is darkness and I am sort of floating and I would be gone in five minutes. The next thing I recall after that used to be waking up fresh as ever, every morning. This continued for sometime till I was a teen or shortly before that. Then the five minute threshold started shooting up. It all started with my mind planning for the next day before sleeping. The planning used to be for studies or other activities at the school mostly. In the following years other things got added up, like a high school crush or something. The five minute period extended to almost fifteen or twenty minutes. Still, it was good, because it was like dreaming. Then the work pressure increased and some stresses of day to day life started building up during higher studies at college. The period shifted to half an hour to one hour. Daily routine also changed as sometimes I would wake up very early or sometimes study late. In recent years, my sleep cycle got totally disturbed, as I would normally be awake till midnight and then I used to have hard time sleeping until three in the morning. I would wake up only by nine or so in the morning and be a late worker as my schedule allowed so. Surprisingly, no matter how much you sleep after five in the morning, it does not make you feel better. It only adds to the pre-existing lethargy. Procrastination, cold weather, stress, bad phases and eating pattern all added up to this sleep cycle. I used to snack around one or two in the morning. My body weight started shooting up for no apparent reason. I tried warm milk, hot water bath, reading a boring book, not watching TV, eating dinner before seven at night, going to bed by nine or so. Nothing seemed to work. I usually would come back to the same old pattern after a day or two of a revolutionary routine. I had learnt yoga, meditation and breathing techniques from different wonderful courses that "The Art of Living" provides. They teach a specific breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya that helps you release negative emotions, stress and tensions etc. They have Art of Living Part I course which is offered throughout the world ( www.artofliving.org). Anyone can take this basic course followed by other advanced courses. Home practice exercises are given to do everyday. Every place has a center that does follow ups once every week in a group. I learnt all that but was not regular in my home practices. Although, these helped me in stress management and helped at many other emotional and spiritual levels. My health became very good and there were many good effects that could be called as byproducts of spiritual growth. Since I wasn't regular in my home practices, I took advanced course last year where one follows some of the meditations and pranayama (breathing techniques) observing total silence for five to seven days. During this time you eat less and eat vegetarian Sattvic food. After I took this course, during the first day I slept like a baby again. I woke up very fresh after fifteen years of not so good or very light and recent two years of totally disturbed sleep. I was feeling so relaxed and the only two time points I could remember were sleeping and waking up. There was a total blank sleep period. I resolved to do the following and it has helped me immensely in sleeping very well. I am almost a five year old in that sense now and I hope reading and following it might be able to solve your sleep problems:
1. Maintain a waking up time : Even when I sleep at midnight I am out of bed by 5.30 AM at the max. To not fall asleep again, I go to the gym by 6.00 AM (it can be a walk, jogging or physical exercise). I drink around a litre of water in this period. I come back at 7.00 AM from the gym and do my yoga, pranayama and meditation for almost one and a half or two hours.
2. Breakfast: Right after my practices I eat a healthy breakfast. I think it keeps me active throughout the day. It consists of a berry smoothie or shake with whole wheat bread/ pancakes/cereal and nuts.
3. My job used to be with computers for some years. Such jobs are bad for you. If you work with computers, take short breaks from time to time and move the gym period to the evening instead. Drink lots of water. Now I work standing and also sitting. I try to balance it. All those jobs that need good attention, reading or planning, calculating etc, I do them in the morning till afternoon and then after a lunch mainly of protein containing food items, I do those works that require less mind activity.
4. I eat dinner between six to seven and go to bed by ten or eleven. Sometimes it also becomes midnight but I know that waking up at the same time even when you sleep at different times helps to form a habit.
5. Avoid watching TV, browsing on internet, using computer or heavy mental activity after eight at night.
6. Heating in your apartment is also another factor that is generally ignored. Sometimes, too much of heating disturbs sleep.
7. Watch what you eat: If you are eating heavy, spicy,hot and/or late dinner, you are in for sleeptime fun.
Sleep Well!
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