Do you go to sleep easily? Sleep through the night? Wake up feeling rested? Sleep is a vital component of life. It directly affects our capacity to engage, enjoy and thrive on a daily basis. If your sleep is light, interrupted or you don't get enough of it you will find it very difficult to stay sharp, vital and creative when awake. Without adequate sleep you may suffer from fatigue, trouble concentrating and mood disturbance.
An article published in the medical journal The Lancet states that:
“People with insomnia are more than five times as likely to experience anxiety and depression, are at more than double the risk of developing congestive heart failure and diabetes, and have an elevated risk of death”
No small consequences here.
Years ago one of the most well-known researchers on sleep, Dr. William C. Dement, wrote a book "The promise of sleep" in which he provided scientific research showing the connection between sleep and longevity. And centuries before that, in one of the main treatises on Ayurvedic medicine called Charaka Samhita, we read:
“Happiness and misery, growth and wasting, strength and weakness, virility and sterility, knowledge and ignorance, life and death all depend upon sleep.”
Fall Asleep, Stay Asleep
Getting sufficient quality sleep every night will help you feel more awake, alive and ready during your daytime hours. Most of us know that. But "knowing" is not enough. So how can you get those precious recovery hours each night? By implementing the few recommendations below. For the most part they are simple. You may have heard them all already. But do you actually implement any of them? That is the key.
Develop a bedtime routine, for example:
• Avoid stimulating substances such as coffee, alcohol and even caffeinated teas after 5pm.
• Turn off all electronic devices at least one hour before bedtime.
• Meditate for 10 to 20mn to release mental stress.
• Give yourself a warm oil massage followed by a hot shower
• Sip on warm milk with 2 pinches of nutmeg and 1 pinch of cardamom
• Listen to soothing music and...
• Enjoy the calming scent of Sleep - A Bedtime Ritual in your bedroom.
• Once in bed, place your hands on your lower abdomen, take 10 slow deep breaths feeling your belly rise with each inhale and fall with each exhale.
Give this routine 7 to 10 days to begin working. As with all natural methods of healing, benefits build up overtime. Do you use another natural method to fall asleep and stay asleep? Go to the comment section below and share freely.
Sweet dreams for now,
Sylvie