Because many of my students have concerns with their sleep and it being too short, too restless, heavy and have difficulty falling asleep with them being slow to wake up and do so during the night, I thought that a small article about it would not hurt. Sleeping like a baby and waking up with positive energy is possible for everyone!
Sleep is like health, when you have it, you take it for, and when you lose it you realize its vital importance.
Sleep obviously helps us to rest, regenerate our body and our mind after a day rich filled with emotions and activity.
But sleep is also essential for our spiritual life. We may not all know it because this is an entirely unconscious phenomenon for most of us, but we make great spiritual journeys out of our space-time every night that are essential to our personal fulfilment.
I am not going to count my spiritual nocturnal experiences here, even if these fascinate me.
I will rather try to offer a few little tips so that those who need it can find a little more serenity on a daily basis by improving the quality of their sleep.
In case you do not understand it, the quality of your sleep is a direct consequence of what you experience throughout the day.
There is no miracle, if I live at 100 km an hour, if I am stressed from morning to night, if I eat fatty foods and drink with friends in a noisy bars in the evening, well, my night will not be sweet and refreshing. The law of cause and effect, quite simply put.
Here are my top 5 habits to adopt throughout the day to enjoy beneficial nights for your body, mind and spirit:
Food can have a big influence on our sleep. Heavy, fatty, and / or eaten late foods will not only delay falling asleep, but will also disrupt it. The 22 – 2 o’clock time slot is physiologically made to allow your body to cleanse, according to Ayurveda. So, if you go to bed while you are still digesting, you are missing out on a great opportunity to regenerate in depth.
The stress accumulated from morning to night by the hyperactivity of our modern lives obviously leads to an overflow of active hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, cytosine and others. It is essential to slow down the pace at the end of the day, both in terms of activities, noise and any other external stimuli. A few stretches, a walk, or a meditation are welcome to relax deeply.
Alcohol or other stimuli, even if they are consumed in a reasonable way, exist in our system, even if we think that these help us relax. The first “kiss” effect is indeed relaxing, but the physiological ones that follow are indeed overstimulating and therefore negatively influence the quality of our sleep.
Our bodies must work out, not just our brains, in order to arrive to bed at night with good physical fatigue. Doing some sports every day, even gentle physical activity, is essential for keeping a healthy body and ensuring a gentle and deep sleep.
Having a regular daily routine allows our body and mind to adopt a circadian rhythm, allowing our unconscious functions to operate in the most fluid way possible. Waking up at the same time every day, eating at fixed times, and above all, following a soothing routine in the evening will allow your body to naturally slip into a regenerating sleep.
Do you follow these 5 recommendations for restful sleep in your daily life? Well, if you have sleep concerns, then try this out and you will see for yourself that simple changes are often the most effective.
And of course, nothing beats a good regular practice of yoga and meditation to calm your thoughts, your energy and help find serenity in you.
