Sleep can be so elusive, but without it, we can have a range of health issues, including stress and anxiety. I'm an eight hours or die kinda person, but I mostly sleep well due to a lifetime of good sleep hygeine that I stick to because sleep is that important to me. There's no television in my room, and it's quite sparse - nothing to distract me, including light. I go to bed at a reasonable time, and don't eat after 7pm, and have a herbal relaxing tea about 8 pm. I take generous amounts of magnesium. Sometimes I take 5HTP, a miracle amino acid that helps the body produce serotonin.
And if I can't sleep, for various reasons I don't want to go into here, I have three tricks up my sleeve. Two are for getting to sleep, and one is when you get out of bed so tired you aren't sure how you could possibly get through a day.
The Eye Trick
One is an eye movement trick I was taught by a naturopath. You simply look towards the left until your eyes get a little tired (I do it with my eyes closed, but open is fine - perhaps look towards the shadow of your elbow in the dark, with your hands clasped behind your head), and then to the right until your eyes get tired, and do that a couple of times. You won't notice much - until you wake up a few hours or if you're lucky, many hours later. I have no idea how it works, but it does - my husband uses the same trick. I think it might mimic REM eye movement and fool your body into sleeping.
Yoga Nidra
The second one is a yoga nidra, or a 'yogic sleep', an ancient yoga meditation that has been adopted by many, some methods of which have even been trademarked, such as Richard Miller's I-Rest.
It enables the mind to slip into that is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. It's like a conscious sleep - your mind is meant to be awake. It's like meditation - and is indeed a form of it - except you lie down and listen to someone's voice, and you don't need to do anything else but shift your attention where you are asked. In this state, your unconcious mind opens up to new ways of healing and realising intentions. Sometimes your intention might be to be calm, or to have a restful sleep - other times it might be to be confident, or something else you feel you don't have enough of in your life. Those ancient yogis knew the mind was super powerful!
When I was given a yoga nidra relaxation during teacher training (two separate trainings by very accomplished senior teachers) I always fell into deep sleep on the mat. You are meant to make a conscious effort to stay awake, but usually we were so exhausted we'd just slip away.
There has been scientific studies on yoga nidra that suggest it's positive impact on the brain. I figure that even if I am still incapable of sleep, the deep rest and relaxation I recieve from this practice will help me anyway - so even if it's 4 am and I have to get up at 5 am, and sleep is elusive, a yoga nidra will benefit my waking state.
This article explains nicely how the brain waves shift in yoga nidra, from an more active alpha to a more relaxed and calm state, to the most restorative delta:
From alpha, you go into a deep alpha and high theta brain-wave state, the dream state, REM sleep. In theta, your thoughts slow down to 4 to 8 thoughts per second. This is where super learning happens. Kids and artists experience a lot more theta activity in their brains. Emotional integration and release also happen here, and structures in the brain change. It鈥檚 here that some people sometimes have random thoughts or see images. A person in theta may see colors or visions or hear the voice of a person talking yet at the same time not hear this voice. It鈥檚 where you being to enter the gap of nothingness.
After theta, you are guided to delta, where your thoughts are only 1 to 3.9 thoughts per second. This is the most restorative state, in which your organs regenerate and the stress hormone cortisol is removed from your system.
When you鈥檙e put under anesthesia, you鈥檙e put into a delta brain-wave state. People in comas are also in a delta brain-wave state, which gives their bodies a chance to restore their systems. In our culture, very few people are going into the deep states of sleep like theta and delta on a regular basis, and as a consequence, our bodies are not powering down and getting the chance to restore themselves. Depressed people go to beta and alpha states, but rarely go to theta and delta.
From delta, the guided yoga nidra experience takes you down into an even deeper brain-wave state鈥攐ne that can鈥檛 be reached through conventional sleep. In this fourth state of consciousness, below delta, your brain is thoughtless. This state is sort of like a complete loss of consciousness, but you are awake. This state is one of such a deep surrender, where your consciousness is so far away from the physical body, that living here every day would be difficult. Not everyone who practices yoga nidra touches this state, but the more you practice, the more you鈥檒l receive glimpses of it.
After you touch into the fourth state of consciousness, you are guided back to a waking state. Again, you couldn鈥檛 live in this fourth state, but as a result of touching into it, you bring a little of its peace back with you to your waking, everyday brain state. You also are able to rewire your thoughts and emotions because your subconscious mind in this fourth state is fertile, more open to intentions and affirmations, than it is when you are in your waking state. As a consequence, in your everyday life, you begin to rest more and more in the space between emotions and thoughts, and this resting in this space gives rise to a sense of freedom, where you are not triggered so much by the stuff in your life.
Plus, in yoga nidra meditation, you are often asked to bring your attention to the space between your eyebrows鈥攁 spot known as the third eye. Behind this spot lies the pineal gland, and this gland is stimulated when you bring your attention there. Studies confirm that the pineal-gland hormone, melatonin, is a powerful agent for reducing stress, inducing more restful sleep, and boosting the immune system, which helps prevent illness, promote healing, and slow premature aging.
If that's not enough for you, yoga nidra is said to have a wealth of other health benefits from helping people with PTSD and sexual trauma to menopause, anxiety and depression. I have given yoga nidra to senior school students on Friday afternoons and they positively float out of the room, almost crying with relief that their brains have been calmed down after the huge demands of the school week. Most people swear that 20 minutes of yoga nidra are like 3 hours of sleep - in fact, if I am tired and need a sleep to get on with the rest of the day or a function in the evening, I'll do a yoga nidra and wake not groggy, but very refreshed.
Sold?
Here are three I like on the app Insight Timer, but you can listen on your desktop if you like. I find these professional and exact. There are more ancient yogic ones but I don't feel comfortable sharing the ones I have here - they have been passed onto me privately and wish to remain non commercial.
Richard Miller: I Rest for Deep Sleep
Jennifer Piercy
Yoga Nidra For Sleep & Rest - Still Point
My favourite for sleep is the Still Point one. If you are listening to one and the voice drives you insane, experiment and find one that doesn't.
The Self Talk Trick
And the third trick? Just telling yourself you've had enough sleep. For the life of me, I can't find the studies to back this up, but the premise is this: if you tell yourself you are so tired you can't function, you will be. Tell yourself that your brain has had enough rest and that you will be fine, and it will be. I've tried this personally, and I teach it to the senior students at school, who, as teenagers, are very, very good at complaining and melodrama. The smart ones who listen to me and try it swear by this strategy. It's a bit like where your attention goes, your energy flows. A bit of self brainwashing that actually works. I've been doing it since I read the article years ago, and it's only when I'm too lazy or grumpy to self talk myself into the possiblity I'm not THAT tired after all that I have a bad 'tired' day.
What do you do to relax and sleep?
Have you ever tried yoga nidra, and if so, which one do you listen to?
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