Sleep Tips…And a Wake-Up Call [Article]
Motivation
I’ve been reflecting a lot on cycles lately. Here, I’d like to offer some motivation and general advice for addressing the sleep-wake cycle.
We know that sleep is vitally important for systemic clean-up in the body, resilience, and rejuvenation. Right? We know that, don’t we? I’m not sure, because it seems that many of us only know that intellectually and have not let it really land in our psyche enough to act upon the knowledge.
So often we try to force ourselves to get by with less sleep, but we really don’t get very far doing so. It’s against nature. It’s counterproductive. It reduces our longevity.
Are we fully aware of what we are sacrificing when we don’t sleep enough to meet our body’s needs? Hormone production tanks. Brain health deteriorates as amyloid plaque accumulates, and brain functioning decreases as neurons fire slower. The gut microbiome gets thrown completely out of whack, affecting digestion, increasing inflammation, and reducing hormone signaling even further. Our immune system weakens, leaving us susceptible to viruses. And the systems that break down and eliminate unhealthy cells (cells that if left unchecked can become cancerous) do not have time to do their work, leaving us more prone to cancer. Yikes! What are we sacrificing all that for?
If you are someone that has difficulty sleeping, I suggest that resolving that issue should be seriously bumped up on your priority list. There are very few things more important than this. And there is a solution. It may be multi-layered, it may require trial and error, but there is a way to solve this for yourself.
Depending on the nature of your specific sleep issue, it may require a complete reevaluation of how you approach your life, your values and long-term plan for yourself. I suppose this sheds light on why it is easier for so many of us to simply accept sleep deprivation, rather than make the radical value changes required to prioritize sleep. I assert that our sleep issues are often culturally rooted. This means that to fix sleep, one may need to get counter-culture.
(Note: I have never had a child, but am aware that sleep deprivation often comes hand in hand with an infant. I cannot speak to this, nor offer any advice regarding what tools are available to help an infant establish a healthy sleep rhythm.
It would be interesting to investigate to what degree this is culturally rooted. Are we trying to force the child into the schedule that works for us, which is the schedule that works for a corporate, industrial society? Did mothers in indigenous societies—with their traditional approaches, such as co-sleeping, responsiveness to the baby’s cues, and tuning into natural rhythms—have the same issues with sleep deprivation when caring for an infant? Anyway, Mothers, I have a lot of love and compassion for you and perhaps some of the simple tips in this article you will also find useful.)
Rhythm & Timing
One thing to know about sleep is that not all hours spent sleeping are equal. The body has its natural rhythms, its ideal times when the liver moves into detox mode, and ideal times for the glymphatic system to begin cleaning the brain. For this reason, it is said that any hour of sleep before midnight is up to 3 times as rejuvenative as those hours after.
This is also corroborated from the point of view of Tibetan Medicine and the cycles of the humors (psycho-bio-energetic substances in the body). Before midnight (around 10 pm would be the apex), the phlegm humor (Tib: Beken) is dominant. Phlegm’s heavy quality quiets our energy and makes the body and mind ready to slip into sleep.
However, after midnight the bile humor (Tib: Tripa) becomes predominant and this has the effect of activating our mind and thoughts. This explains why many of us have had the experience of feeling incredibly tired and sleepy, but if we fight it and stay awake for whatever reason, when we do try to sleep we are surprised how hard it is, racing mind and all.
Try to be conscious not only of the choice of when to sleep, but also being consistent with your rhythm. The body likes regularity and does all sorts of preparations to prepare for this important transition. By going to bed and waking up at regular times, you will benefit from easier transitions.
Setting the Body Up for Sleeping Success
Here is some quick and easy advice for preparing the body for sleep:
Honor timing and rhythm. Try to get to bed earlier and be consistent.
Cease all caffeine intake after a certain time, 2 pm for most folks.
Be aware of the huge detrimental effect of alcohol on sleep quality. It has been shown that just two servings of alcohol have a severe effect. If you use any sleep tracking apps, you will clearly see this.
Limit exposure of light to the eyeballs, particularly the blue light spectrum, at least 2 hours before wanting to sleep.
We evolved with the natural cycles of day and night. Our pineal gland, which produces the melatonin that helps us sleep, is very responsive to light. It is not natural for our eyes to see the bright blue light of our screens before we intend to fall asleep. This is a very confusing signal for the body. Is it daytime still, time to ramp up energy rather than wind down?
Just seconds of exposure to blue light will stunt melatonin production. Do yourself a favor and make your environment as dark as possible in the lead up to sleep. I love my Himalayan salt lamps for this purpose.
(Note: Keep this in mind for those middle of the night bathroom trips too. Turning the bathroom light on is not helpful for staying in a conducive sleep state. Consider buying an orange-colored night light. I love mine and have had it for years.)
If you feel you must (??) look at your screens and have your LED lights on, consider buying blue-light blocker glasses for $30. And definitely use the night-mode or free F.lux app to reduce the blue light from your devices’ screens.
Use body positions that encourage the body to shift into a down-regulated, relaxed state.
Just five minutes in one of these postures can be a significant help and save you hours of lying in bed struggling. Next week I will offer a video on one of these from the Tibetan Lu Jong tradition.
Bedroom Care
Make your bedroom as dark as possible. Same principle as mentioned above.
Also, we do not sleep well when the temperature is too high. I know that for me this is the greatest culprit for me not having a good night’s sleep. Studies have shown that a temperature of 60 - 65 F is preferred.
Calming the Mind
Often, the biggest obstacle to sleep is our own mind. All day and into the night our thoughts are racing, countless tasks and obligations are swirling around in our heads, along with worries and projections and rewinds, oh my! Calming the mind of this endless stream of thoughts is a major lever we can pull to enable easy sleep.
Create a Ritual
Establishing a pre-sleep ritual also speaks to the value of being in tune with a rhythm. We want to send clear signals to our bodies and minds that we are transitioning out of active mode. For our ancestors living before artificial light, the diminishing daylight was the clearest signal of this transition. So, as mentioned above, adjusting the light is an important part of any sleep ritual we create.
But mostly, it is the regularity of the ritual that will serve you. We are training the mind to anticipate relaxation. By establishing a pattern, we build a runway to smoothly take off flying into the dream world. The key here is to find what works for you and repeat it nightly.
And please do not let perfection be the enemy of good! I list several things below that you can try, but you don’t need to do them all. Your ritual should be very enjoyable for you, not another stressor. So perhaps it makes sense to start with just one or two things and establish the consistency of doing it first, and then let it evolve organically and joyfully.
Anything relaxing (a bath if you have the time!) is great to include in your ritual. Explore a bit and find the combination that works best for you. Some ideas:
Lower Lights
Turn down the lights and rely more on salt lamps or candles.
Music
Put on some soothing music. Search for meditative music or gentle, classical music.
Tea
Sip a cup of chamomile or valerian root tea.
Journal
My favorite suggestion would be to make a gratitude journal. Focusing on all that is good in our lives is a powerful antidote to stress. It opens our hearts and is an amazing daily practice.
If you feel that you have a lot on your mind, you may choose to journal to release those concerns on paper. Be careful that this does not rile you up, but serves as a way to get things out of your head. It can be a brain dump of emotion, or a list of things to remember to take care of tomorrow.
Alternatively, read something spiritual, something that reminds you of the grander picture of life, the value of things beyond the nitty gritty of daily tasks. I would steer away from reading anything that activates the intellect too much.
Meditation
If you are comfortable meditating and relaxing into the open spaciousness of mind, this is a great time to do it.
A more specific suggestion to reduce anxiety and really shift you into a relaxed, restful state is to add intonation. This will activate your parasympathetic nervous system and the effect of just three minutes (!)is profound. Simply take a soft, slow inhale and on the exhale produce a sound. Humming works well, or use a mantra such as OM, AH, HUNG or HU.
Sit in a relaxed, comfortable position with a straight spine for best results.
Get Into Bed
The next couple things can be done in bed. One is the exercise/body position I am going to share with you in the next post.
The second suggestion is to lie down and listen to an audio specifically for sleep. A well-designed sleep track will not only be soothing, but will also encourage the calming alpha, theta and delta brainwaves.
The beauty of the audio is not only in the moment, but also the consistency over time. If you listen to it enough, it becomes a powerful sleep trigger.
The Monroe Institute puts out wonderful audios. Here is a free one specifically for sleep. Or, check out their full catalogue of Hemi-Sync products for more options.
What to Do When You’re In It
The above advice is all preventative. This section offers some suggestions of what to do if you find yourself lying in bed, desperately wanting to go to sleep and it’s just not happening. These are some things I’ve learned from Tulku Lobsang from the Tibetan tradition.
Counting Thoughts
Usually, our thoughts are the obstacle to sleep. Some counterintuitive advice is to not reject the thoughts, but acknowledge their presence. Do this by counting the thoughts.
You catch yourself thinking about a an email you have to send: Thought #1.
You catch yourself remembering what a friend said to you. Thought #2.
And so on.
Doing this creates a pattern interrupt.
The problem is less the individual thought, but the following of the thought from one to another and into an entire inner dialogue. Counting thoughts breaks the pattern and creates some distance between you and the content of the thought.
Visualization
If you are a visual person, this could work wonderfully for you. It not only gives the mind something to focus on besides following thoughts, but also creates a heavy energetic quality that is beneficial for sleep.
Visualize two very heavy, black, lead balls. Think kettlebells, but perhaps the size of a tennis ball. One of these balls is in the center of the head and the other ball is in the pelvis.
Simply hold this visualize for as long as you can, ideally drifting off to lovely slumber.
Accept It!
If you are really challenged by insomnia, here is a radical approach: Embrace it. Rather than torturing yourself in bed not being able to sleep, don’t even try.
Just stay up all night and do other things.
Read a book, catch up on work, do some stretching. I’m not sure that watching TV is the best option, due to the artificial light exposure and fast-paced edits, but this is an experiment, so do whatever you want.
Do this for two nights in a row. Don’t even try to go to sleep. The body simply cannot survive long without this basic need, so it is quite likely that after two nights of this, you are going to be exhausted and crash.
Now this part is important: Use this exhaustion to establish a healthy rhythm moving forward. If you simply crash in the middle of the afternoon, there is no way you’ll be able to fall asleep at night!
Rather, decide in advance what your ideal sleep schedule is and get to it right away. This includes the time you wake up in the morning. This is your blank slate, your fresh start. Use it wisely.
In Conclusion
Cycles are our friends. We live in a world of cycles. When we align with the cycles we are propelled along in rhythm. But when we are out of sync with the cycles, there is tension and resistance and effort.
Just as we need sleep each night, the cycles of the month and year include a necessary time of rest, stillness and inward-focus. We would not demand that nature go about her business without the winter time. And yet, somehow, we do this to ourselves.
Do we not force ourselves to live in a perpetual spring of productivity and busy-ness and outward-focus? When is the time for rejuvenation and going within?
I say this to counter the pressure that we receive from our society to always be doing, always be going, always be active. It is not natural and it is not healthy and it is not even the way to be most productive in the springtime!
Let’s honor the time of stillness and elevate its importance to be at least equal to the time of action. Balance, harmony, rhythm, beauty, grace. These are our values.
May you find deep rest for body, mind and soul.