Did you know that the hours you sleep are actually the most productive hours of your day?
Sleep isn’t the empty hours in the midst of a busy life. In fact, when you sleep the glymphatic system flushes cerebrospinal fluid through your brain. This clears out metabolic waste that builds up during the day.
Things get more complicated when you are among the millions of people that lie awake most nights. Understanding how much repair happens during sleep can cause more turmoil. This is where the time tested system of Ayurveda provides us with its beneficial wisdom.
Ayurveda has always understood that the nervous system often needs support downshifting before being able to go into full rest. Here are a few practices you can use to support falling to sleep so your body can access its natural ability to repair itself.
Consider trading harsh blue lights for warm evening light – A Harvard Health study found that blue light suppresses melatonin more than warm light and can shift circadian timing by three hours. Shift lighting, or avoid harsh blue light two to three hours before bedtime.
Another practice is a warm oil self-massage called, abhyanga. When applied to the scalp, around the ears and soles of the feet before bed it can naturally calm the nervous system. While this doesn’t have the research behind it, it does have thousands of years of known effectiveness.
Lastly, is yoga nidra. This is far beyond a general wellness practice, but as a direct tool for insomnia. A randomized controlled study led by K. Datta and colleagues compared yoga nidra to a gold standard insomnia treatment.
This study found that yoga nidra increased time spent in deep sleep and significantly lowered cortisol. Yoga Nidra removes the pressure to fall asleep and succeeds whether or not you fall asleep which breaks the anxiety loop that keeps so many insomniacs awake.
Sita Severson is an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist and Director of Soul of Yoga Institute. As the Soul of Yoga celebrates its 25th anniversary, Sita is sharing practice insights on holistic wellness with the community.
