Short helpful book on applying Ayurvedic concepts to sleep, along with many helpful reminders and suggestions for improving your sleep hygiene. Also gives readers a deeper understanding of various cyclical and biological functions of our body, as well as a deeper understanding of how the various artificialities of modernity mess with our biology.
I also found this book to be a good mini-intro to Ayurvedic medicine, which on some level shares characteristics with functional medicine (see my review of Mark Hyman's The Ultramind Solution for more on functional medicine).
While I can't change the fact that I grew up in the "water" of Western medicine, learning about domains like Ayurveda allow us to step outside the (often oxymoronic) "Western health" paradigm--so we can better see the flaws as well as the strengths of allopathic medicine. And over the past several years, as we've seen accelerating capture and corruption of many agents of Western medicine, it's clear there's never been a more important time to have a few extra health paradigms at hand.
Notes:
Chapter 1: Sleep and the Quantum Mechanical Body
1) "What happens to you at night when you try to sleep cannot be understood except in terms of what you do during the day, when you're awake." 2) On things "left undone" in your life, not just that day but in life in general. [One way to think about this is better sleep falls into what I'd consider a Quadrant II type activity: you can't just "fix it"--rather it will "require a long-term reorienting of one's life."] Your sleep improves as your waking life improves.
3) Four distinct states of consciousness or psychophysiology:
* Delta sleep, deep sleep
* REM sleep, dreaming
* Light sleep, after the above two periods and which takes up the majority of time during the night
* The waking state
4) "...one sleepless night has virtually no measurable effect on our ability to carry out normal responsibilities the following day, and this has been demonstrated in dozens of studies."
5) Ayurveda, the tradition of Indian medicine on which this book is based; the quantum mechanical body/mind.
6) "One of the most basic premises of Ayurveda is that the body is a projection of one's consciousness." "Intelligence alone is nothing more than fields of self-referring information."
70) Vata pacifying diet examples:
7) On mental and physical events as the same thing; on the basic Ayurvedic concepts of what matter is, what our body is, and how our body is not distinct from the things around it (in the way we think it is from our limited perspective); on looking at the human body as a body/mind, rather than body with a mind inside that body. On (incorrectly/inaccurately) seeing ourselves as a "skin-encapsulated ego": in other words, it is "your personal body" and anything outside your skin is the outside world. This is an artificial distinction.
8) "As is the atom so is the universe; as is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm, as is the human body, so is the cosmic body; as is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind."
9) The subtle body and a causal body; this is the Ayurvedic framework similar to the quantum mechanical body.
10) On circadian rhythms and other rhythms of nature, and how modern life has taken us far from the natural rhythms that govern human experience. Today rather than get up and go to bed by the sun we get up and go to bed by the clock. "This is an extremely significant development."
11) "Living in harmony with natural rhythms allows a free passage of biological information and intelligence, while living in opposition to those rhythms fosters disorder at the molecular level and discomfort at the level of everyday experience."
12) On the need to "break free of the artificial imperatives of modern life" so "that sleep and other physical functions will improve."
Chapter 2: A Practical Approach to Sleep
13) A foundational idea: you cannot force yourself to sleep. You can't will sleep. You can't command sleep. See the story of Persian King Xerxes who whipped the ocean when it refused to obey him; Trying will have no positive effect, sleep is a natural process, it will aggravate the insomnia further driving frustration. "Trying is not the way nature functions." [Boy this sure resonates with the sports psychology books I've read, hence the idea to "try softer"!]
14) Adopting a mental attitude of "not minding": meaning "don't watch yourself, don't monitor yourself, don't become a commentator on your dilemma, and, above all, don't keep looking at the clock. Instead, just rest comfortably, not minding, and use the attitude as a way of placing yourself in nature's hands. Simply lie in bed with your eyes closed, not minding whether you're awake or asleep."
15) On how we misperceive our sleep state; the quantity of our sleep; "subjective insomnia"; roughly half of all people who can't sleep only think they can't.
16) On "secondary gain": the phenomenon in psychology where people benefit from a condition (often without even knowing about it), which makes the problem more difficult to resolve. Happens also with alcoholism or other chronic conditions; a type of codependency with the condition.
17) "Take the attitude that you will get as much rest as nature wants you to have at that moment, as much as you need, even if you're not actually sleeping."
18) On allowing your thoughts to come and go, on allowing physical discomfort to come and go while you're resting comfortably in bed. Rest quietly whether asleep or not and do not get out of bed or otherwise occupy yourself doing something. "...while getting up may provide temporary relief from the unpleasant experience of lying there awake, in the long run it is not the solution to the problem of not getting enough sleep." Go back to not minding!
19) On documenting your sleep patterns; making a sleep log (see sample sleep log page below) with the time you went to bed, the approximate times you actually slept and awoke, the time you got out of bed and special comments or observations that you might have about a given day or night. Also use to identify relationships between activities or routines that may impact your sleep.
20) "Activity and rest go hand in hand": on the idea that the solution to problems at night lies in what happens during the day. "All these time periods are related" and must be in balance.
21) Summary:
1) Pick a reasonable, early time to get ready for bed and establish a soothing routine at the same time every night.
2) Once in bed, rest comfortably with your eyes closed, not minding. Remember, you're getting valuable rest even if you're not asleep.
3) If you're feeling restless or fidgety or your thoughts are racing, recognize that even these feelings represent the process of healing that is taking place. [This is an interesting way to reframe the experience of being fidgety!]
4) If there's an unpleasant or painful sensation in your body, focus your mind on the sensation itself.
5) Each morning use your sleep log to record what happened during the night.
Chapter 3: Discovering Your Ayurvedic Body Type
22) Body types or doshas
* Vata controls all movement in the body (breathing, peristalsis, heartbeat, nerve impulses)
* Pitta controls metabolism and digestion (processing food, activating enzymes, metabolizing food, air and water)
* Kapha controls structure (holding cells together and forming muscles, fat, bones and sinew)
23) "...insomnia is ultimately an aggravation or imbalance of the Vata dosha."
24) Vata type: light, thin, irregular hunger and digestion, prone to insomnia, vivacious, enthusiastic and imaginative, excitable, but also can manifest as having anxiety, worry, insomnia, restlessness, irritable bowels or migraines. These occur when the Vata dosha gets imbalanced. Quick to grasp new information but forgets easily.
25) Vata is the gateway to the other doshas; it's responsible for the early stages of almost all disease. "Therefore, regardless of your body type, it's extremely important for everyone to keep Vata in balance."
26) Pitta type: medium build, medium strength, medium endurance, anger and irritability when under stress; ruddy, fair and often freckled, aversion to sun and hot weather, good speakers, strong intellects, intensity, combative, usually sleep normally and soundly.
27) Kapha type: solid, powerful build, physical strength and endurance, slow and graceful, tranquility and relaxed personality, don't lose their temper, slow to grasp new information but they have good retention. Considered fortunate in Ayurveda because as a rule they enjoy sound health." "Their sleep is usually deep and sound."
28) See photo on the three doshas and the ten constitutional types:
29) Note that "the dosha most dominant in any individual is most often the one that will go out of balance."
30) See the Ayurveda body test questionnaire on pages 36-41:
Vata score 76
Pitta score 62
Kapha score 34
31) Single-dosha type, two-dosha types or three-dosha types (least common)
Chapter 4: Getting in Tune with Nature's Rhythms
32) "Your own sleep/dream/wakeful cycle is, or should be, an expression of this pervasive natural harmony."
33) Circadian rhythms and their importance with hormone and enzyme production and neurological and endocrine functions.
34) How the notion of standardized time in the electric light bulbs screwed up everything, standardization due to railroad time.
35) "...if the quality of your sleep has become a concern, you must learn to bring your body's rhythm back into harmony with the natural cycle surrounding you."
36) The daily cycle of doshas:
Kapha from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Pitta from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Vata from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Then:
Kapha from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Pitta from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Vata from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
37) 10:00 p.m. is a pivotal moment in the entire 24-hour cycle. Ayurveda recommends going to bed at or before this junction time between kapha and pitta because the mind and body are the under the influence of the kapha dosha.
38) "There are no night people. An early bedtime is one of the most important points for bringing your system back into balance with nature"
39) "...for most people, an early bedtime and a nonminding attitude is the best approach."
40) Pre-bed activities:
1) an early and light supper
2) a short stroll after dinner 5 to 15 minutes
3) avoid exciting, dynamic, or focused activities in the evening. Keep a settled, relaxed time
4) avoid watching TV in the evening
5) begin to prepare for bedtime at least 30 minutes before you intend to get into bed.
41) Get up earlier to make your body want to go to sleep at 10:00 p.m.
42) Wake at about the same time every day, preferably by 6:00 a.m., at the junction point between Vata and Kapha periods of the morning.
43) Maintain your schedule over the weekends as well.
44) The process of awakening has plateaus just as going to sleep does; you move away from sleep in three or four stages, drifting back and forth between waking consciousness and light sleep a few times before you finally open your eyes. This half-asleep state is a dangerous area for Vata dosha: if you awaken before 6:00 your thoughts might start racing and you'll snap into a fully awake condition and you won't feel rested.
45) On the lunch hour: the time period between 10:00am and2:00pm is where you should have the main meal of your day; you can assimilate the energy from a large meal and thus also avoid the need to eat a large meal at bedtime, which interferes in sleep and can lead to "the accumulation of impurities in the body."
46) On napping: note the difference between deciding to take a nap and having sleep "descend on you" whether you want it or not (the latter implies you might have a sleep disorder). "In Ayurveda, the notion of intention is a fundamental part of any action." Without intention, the benefits of napping are "nullified." Keep your naps under 30 minutes to avoid the delta phase of deep sleep which will make you feel groggy and worse than before you fell asleep, also don't nap more than once a day.
Chapter 5: Techniques for Soothing the Senses, and Five Pathways to Restful Sleep
47) "Overstimulating the five senses is a major cause of insomnia. On the other hand, when treated properly, the senses can be avenues to restful sleep."
48) "...we literally metabolize our environment through our senses. Everything that you experience through your senses...becomes the very molecules of your body." (See for example the notion of seeing a violent incident: it changes your brain chemistry, releases adrenaline and cortisol and other hormones, etc.) "...everything you touch, taste, smell, see, or hear is metabolized."
49) "There's a Vedic expression that says, 'If you want to know what your experiences were like in the past, just examine your body now. And if you want to know what your body will look like in the future, examine your experiences now."
50) Note also the projection of our consciousness and our senses are both forms of reaching out into the world around us.
51) On thinking of the five senses as expressions of streams of intelligence.
52) Imperfect use of your senses will create an imbalance in your physiology.
53) It has become fashionable to put ourselves in sensory hyperarousal; "hyperarousal insomnia"; hyperaroused individuals overreact to minor disturbances and are unable to put these experiences out of their thoughts once they're over; likewise, frequent reliance on sleeping pills to deal with the symptoms; note also that sleep drugs produce even poorer quality sleep than untranquilized problem sleepers (!); they also can have an impact on thinking ability and muscular coordination for days after the drugs are taken; the sleep they produce is artificial or abnormal, etc.
54) Hearing: Our bodies as expressions of primordial sound in rhythms and synchronicities and frequencies of vibration. When disease is present avoid sounds that are overly stimulating or dissonant or otherwise unpleasant. See the end of the book for a gandharva-veda sample tape to benefit your sleep, listening to this music with a non-minding attitude can help you get back to sleep.
55) Touch: The skin is a major source of healing chemicals; "...every person needs a minimal daily dose of touch." Ayurveda recommend certain types of massage, sesame oil massage; Vital points called marmas all over the body: the center of the forehead and the lower abdomen just below the navel; gently massage each of these with a small amount of sesame oil using light circular clockwise motions; it should only take about a minute.
56) Keep your bedroom cool (68° or lower); overly warm temperatures are known to disturb sleep; don't let the air conditioner blow cold air directly on your head, this increases Vata; also natural fibers are best for bedclothes and sheets.
57) Sight: "Visual stimuli are potent exciters of the nervous system." Avoid television and especially shows that are violent or graphic; make your bedroom as visually pleasant as possible, the window should look out on a scene of natural beauty; keep your bedroom clean and make your bed each day "so that the last impression before retiring is one of harmony and orderliness." Note also that "the Pitta dosha is particularly sensitive to visual stimuli."
58) Taste: we'll get into diet in more detail in the next chapter, but certain foods have an inherently agitating effect and they should be avoided by people who have insomnia. This includes stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine as well as depressants such as alcohol. Avoid them as much as you can. Warm milk also benefits sleep when taken just before bedtime, "and Ayurveda recommends the addition of certain herbs to the milk to increase its sleep-enhancing effect."
59) Smell: "More than any other sensory experience, smell influences our behavior, our memories, and many autonomic nervous system functions." On the release of pheromones as a function of our emotional state; Vata-pacifying aromas, including basil, orange, rose, geranium, cloves, oil of lavender.
60) Instructions on how to do Ayurvedic oil massage; instructions for how to cure sesame oil for Ayurvedic oil massage, etc.
61) See the bedtime checklist on page 77:
Chapter 6: Balancing the Physiology
62) "In this chapter you'll learn how to restore balance to your mind/body system through meditation, diet, exercise, and herbal food supplements."
63) "According to Ayurveda sleep is one of the pillars of health--so when sleep is disturbed, it represents a basic disruption of physiological stability."
64) On the mental static that masks the profound internal silence in our minds
65) A meditation technique to use when you're in bed and ready to bring the day to a close: breathe normally and follow your breath (breath awareness) for 2 to 5 minutes; as you build this habit your body sinks deeper into relaxation and your mind becomes quieter.
66) Diet: modernity looks at nutrition in terms of material qualities; in contrast, Ayurveda looks at food in terms of its intelligence value/the mind-body connection.
67) Foods that reduce Vata in the body, a Vata-pacifying diet:
* Favor foods that are warm, heavy, and oily
* Minimize foods that are cold, dry, and rough
* Favor foods that are sweet, sour, and salty
* Minimize foods that are spicy, bitter, and astringent
68) Also:
1) Eat your meals regularly, lunch should be the heaviest meal of the day
2) Favor warm, cooked, substantial meals
3) Sweet sour and salty tastes pacify the Vata dosha. Note that sweet does not mean just sugary.
69) See photo on "the six tastes" with examples, and how they affect the doshas:
All dairy is good; sweeteners except concentrated sugar; oils, grains, fruits (although reduce astringent light fruits like apples, pears, pomegranates and cranberries), vegetables should be eaten cooked not raw, although avoid sprouts and cabbage, all nuts are good, reduce beans except for tofu, beef should be avoided but chicken, turkey and seafood are acceptable. Avoid cold foods and drinks, especially those that are iced: the Vata dosha is cold by nature. Avoid caffeine and carbonated beverages.
71) Eliminating impurities/amas: sipping hot water during the day helps dissolve ama, very hot water, taken frequently.
72) On exercise: taking too little, or too much or none at all; performing exercises that don't suit your body type; Kapha dosha requires the most exercise, Vata requires the least. Ayurveda recommends only light to moderate exercise for those suffering from insomnia, 30 minutes per day; excessive exercise disturbs Vata. Also, (interestingly) exercise only to 50% of your capacity.
73) Yoga and neuro-respiratory exercise is very helpful for insomnia, examples given of brief body massage, then poses: seat strengthening pose, head to knee pose, shoulder stand, plow pose (see photo below), Cobra pose, locust pose (lying face down, elevating your legs), seated twist pose, standing forward bend, awareness pose.
74) Pranayama: sit comfortably with your spine straight, close your eyes, rest your left hand on your knees or thighs, use your right thumb to close off your right nostril, start by exhaling through your left nostril and inhale easily through your left nostril.
* Next use your right and middle fingers to close your left nostril, exhale slowly through your right nostril then easily inhale.
* Alternating nostrils for 5 minutes; your breathing should be natural, not exaggerated, a little slower and deeper than usual.
* When finished sit quietly with your eyes closed for a few minutes, breathing easily and normally.
75) Herbs: Used to influence a particular aspect of doshas:
Jatamamsi
Ashwagandha
Shakhanalpushpi
Brahmi
Jatiphala
Tagara (valerian)
Chapter 7: Dreams and Dreaming
76) Note that "nature doesn't do anything for nothing", noting the paradox of restful sleep contrasted with the activity of REM.
77) The Ptolemaic fallacy (naive empiricism essentially) the idea is used here in an example of overinterpreting a dream.
78) Ayurvedic views on dreams (not many): Lot of types have imaginative dreams colored by fear or anxiety, this is your body's way of getting disturbed Vata back into balance; Pitta types have active adventurous dreams with fights or mysteries; Kapha types have serene dreams that are usually not recalled.
79) On nightmares: typically not an important cause of insomnia but maybe a symptom of other issues like trauma that remains unresolved or unrecognized; "...look to your waking life to understand what's happening to your sleep."
Chapter 8: Insomnia in Children and in the Elderly
80) Both modern medicine and the Ayurvedic view believe age is the most important factor in determining an individual's sleep pattern. Childhood is dominated by Kapha dosha, that's when we sleep the longest, but Vata is the older age period of life, sleep declines to five or six hours.
81) This chapter deals with more serious insomnia in children and older people, not the situational insomnia of the rest of the book.
82) "The body becomes more Vata after the age of 40, so older people often sleep very badly because Vata disturbances that haven't been treated only get worse. [One takeaway here is don't let insomnia get too much on top of you for too long before it's too late to manage it.]
83) As we age "the body's excretory functions often become less efficient"; note that sleeping meds as well as other meds are tested on young people only: thus elderly people typically should take significantly less than the recommended dosages.
84) Connections between depression, senility and insomnia, senility often improves when sleeping pills and other medications are reduced or withdrawn.
85) The best thing for an older person to foster sleep is warm milk with a spoonful of honey at bedtime which is very soothing to Vata.
86) Keep the bedroom as dark and as quiet as possible, light coming in between curtains or under a door can trigger a waking response during the Vata period.
87) On sleep apnea, which can produce extreme sleep deprivation, most victims are in their later years, apnea drivers are: being overweight, alcohol consumption and snoring. Surgery is often justified. Also suggesting that anyone over the age of 65 should be evaluated for breathing disorders during sleep. This is especially true for people who snore, who are overweight, or who display drowsiness throughout the day.
Chapter 9: Fulfillment, the Basis for Restful Sleep
88) "This chapter offers ideas and recommendations for increasing your sense of fulfillment and freeing your inner nature. After all, the goal of Ayurveda is to help you realize that you are made of pure awareness, that it is your natural state to be free from illness and fear, and that it is your destiny to enjoy complete fulfillment in life."
89) The concept in Ayurveda known as Dharma. "To be in dharma means to know what you're here for. It means you've discovered the purpose of your life."
90) "In Ayurveda, the source of any difficulty is said to lie in awareness. An awareness of some discomfort, some disease, some anxiety, some worry, which then becomes a background condition such as fatigue and insomnia... So insomnia is a symptom of an underlying imbalance, and if you want to discover the root cause of that imbalance, I would suggest it is lack of dharma, lack of fulfillment, lack of purpose in life."
91) "Any type of work can be made more fulfilling if it's done with simplicity and present-moment awareness."
92) See also the Ayurvedic saying "the world is as we are."
93) On making a shift in your awareness beyond just your worries or just your professional concerns and to having a larger view of what it means to have a life of fulfillment and satisfaction.
94) On balancing rest and activity, don't suffer from "picnic deficiency" by not picnicking often enough! :)))
95) [Long very useful quote here] "In Ayurveda, all problems arise because of object-referral. Object- referral simply means that we refer to objects in order to identify ourselves, in order to tell ourselves who we are. These objects can be situations, circumstances, people, or things. As a result of object-referral, we develop guilts and regrets about the past, we are distracted in the present, and we experience fear and anxiety about the future. And this is the root cause of illness.
"So the solution to any illness is to become self-referring. You give to the world your greatest gift when you're being yourself. Anything else causes a lot of strain, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia. The cause of suffering is the loss of the self to the self image, the forsaking of a self-referring inner reality for an object-referring image.
"In order to get back to the self, we have to learn to transcend; we have to learn to trust ourselves, our instincts, and our intuitive senses. The goal of Ayurveda is for us to realize that we are made of pure awareness, that it is our destiny to be always experiencing this fact, that it is our destiny to become free."
96) On present moment awareness: "The opposite of present-moment awareness is time-bound awareness, and the emotion that naturally accompanies it is fear." On allowing the flow of pure awareness and relaxed attention rather than interpreting or filtering this awareness through preconceived notions, definitions, interpretations, and judgments. "...all problems, particularly insomnia, are a diversion of our attention from present-moment awareness into time-bound awareness."
97) Finally a review of the major principles for dealing with insomnia:
* Achieving harmony with the cycles of nature, having a healthy balanced daily routine, going to bed and getting up early and at the same time every day.
* Use body awareness techniques to deal with restlessness after getting into bed.
* Breath awareness and meditation to reestablish balance in the mind.
* Be easy on yourself and recognize some of these recommendations will work better or more immediately than others.
* On the Ayurvedic idea that when we lose our connection with nature we forget; "We stop recognizing a reality that is always there." Thus restoring it is really a process of remembering: regaining smriti: memory of your own nature.
To Read:
William C. Dement: The Sleepwatchers
Deepak Chopra: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
Deepak Chopra: Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth
Norman Ford: Good Night