Good “hygiene” is anything that helps you to have a healthy life. The idea behind sleep hygiene is the same as dental hygiene. Dental hygiene helps you stay healthy by keeping your teeth and gums clean and strong.
Some barriers to a good night’s rest are:
1. Stress induced adrenal dysfunction. If your cortisol is shooting up at night instead of getting to the 24 hour low it’s supposed to be at, you are getting revved up at night instead of resting. An adrenal stress index will show if this is happening if you are waking up more fatigued than you were when you went to bed the night before.
2. Ayurvedic medicine teaches us that there are three different body types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Don’t know your dosha or body type: Go to www.fernlifecenter.com and take the “what’s my dosha?” quiz on the home page. Each of these body types can become imbalanced. A vata imbalance will cause insomnia. Vata time of day and night is between 2 and 6 am and pm. If you are waking up between 2 and 6 am and cannot get back to sleep you are vata imbalanced. Ways to get your vata down include:
a. Following a good daily routine
b. Eating warming cooked foods
c. Getting regular ayurvedic massage with sesame oil
d. Doing regular self massage with sesame oil or Fern Simples Vata reducing cream
e. Nasya oil every day
f. Pancha Karma
g. Sesame oil enemas
3. Stress and worry…can’t shut the brain down. Meditate, talk to your angels, journal, do an abundance practice before you go to bed, use the E-M wave and do biofeedback to release your worry. Talk to a counselor or good friend. Deep breathing before bedtime. Chakra clearing. You can use some adrenal supportive herbs like ashwaghanda and rehmannia before bed or a product from Banyan Botanicals we use called Tranquil Mind and see if that helps over long term.
4. Diet: if you have food allergies or toxicity, you will have a mis-firing brain. Do an elimination diet to determine if something simple like gluten is making you snore or creating sleep apnea.
5. Sleep apnea: lose weight!
6. Fix your gut: Bad bugs mean bad sleep. If your gut has an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria or parasites, you will not be getting the rest you need. A stool test can show this and treatment can begin so you can begin to get the rest you need.
Sleep hygiene helps you stay healthy by keeping your mind and body rested and strong. Following these tips will help you sleep better and feel your best:
1. Go to bed at the same time every night
If you are not sleepy at bedtime read an uplifting book, listen to soft music or meditate. Find something relaxing, but not stimulating, to take your mind off of worries about sleep. This will relax your body and distract your mind.
2. If you are not asleep after 20 minutes, then get out of the bed.
Find something else to do that will make you feel relaxed. If you can, do this in another room. Your bedroom should be where you go to sleep. It is not a place to go when you are bored. Once you feel sleepy again, go back to bed. Bed is for sex and sleep and that is all.
3. Begin rituals that help you relax each night before bed.
This can include such things as a warm bath, light snack or a few minutes of uplifting reading. Use a body brush and brush skin vigorously before your bath and give yourself a thorough self massage following your bath with vata reducing oil or sesame oil.
4. Get up at the same time every morning.
Do this even on weekends and holidays.
5. Get a full night’s sleep on a regular basis.
Get enough sleep so that you feel well-rested nearly every day.
6. Avoid taking naps if you can.
If you must take a nap, try to keep it short (less than one hour). Never take a nap after 3 p.m.
7. Keep a regular schedule.
Regular times for meals, herbs and supplements, chores, and other activities help keep the inner body clock running smoothly.
8. Don’t read, write, eat, watch TV, talk on the phone, or play cards in bed.
Resist sending those last emails or watching a violent movie while in bed. One of the worst barriers to sleep is watching the nightly news.
9. Do not have any caffeine, beer, or wine, especially after lunch.
Even though a nightcap may help you relax and fall asleep faster, it’ll make the second half of your sleep cycle restless and unsatisfying. Alcohol decreases deep sleep and increases arousals from sleep, says John E. Brown, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland.
10. Do not have a cigarette or any other source of nicotine before bedtime.
11. Do not go to bed hungry, but don’t eat a big meal near bedtime either.
12. Avoid any tough exercise within six hours of your bedtime.
You should exercise on a regular basis, but do it earlier in the day.
13. Avoid sleeping pills, or use them cautiously. Instead use I Sleep Soundly 2 tablets at bedtime and/or Tranquil Mind 2-4 tablets.
Most doctors do not prescribe sleeping pills for periods of more than three weeks because they cause dependency. Banyan Botanicals makes two wonderful natural Ayurvedic sleep aids designed to get the chattering of your mind to slow down at bedtime.
14. Try to get rid of or deal with things that make you worry.
If you are unable to do this, then find a time during the day to get all of your worries out of your system. Your bed is a place to rest, not a place to worry. Go to http://www.heartmathstore.com for an EM-Wave personal stress biofeedback module. This will teach you to release your mental anxieties so they are not affecting your bodily systems. Use meditation and pranayama (conscious breathing) as tools. Go to www.fernlifecenter.com for the next meditation workshop.
15. Make your bedroom quiet, dark, and a little bit cool.
An easy way to remember this: it should remind you of a cave. While this may not sound romantic, it seems to work for bats. Bats are champion sleepers. They get about 16 hours of sleep each day. Maybe it’s because they sleep in dark, cool caves.
16. Finish your evening with a calming soak in a bath using bath salts right for your body type and follow with really good self massage with the body cream or Ayurvedic oil that fits your body type.
17. Ayurveda recommends you rub your scalp and feet with coconut or brahmi oil before bedtime to soothe the brain. The soles of the feet contain the matching counterpoints to the organs in your body.
18. Drink a sleep cocktail before bedtime:
· Warm ½ c unsweetened almond milk with 1 tsp ghee, 5 strands saffron, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, and cinnamon to your taste. Whip before drinking for a special treat.
19. Use lavender oil on a cotton ball in your pillow case or in a nebulizer in your room.
20. Get into a comfortable position on your back with a pillow underneath your knees. Gently lay an eye pillow over your eyes to lightly cover them. Remember to take 3-4 slow deep breaths and just release all thoughts to the Universe.
21. Do a little Heart Light Meditation before you drift off if you have time to release any negativity you gathered during the day and hand it all over to your angels. You can learn the Heart Light Meditation at Fern Life Center.
22. Sleep well!
