In pursuit of an unsung immunity!
My last writeup was regarding the FOOD SLEEP AND CONDUCT to harness another level of wellness, and I hope everyone got enough guidance to deal with their food habits, just the minute changes, not the gross change in patterns will help you slow down your life. Now it’s time to have a talk around sleep.
Have you ever come across questions regarding your sleep on a routine visit to your doctor, if she is missing out, may be this is a reminder for you to tell them about your sleep routine lately. Sleep is so much subjective, I know the sleep studies are revealing more details around the quality of your sleep, but most of these conclusions can be drawn if your doctor has the habit of proper communication with you. Things you need to keep in mind while assessing your sleep.
1.how many hours do you sleep for? If it is less than 6, you have to reconsider your schedule, if you are an average person susceptible to the everyday hustles and worries, you might probably need a minimum 7 hours sleep. Too much and too little is always bad!
2. do you feel good on waking up, do you feel you were relaxed and now it’s time for you to run the hurdles of the day? If your answer is yes well, then you are having a good night sleep, if your answer is no this article is for you?
3. do you feel so overwhelmed about whatever happened to you throughout the day and so much excited about the next day events, this is absolutely fine if you are anticipating a special event, but if this has been ruining your sound sleep continuously, you need to take good care!
4. do you constantly regret getting up to the slightest disturbance and not sleeping again?
5. do you find yourself anxious over and over again about the same loop of thoughts running into just before the sleep or may be, you find yourself tired and ready to sleep, but the moment you decide to sleep, you find yourself energetic?
Yup we are done with the analysis of your sleep!
Sleep quality is the direct indicator of your overall health and any inadequacies might prove to deduce your mental, physical and social wellness. The time you dedicate in good sleep is actually the time you gained. A proper sleep is gifting your body quality time so that it can heal and collect itself together what it has lost.
Before you do a real expensive sleep study, here are somethings that might really help you be energetic all day and have a sound sleep at night.
Did you know that a really good session of oil massage can help your nerves calm down, as I mentioned earlier if you are a person who feels overwhelmed about everything, this really might help you slow down, let all those acetylcholine blockers take a seat and exclaim at your body slowing down on its own. everything impulsive goes into halos, massage with oils and a bath might be a real game changer. In ayurveda bath is not just meant to clean yourself. I have heard my father, who is also an ayurvedic physician advising his patients about the bath routine and its role in being more than a cleansing ritual.
if your brows have built a tower let me tell you, bath is also meant to give your body a better temperature regulation, a better hormonal regulation and ease your tensed nerves, its supposed to be soothing for nervous system and improve your skin health. ayurveda having the temperate climate in its mind have prescribed time for bath, which if you stick to, is definitely going to help you ease through the day. If you take it seriously, then bath rituals as prescribed by ayurveda, it could be a perfect wellness ritual! Oil massages are well equipped to nourish you, and nourishment is directly proportional to good sleep.
Keeping yourself away from unnatural aromas and scents is a real big factor in sleep hygiene. If you are really keen on the skin nourishment during sleep, a real bath with essential oils and natural aromas might be an add on!
As we mentioned about proper food in the previous article, If you are habituated too stringent diets and big heavy exercise and you find it difficult to sleep, stop all the restrictions, have a minimum exercise, just keep your body fit and eat nourishing diets, wholegrains, enough vitamin b complex, proteins and carbs topped with regional oils or may be fats can help you regain your sleep. If you are undernourished you probably might feal uneasy and anxious throughout the day, you feel weak but the moment you go to bed, there are more anxious thoughts rushing to keep you awake. Keeping a check on the spicy sour foods including alcohol is a must for good sleep hygiene.
Too less or too much of physical activity will noy help you sleep, ayurveda has preferred mediocrity in all activities for better health it says ‘sarva dharmeshu madhyamam’ is better, so if your activities are not giving you a good gut, a good sleep or a good mind, it means you need to get rid of that activity or pattern, be it the super healthy food or exercise, if it’s not serving you the good trios, it’s a direct indicator to reduce or get rid of that pattern.
If you are over nourished or in excess weight gain, chances are high that your sleep might not be sound. You might be having enough time on bed or may have no trouble in falling asleep, but your sleep isn’t going to be good unless you keep a check on your food and exercise. The patient might not complain about insomnia, but always has this feeling of tired, run out of energy even after 7 hours of sleep.
If you are on medications for other issues and have trouble falling sleep, you need to discuss it with your doctor because if you don’t have quality sleep, body never heals and the illness will prevail even if the symptoms go on a vacation! if you have been accustomed to wrong routines, wrong food patterns, addictions and a jumbled up circadian rhythm, please take a week off before you run in for sleep inducing pills and instant solutions.
Late sleepers might even get an insomnia in the long run, night shifts have become the new natural, but if you don’t take enough rest in the morning, you might get insomnia attack in the long run. Ayurveda finds the night sleep to be normal and the day sleeps to be over nourishing, so if you have lost 10 hours of sleep at night, you must be sleeping for 5 hours in the morning according to ayurveda! Here in our science, day sleep is prescribed for those suffering from digestive problems and those really interested to gain weight!
Comfort is another bigger inducer of sleep, comfort doesn’t mean luxury, soothing yourself with pleasant thoughts is important. Although it is not practically possible to keep away from day-to-day stress, understanding that nothing comes in between your wellness and body is important. Ayurveda has a beautiful quote on sleep that goes like this-
‘when the mind and body that is weak due its optimum performance, finally decides to detach from its activities, that is when a man has the sleep which is nourishing to both the body and mind.’
Keep yourself away from every heated debate on social media, not just the blue light, but the blue hue it creates in your mind, you need not listen to informative podcasts, but switch to the old bed time stories or adventure stories for good sleep. Amidst all this noise, our mind deserves some peace, to put together all the pieces it has lost!
Letting yourself get immersed in the serenity of nature, practicing meditation, finding yourself a hobby that could actually soothe your mind can help with the dopamine rush and let your mind relax.
For more facts on sleep, do check on daily hygge!
