Natural Sleep Remedies: Unlocking Restorative Sleep

Here is my definition of good sleep or what is commonly called ‘restorative sleep’

“To sleep well is to manage to fall asleep easily. It means sleeping uninterrupted for 4-8 hrs (the hrs vary for everyone). One should be able to go right back to sleep if they wake up in the middle. It also involves not remembering too many dreams. The important point is not to remember them, even though one have them. In the morning, you should get up recharged, rested, and ready to spring out of bed like small children do.”

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A dear friend would argue with me endlessly and say but this can never be true for everyone. There are always the larks and the owls, she would point out. I would always disagree. If this was to be true, nature would give us two different times for its rhythms (sunrise and sunset). These rhythms govern our body’s circadian rhythms (can read more about circadian rhythm here). So, larks and owl in the human body do not have a different nervous system. It is their habits and sometimes their diseases that is impacting their sleep quality and causing insomnia.

Why worry about insomnia or lack of restorative sleep ?

Sleep is crucial for maintaining body’s natural equilibrium. Some naturopaths have used sleep as the only form of treatment. They make their patients sleep for long periods in open air and under the night sky.

At the least, it is what we need for a healthy nervous system. To function well, our brains need to plan, prioritise, execute, play, coordinate, and mingle with others. They need their share of activities that engage and periods of rest that recharge. Good quality sleep is that everyday recharge.

At it’s worst, disturbed sleep over a long period of time can lead to insomnia. All good therapists today know that bad sleep affects the nervous system that in turn affects mental health.

Disturbed hormones, whether in the form of reproductive issues or stress/cortisol fatigue, always have bad sleep in the background. Infact, I can say this enough experience and reliability now, you cannot naturally cure hormonal and auto immune conditions without first correcting sleep.

Sleep apnea, an extreme form of sleep disturbance, is a very unpleasant and functionally detrimental disease to live with. It does not just affect the patient’s quality of life but also of their partners’. Imagine sleeping next to someone who snores crazily or who sleeps with a machine; both uncomfortable scenarios to deal with.

What can one do about insomnia?

Everything starts with an honest assessment of what is happening now. You can use the five questions at the beginning of this post to self-assess. If you realize that your sleep quality is not great, it is worth understanding the reasons. Or if it’s okay, but you want it to be better, try these solutions.

1. Keep Gut clean

Everything starts in the GUT. Once you get this right, many issues are automatically resolved. Please read through my earlier post on this here. An unclean gut will start the process of re-absorption in 24 hrs. So waste material which should have by then exited the body will start getting reabsorbed into the blood stream. When unclean blood circulates in the body, sleep is one of the things that can get disturbed. A polluted blood stream is like a polluted river. It can cause blockages such as aches and pains. It also causes impediments, such as a feeling of heaviness and gas. Additionally, it makes the body overall more acidic than alkaline. Gas and acid reflux can be particularly problematic at night. My guide was very concerned about this issue. He insisted on giving people enemas at night. He focused especially on those with a heart condition.

If you experience heaviness, gas, acidity or are prone to acne, pimples or boils, your gut need cleaning. If you go to sleep easily but regularly get up in the middle of the night and then find it difficult to go back to sleep, focus on your gut. Read the article mentioned above to see how.

2. Keep stomach empty

Sleep is a process of resting; resting of not just the nervous system but all the organs. When the digestive system is at rest, the process of repair and rebuilding can happen. If the digestive system stays active because you have eaten a late or heavy dinner (not 3 hrs before sleep time), you might toss and turn at night. You may also experience heaviness, heat, and acidity. The stomach which should have gone into an inactive mode by then, is being forced into activity.

Finish your meals 3 hours before going to bed. This is especially important if dinner is your main meal. It’s also important if you eat rich or heavy food. Those who want to do more, finish your eating with the sunset. The idea of supper rather than dinner is worth aping from the west . Especially for those with asthma and heart conditions, don’t make dinner your main meal.

3. Wind down mental activity

If you do concentrated mental work (planning, calculating, designing, pay attention to minute details) and work late into the night, your brain can go into an overdrive. Think of it as a car rolling down a road. It keeps going on and on even after the brakes have been applied because it has gained so much speed/momentum as it was rolling. That is how cognitive functions of the brain work. The brain can keep running, as way of thinking, even after you have stopped engaging in that activity physically. Excessive worry, anxiety, over thinking or too much talking post 8 pm, are other reasons why the brain goes in an overdrive and gets heated.

Whichever part of the body is highly activated, blood flow there is automatically increased. So, with continuous thinking, there is increased blood flow in the neck and head areas.

Just like you want to finish your dinner 3 hours before bedtime, you also want to stop doing concentrated mental work a couple of hours before sleep time. To ‘Cut-off’ and engage in activities that ‘wind you down’ are not just cliches but much needed for good sleep.

To bring down the blood flow from the head region, take a hot foot bath, 20 minutes before sleep-time. Take hot water in a bucket, as hot as you can tolerate and soak your feet, upto calves, in it. Keep a jug of boiling water close by and keep adding as to the bucket. Let your feet soak for 15-20 minutes. Remove feet and walk straight to the bathroom. Keep your feet under regular tap cold water for 1- 2 minutes. Dry them and get into bed.

Do not watch any screens or read after this. Can listen to a pleasing audio.

4. Rest the eyes and reduce screen time

Thanks to modern day living, no matter what we do for work, or whether we even work, we all have too much exposure to screens (tv, computers, phones). Eyes have a direct pathway to the frontal/thinking brain. That is to say that what we see will directly impacts the thinking and visual centers of the brain.

But here is what I have learned about screens, distance matters most! So, those of us who still watch the television before going to bed will have less sleep disturbance. This is compared to those who watch their phones with heavy scrolling. Scrolling is a double whammy because it not only affects the eyes but also stimulates the brain.

Ideally get away from screens at least 1 hour before bedtime. If that is not possible then increase the distance between your eyes and screen (TV is the best here).

Tratak: Do this 30 minutes before bedtime. Sit on the ground in any comfortable position in a place that is pitch dark and without any wind .You will need to shut off fans for the duration of candle staring here. At arm’s length and eye level keep a candle. Light the flame. Ensure there is no draft. Stare at it without blinking for as many seconds as possible. Let your eyes feel the strain and water. When it gets too much to bear, blink a couple of times, and close your eyes. Try and see the candle flame inside with closed eyes. This is 1 round. Repeat this 3-5 times. This should take you about 15 -20 minutes. Then with eyes closed lie down on the floor (same spot where you were sitting) and just notice your breath. Do this for another 10 minutes.

Wash your eyes with tap water and move to bed. NO SCREENS. If you can’t sleep, put on a gentle audio and keep eyes closed.

Note: If you have a serious eye condition (other than bad eyesight) or epilepsy, then don’t use a candle flame. Use a black dot to stare at instead.

5. Dissipate Nervous Energy

Have you ever come back after a great night of dancing? Despite feeling physically tired, you found it difficult to crash? This is nervous energy. It is when the emotional brain (limbic) gets super activated and can’t instantly calm down. This can also sometimes happen if you exercise late at night with emotionally charged music or if you have an unpleasant argument with a loved one. Emotional charge which can feel like excitement, restlessness, anger or even depressive mood, brooding, are the companions here. One feels this in the spinal cord: back of head or neck. Can also manifest as a slight strain, stiffness, numbing, or a ‘gut-wrenching’ feeling. A charged mood whether positive or negative can lead to sleep disturbances and also sometimes upset the stomach.

Have a cup of Chamomile or peppermint green tea 1-2 hours before bedtime (add some honey if you want). For some people a glass of warm milk will give the same effect. All these increase tryptophan that relaxes the nervous system and induces sleep. Follow the 5 pm rule for regular tea and coffee i.e don’t have these after 5 pm, they stimulate the nervous system. For some the cut off time will have to be noon, judge for yourself.

Take a cold shower or bath. Make it as cold as your body can tolerate. You should feel the coldness for a few seconds. However, you should not be shivering after rubbing yourself dry. If you live in India during the summer months, add some ice to a bucket of water. Use this chilled water for bathing. Wash head if possible. Keep the water running mainly on the head, neck and spine. Front of the body is not important here. Do this for at least 5-7 minutes.

Note: If you have any condition caused by nerve inflammation, like sciatica, consult with a naturopath first. Avoid taking cold baths without this consultation.

Once in bed, don’t use screens. Instead put on a gentle audio and keep eyes closed. Sounds really matter here, so make sure what you are listening to is gentle and calming.

Judging the reason for bad sleep quality will be difficult at first. You have to try a few of the above listed things to see which works best for you. A combination usually works for everyone.

I either do cold shower+ tratak if my energy feels more nervous (mood is emotional, restless). Or tratak + hot foot bath if energy is more in the head (concentrated work/heavy, deep thoughts, heaviness in head or eyes.

 

 

Try some of the above for 21 days and share your experience. You can either do so through the comment section of this post or write to me at yoururbannaturopath@gmail.com