Ayurvedic Tips to Help You Sleep Better

You loose a lot more than just shut-eye when you don’t sleep. You loose the ability to receive knowledge and compute information, your decision-making skills are affected, and your focus, creativity, and memory is compromised.

Modern health experts agree too! The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a study that found poor sleep at night can impair our behavior as much as being legally drunk does!

Thankfully, Ayurveda to the rescue! The sub-science of Ayurveda called Svasthavritta, includes many dietary and lifestyle based solutions to a variety of health challenges, including sleep related issues, like insomnia.

Check out these Ayurveda solutions below to help you get to sleep and stay asleep!

1. Go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6am.

This is the time frame that it is easiest to fall asleep and stay asleep in. This puts you in greater overall harmony with the natural cycles of day and night.

Between the hours of 8:30pm and 10:00pm the atmosphere is dominant in a quality known in Ayurveda psychology as tamas, meaning inertia or dullness. This quality makes sleep easier. When daytime rolls around, starting at 6:00am, the atmosphere is charged with rajas, which influences activity and movement.

2. Shut off your electronics by 8:00pm

In our modern world, everything is saturated by technology. By allowing yourself to turn off your T.V. and computer, and unplug from your day, you will start to see a drastic improvement in your sleep schedule. Shutting everything off and ridding yourself of distractions at a specific scheduled time helps your body recognize that it’s time to sleep.

3. It’s all about the bedtime ritual

Having a nighttime ritual that you practice every night is something Ayurveda has been recommending for thousands of years via dinacharya (daily routine) practices.

Ayurveda’s dinacharya protocol suggests that you spend the hours of 6:00pm & 10:00pm in the company of people, pets, books and activities that make you peaceful, calm, and grounded.

Around your bedtime you should pick up an inspiring book, go for a walk, listen to relaxing music, practice meditation, or write in a journal to help your body wind down.

4. Oil the top of your head, feet, and back of your ears

This Ayurvedic technique of oiling the soles of your feet, the top of your head, and the back of your ears with warm sesame oil not only promotes healthy sleep, it also combats the aging process, and relives stress.

Give these Aryuvedic tips a try the next time you have trouble falling asleep!

Namaste,

NuPowerYoga