The Science of Sleep : An Ayurvedic View

Good sleep is essential for the good quality of life. A number of vital physiological changes occur during sleep and help people stay healthy and function at their best.

Ayurveda regards Nidra (sleep) as one of the most essential factors responsible for a healthy and fulfilling life. It is one of the trayopastambhas (three great subsidiary pillars) on which a person’s health is firmly balanced.

Here’s what the classical Ayurveda text Ashtanga Hrdayam has to say about sleep: “Happiness and unhappiness, nourishment (good physique) and emaciation, strength and debility, sexual prowess and impotence, knowledge and ignorance, life and death— all are dependent on sleep.” 

Ayurvedic classics have clearly mentioned that one should never suppress the natural urge of sleep. Doing so causes delusion, excessive yawning, malaise, squeezing pain all over the body, drowsiness, lassitude, headache and heaviness in the head and eyes. Sleeping during the day in any season except summer is not advised as it vitiates all the three doshas.

Our Phones Are the New Caffeine

It may seem odd to go to bed two hours after sundown, but the only reason we stay up so late is the invention of artificial light. When we’re exposed to light, our body produces the hormone cortisol, which tells the brain to be alert, active and productive. As the sun sets, the body produces the hormone melatonin, which tells the brain to wind down and go to sleep. Electronics, especially phones, emit more cortisol-stimulating light rays than the sun itself. Looking at our phones and screens late into the night is suppressing melatonin and making our brains think that it’s still sunny out.

Staying awake at night produces dryness in the body along with complications of vitiated vata and pitta doshas, and decreased kapha dosha.

To ensure a sound sleep and thereby to improve the wellness of your body, follow these things:

·      Avoid day sleep

·      Turn off electronics at least one hour before you sleep

·      Have your dinner two hours before sleep

·      Go to sleep at regular time and wake up early.

::: HAVE A GOOD NIGHT :::