Sleeping Well

Good sleep results from good daily habits. I hope the information below will help you get ready for your day by sleeping peacefully at night. Waking up happy and whole is essential to good health. Diet and memory are the two key factors in determining the quality of your sleep. Your memory bank can be used to remember a painful past, but it can also be used to remember this present moment.

These habits include:

 
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What are the best foods to improve my sleep?

Pain-Free Foods
Pain-free foods are foods that will not irritate during times of high stress and during a major health crisis. The following suggestions are based on clinical experience and nutritional knowledge.

Grains: Brown Rice, Millet, Buckwheat, Rice cakes and cereals, Tapioca flour

Fruit: Mangoes come first, especially in chronic inflammatory conditions. Cherries, cranberries, berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, etc.), watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, nectarines, papayas, pears, persimmons, pineapples, plums, pomegranates, prunes.

Some folks have to limit themselves to cooked or dried fruits. You may need to AVOID citrus fruits, apples, bananas, peaches or tomatoes.

Vegetables: Cooked leafy greens are probably going to be the easiest to digest at first. Then orange and yellow vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, collards, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, peas, potatoes (sweet and white), snow peas, sugar snap peas, spinach, string beans, summer or winter squash, sweet potatoes, tapioca, taro (poi), zucchini.

Beans: Split mung dahl, lentils, and refried pinto beans

Beverages: Water, herbal teas, fresh vegetable juices and fruit juices as tolerated. Room temperature or warmer is best for all beverages.

Condiments: turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic (if tolerated), salt in moderation, maple syrup, honey, vanilla extract.

What are the most problematic foods that disrupt good sleep?

These foods especially apply to those people with chronic pain and inflammatory diseases.

ALL Carbonated Beverages: These types of beverages disrupt stomach acid, thus stopping healthy digestion.

Nicotine and Tobacco Smoking: nicotine is a common irritant to tissues and cigarette smoke inhibits oxygen intake and increases the buildup of two toxic gases, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide

Oily food, fried food and hydrogenated oils, such as margarine: These foods are high in trans-fatty acids which have adverse effects on body metabolism, interfering with cell membrane permeability, promoting nerve degeneration, and depositing a residue that makes the cells, rigid, sticky, and prone to inflammation and infection.

Meats: flesh foods also contain high levels of trans-fatty acids, further promoting inflammation and suppressing immune functions.

Sugars & Alcoholic Beverages: these are common irritants to soft tissue and can be major challenges to the endocrine and nervous systems.

Can you show me in greater detail the 7 factors listed above here?

 
Food

  • Healthy adults should avoid eating solid foods for 4 hours before bedtime.
  • The last meal of the day should be light, easy to digest and warm.
  • Beverages should be warm, light and caffeine free. Not overly stimulating.
  • One cup (that is 8 ounces) of boiled milk with a teaspoon of sugar can be taken at bedtime, before brushing and flossing. Carbohydrates encourage the release of seratonin (the neurotransmitter of happiness to help you sleep).

Breath

  • 12-16 minutes of smooth slow diaphragmatic breathing will rebalance the nervous system.
  • Breath only through the nose.
  • "Alternate Nostril Breathing" is the finest method to remove all tension from the body and mind.

MInd

  • Write stuff down. Take 10 minutes and make a list of things that you must remember to do tomorrow. Clear your mind by making a good list.
  • People, events, music, news. All of these can replay in your dreams, thus ruining the chance to get to sleep. Deal with it (with them). Write down your goals for tomorrow.

The Bed

  • Too much comfort makes it too hard to get out of the bed.
  • A lousy bed makes it too difficult to rest deeply.
  • Pillows can be a curse or a blessing. Be practical. Think of what you are doing to your neck, jaw and face by how you sleep.

Sleep vs. Rest

  • The difference between sleep & rest is huge!
  • Rest begins with conscious breathing that allows the autonomic nervous system to rest. Rest requires you to stay awake, breathing slowly, smoothly and continuously through your nose.
  • Sleep is that unconscious state where the autonomic nervous system is fully alert and makes sure that we keep breathing and our heart keeps pumping.

Bedtime is 10pm. Always!

  • Adjusting our bedtime for optimal health is a biological necessity. We really cannot "go to bed whenever we want." All of us know that if we stay up past 11:30 pm, the fire of the mind awakens and then it is easy to stay up past 1 am.
  • Ayurvedic Medicine tells us that the fire of metabolism peaks from 10 am 'til 2 pm, and again from 10 pm until 2 am. Thus, have your heaviest meal at high noon so that your body will burn it up. And make sure you are in bed, sound asleep, by 10 pm (10:30 pm at the latest) before the fire flares up again.

Getting up On-Time

  • When it becomes easy to fall asleep by 10 pm, then waking can occur by 5 am. (Come on, that's 7 hours of sleep folks! That's enough.)
  • When you wake up, immediately stand up. Do it gently, but do it right away.
  • Have some warm water - a couple of glasses. Then move around.
  • Move, stretch, pace, bend. Gently remove the stiffness from the body.
  • Now it is time to visit the bathroom. Pass your stool and urine with ease and speed. No straining, no lounging on the toilet. When it is time to go, it is time to go. Otherwise, do not force anything. Just come back later.

 
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