Meditate your way to a blissful night’s sleep
AS THE years pass, it’s an unfortunate fact for many that a good night’s sleep can become lighter and lighter. People over a certain age can find themselves up as many times in the night as when their children were newborns.
Why? First, the amplitude of our brain waves changes as we age — meaning sleep naturally gets lighter and we wake at the least sound.
Many older people are then tempted to catch up on a broken night with an afternoon nap, but this can sometimes result in yet more poor sleep the following night. It’s a vicious circle.
Overactive prostates can send men stumbling to the loo in the middle of the night, and for women, the onset of the menopause and nightly hot flushes can also cause wakefulness — as can the extra pounds that creep on with age.
When you put on weight, you’re more like to start to snore or develop sleep apnoea — a thicker neck means a narrower windpipe, which can cause snoring. And if you snore or have sleep apnoea, the overall quality of your sleep is changed for the worse, too.
Also, the older some people get, the less they exercise — whether through immobility, illness or a lack of confidence. But if you move less, you may find that you’re just not physically tired enough to sleep well.
Add the busy reality of modern day living and you have the ingredients for a terrible night’s sleep. After all, the fact you’re over 50 doesn’t mean your life won’t still be frenetic.
Thankfully, I sleep very well at night — I’m almost asleep before I even get into bed. I then wake in the morning feeling energised and sprightly.
That, I like to think, is down to my yoga practice. Indeed, the pupils I teach in my Monday class at 8.15pm report that their sleep that night is their best of the whole week!
So how does yoga help promote a good night’s sleep? Much of it is down to the release of tension — physical and mental.
We’ve discussed throughout this series how yoga exercises can release tension in the muscles and nerves of the body, helping to calm even your innermost cells. It has been shown to lower cortisol levels in the brain which helps reduce stress.
Yoga also regulates the nervous system, vital for anyone who sleeps badly. Many insomniacs suffer from ‘hyperarousal’ — i.e. when your ‘ fight or flight’ response is unnaturally raised.
Even if they feel exhausted at bedtime, if their nervous system is wide awake, they’ll struggle to sleep deeply. But yoga can help by providing balance to all the body’s internal chemistry.
The precise stretches and controlled rhythms of the exercises can also prove remarkably comforting in times of turmoil. Indeed, the concentration required to put your limbs in the right place or balance on one leg can still a troubled mind, purely by forcing you to think only about the actuality of your body.
But there’s more to yoga than just your physical self. It is, after all, a complete mind and body practice. And yoga aims to train and tone the mind as much as it does your muscles. How? Mostly through meditation. It’s a truly powerful tool that can improve your sleep, health and state of mind.
However, even the word ‘meditation’ still has somewhat hippy- ish or eccentric connotations. regardless, I really wish more people meditated — for their physical health if nothing else. Our inability to still our brain, and enjoy a thoroughly restful night’s sleep, can result in chronic stress that can eventually lead to disease. But by calming the mind and ‘switching off’, we can alleviate the damaging effects of stress on the body and mind. It’s not always easy at first, though. Calming the mind can be difficult, and like the physical yoga exercises, it only gets better with practice. But it can really help to improve the quality of your sleep as it gets to work on your overall stress levels. Indeed, when the mind is busy and frequently overloaded with worries about the past and anxieties about the future, the brain emits rapid beta brain
waves. Once we start to calm the mind and focus on one object or our breathing, the mind stays in the present tense which is free from stressful thoughts.
When this feeling of calm and peace flows through our being, the brain starts to emit slower and more rhythmic alpha brain waves. This lovely, peaceful sense of calm pervades our whole being, breathing slows down and stress hormone levels and blood pressure falls.
Meditators find they are less prone to stress and depression, have more energy, look younger and more radiant than nonmeditators — and they say that they sleep like a log.
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO BASIC MEDITATION
SIT in a comfortable position with your back straight. Crosslegged, kneeling or in your favourite armchair will do fine.
MAKE sure that you are warm enough as your temperature can drop a little during meditation. Ensure that you will not be disturbed. If you have an appointment later, be sure to set an alarm — as it’s not unusual to fall asleep during your first attempts at meditation. You can try it first thing in the morning, or just before bed — it’s up to you. Whenever you do it, it will help your stress levels and the quality of that night’s sleep.
CLOSE your eyes and concentrate on breathing. Don’t try to change or regulate it, just bring your attention to it. IF YOUR mind wanders — and it does, even for experienced meditators — just bring your attention back to your breathing. Please don’t think that you are ‘bad’ at meditating because your mind wanders, just relax and gently bring your mind back to your breathing and allow all other thoughts to gently slip away. This is my preferred technique for meditation. Other ways include focusing on an object such as a beautiful flower or leaf, a special piece of crystal or rock, a candle flame (make sure it’s in a safe place if you think you might fall asleep) or, perhaps, a religious symbol. Some people prefer to repeat a mantra. You don’t have to ‘om’ however — you can just repeat a word like ‘peace’ or ‘calm’. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, say it softly and slowly, making your exhalation and the sound last as long as possible. repeat it over and over again, until a feeling of peace flows through you. Start with 10 minutes of meditation, gradually increasing to 20.
While it doesn’t matter what time you meditate as such — the benefits of such relaxation are consistent at any time of day — you might find that if you make meditation part of your nightly bedtime routine, it can really help you drop off.
After all, a regular routine before sleeping is as important for adults as for young children, helping signal to the body that’s time for rest after a busy day.
Why not try a few simple yoga stretches — for example, upwards Stretch, Forwards and Backwards Bend, followed by Back Stretch and Neck Exercises? This can shake out the last few kinks in the body before the day concludes. Then, lying or sitting in a comfortable position, take a few really deep breaths, then imagine the waves of the sea going forwards and backwards towards you.
The rhythm of your breath and in the image of the sea in your mind’s eye should prove wonderfully relaxing.
With these little steps, sleep should be much more forthcoming. And there’s nothing more anti-ageing, more likely to erase your lines and wrinkles, than a good night’s sleep.
respected leading consultant cosmetic plastic surgeon Jeya Prakash, agrees about the beautifying benefits of meditation, saying: ‘At home I practise meditation for 20 minutes every day. After five minutes of my mantra, the stress goes out of my head and I have a few minutes of a completely static pure mind.
Meditation is like washing your body from the inside. People say I look fresher, more vibrant. This is the real secret of youthful skin.’