The Sleep Guru: 5 Tips for a Good Night's Sleep

The Sleep Guru offers advice on how to lead a healthy life through better sleep, without the need for sleeping pills.

Sleep is a question of balance. Human beings are complicated creatures and, over a number years, you can become so strung up it affects your sleep. Try following these recommendations, but look for all areas of your life that have become out of balance and always look for the roots of your sleep issues rather than looking for a sleeping pill which will only mask the problem. ---Anandi (The Sleep Guru)

1.  The breath is intimately linked with the mind and directly affects the quality of your sleep. If you are not sleeping, you are not breathing. Check out the Sleep Guru’s DVD, How to get rid of Insomnia – The Practise of Sleep, for more information on how to breathe. 

2.  Insomniacs often end up grinding their teeth making the masseter muscle extremely tight which creates all sorts of stress in the body.

Try this simple jaw massage for about 30 seconds 5 times a day, and before bed and insomnia could be a thing of the past!!! Find the corner of your jaw bone with your middle finger (careful of long nails!) and move the fingers in small circular motions as deeply as possible. It will feel uncomfortable, but that is because the muscle is tight. After 30 seconds open the mouth as far as possible and then relax, then see if you feel a sensation of lightness?

3.  Creating balance in your day is often something that is forgotten, we just run from the morning until bedtime and often sit in front of our computer for 12 hours a day…. try getting outside in the mornings for 20 minutes, it will help regulate the production of melatonin which is very important for sleep. You also need to dim the lights before bedtime, perhaps light a candle in the bedroom as you relax before turning the lights out completely. Use this as a kind of winding down tool.

4.  Laughter is extremely beneficial for health and sleep!!! You will feel incredibly peaceful after a good laugh plus it also strengthens the immune system and boosts your energy!

Join me for a good laugh! 
 
5.  Make a relaxation practice part of your day. I recommend savasana. Here is how:-

Find a space where you can put a mat, or blanket on the floor, preferably a space that is free from clutter, but certainly a place where you can close the door and not be disturbed.

Find some wonderful relaxing music and put it on a very low volume so it’s kind of bathing you in a sweet vibration.

Make sure you are warm, as the body relaxes the body temperature drops and you can feel cold, so personally I like to cover myself with a pashmina or a snuggly blanket depending on the general temperature.

Set your alarm (preferably something subtle, not one of those funky phone alarms). If you set your alarm, this means you can simply let go of the time and totally surrender yourself to the practice. If possible, not less than 20-30 minutes, for extreme exhaustion, 1 hour please!!!

Have a cushion on under your head, and a cushion or two under knees. Having something under your knees will relax the psoas muscle which pulls on your back when your legs are straight. Close your eyes, have your palms facing up and take a long deep breath in, exhale and let it all go. Continue with long deep breathing and imagine that your body is dissolving into the ground….feel yourself getting lighter and lighter…