“Insomnia. It’s all in your head”. If you mention that to an insomniac, it is like putting a red-rag to a bull. Because it is very, very real. I remember years of going to bed at 5am because it was dawn, and I was shattered, but still didn’t want to sleep. It’s a terrible infliction, but it doesn’t need to be. But that was a long time ago…
This article is inspired by a blog post over at Yoga Journal which you can read here, and my purpose is simple. The only approach to insomnia is to understand the nature of the mind-body connection and to seek natural cures for insomnia. You are unable to sleep because you either have too much energy, or you are too tired to sleep. If we are unable to sleep, it is because the current state of the mind is too distant from the sleeping state, and we cannot bridge the gap. Nora Isaacs makes some good recommendations in he post on restorative poses and soothing rituals that can really help.
However an understanding of the activity of the mind and the correlation with the wave patterns of
Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta Brain Acticity
the brain are important to understand. There are several commonly referenced types of brain activity observed in a normal person: Beta, Alpha, Delta.
During our normal activity, running around, stressing over life, we observe Beta activity in the brain. This has a frequency of between 15 – 30 Hz or cycles per second.
As we calm down toward the end of the day, our brain activity is supposed to be in the rage of 9 to 14 cycles per second, what we called ‘being relaxed’ or ‘in our creative mind’ with a sense of calmness. When you are spacing out with a good book, or watching a light program on tv, or maybe just chatting about our day, we might have this level of brain activity. During the day, we normally cycle between these two active states. Alpha and Beta.
During our sleeping cycle however, our brain activity drops down from Beta through Alpha (relaxed or light sleep), right down to a slow Delta rhythm of about 1 to 3 cycles per second, and then it increases activity to what we call REM sleep.
REM means Rapid Eye Movement, and it is during this stage that we dream, and clear and sort out the days ‘stuff’ from the unconscious mind. During REM activity, the frequency increases again to the Beta range of about 15 to 30 cycles per second, and it appears that we experience very similiar states to our waking state during dreaming, except that our body is mostly paralytic during this phase, probably to stop us acting out the movements of our dreams.
After this we return to light sleep, and start the cycle again. We probably repeat this cycle maybe 4 or 5 times a night and so have 4 or 5 episodes of REM sleep during the night. This type of sleep is the most restorative and healing, and cannot happen if we are extremely stressed or too aroused /energetic to reach this state of relaxation.
Now, this is important. When people take sleeping pills for insomnia, their brain activity goes straight from Beta Activity (alert) to Delta activiy and missed the steps inbetween. They are effectivelly knocked-out, or unconscious – comatose, and because they don’t experience normal REM sleep, the body does not get the restorative rest it needs, and does not go through it’s normal healing cycle, and so the person wakes up in the morning and they feel absolutelly ‘wrecked’. Because in fact, they are. In fact you are better off staying awake than taking sleeping pills.
If you are an insonmic, and do want to get over it. For ever, then find a good Kundalini Yoga teacher, and ask them to recommend a personal Kryia for you. If you want a quick fix, try the Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation, which you can find here. Start with 11 minutes, and build up to 62 minutes until the insonmia goes away (probably a few days or maybe weeks at the longest), and then maintain the practice for 11 minutes a day as you see fit.
Let me know how it goes.
Related Links:
- Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation. Excellent for insomnia. I recommend building up to 62 minutes
- How Dreams Work
- Brain Waves and Meditation
- Sweet Slumber
