Are you waking up during the night and not getting enough sleep? Especially if you are 50-75 years young?
You go to bed, and you toss and turn and can’t sleep and when you do sleep, you wake up around 2:30 am. You feel like you are just not getting enough sleep.
Before yoga, I would go to bed 11pm or even 12pm and wake up during sleep and just never had a proper sleep time and never did get enough rest.
Dr Joseph Murphy, author of “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” says: “Guidance is given to you while you are asleep, sometimes in a dream. The healing currents are also released, and in the morning, you feel refreshed and rejuvenated.”
There are many reasons you may not be able to get a restful sleep so you should always check with your medical doctor first before doing any selfcare practices.
Lack of sleep causes you to have poor memory, lack of proper coordination, confusion and disorientation, depression, and mental disorders. The benefit of proper sleep includes peace of mind, improves your memory and ability to learn, increases your attention and focus and creativity and reduce inflammation in your body therefore beneficial to arthritis and other painful conditions, reduces risk of heart attack, reduces hypertension, balances sugar levels, increases muscle mass, increases tissue regeneration, boost your immune system, and balances your hormones.1
You want to get enough sleep so that you can wake up feeling fully rested and motivated to start the day. Also, there are stresses and problems that may come at you during the day, and these can stress your mind and cause you to not have a restful sleep at the end of the day.
So, it is important to begin doing calming activities as the evening rolls in to ground your energy and calm your mind so that any stress that you accumulated during the day can be processed and released allowing you to sleep deeper longer and more soundly.
Unless you live in a cave by yourself, you are going to be mixing and talking and being around people and your energy will be challenged. You have your own energy field, but then you are also connected with other people’s energy field, for example, when you go in a room with other persons, you immediately pick up on the energies of persons whether you can approach them or not. Everything is energy and the energy is constantly flowing and does not stay still.2 Therefore, you must quiet or calm your mind from constant activity caused by the different shifts in energy, so that you will have a more restful sleep.
You should always endeavor to stay aware of your situations around you during the day and be aware of how this is affecting you physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
You must have body awareness, emotional awareness, and spiritual awareness to be able to adjust these patterns to a more positive outcome so that you can be in a better position when your precious sleep time comes around.
To prepare overall for your evening rest, you should finish a light dinner preferably by 7pm and then avoid all food after. You should start winding down by 8pm and then be in bed by 9 to 9:30 pm.3
Here are 5 self-care practices to encourage a more restful and productive sleep:
1. Massage your feet with oil before bed. Here is a routine that is simple but very effective. This foot massage brings energy downwards, calms your mind and releases tension from your body. You can use a blend of sesame oil with sunflower oil and put on an old sock to absorb the oil to avoid getting oil on your bed. While massaging your feet make sure to massage each space between the toes and massage the toes themselves and if there are any tender spots, spend some extra time on that spot with a gentle massage. Also massage your ankles and the top of your feet in a gentle manner. Make sure that you get all areas massaged on the bottom of your feet for a thorough massage.
2. Go for a peaceful walk. Go out in the fresh air, and nature with the trees and flowers and grass and look up at the sky and just be grateful and take time to be aware of your thoughts about any problems you had during the day and process them and get a more positive perspective on any issues that bothered you and begin to calm your mind down.
3. Meditation. One of the many benefits of meditation is that it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and relaxation response and encourages you to release any tension or stress build up during day. You can do five or ten minutes by putting your hands on your heart and saying, “I set an intention for a restful, proper sleep. My body is healthy, my mind is calm, and my soul is at peace.” Keep your hands on your heart and focus on your breathing and let your thoughts float by. Take a deep breath and let the breath flow into your hands and feet animating your feet and toes and fingertips.
4. Do a restorative yoga pose called “Legs up the Wall”:
Legs up the wall or in Sanskrit, Viparita Karani is an inversion pose which is recommended to do before bed to encourage restful sleep. This pose improves sleep, relaxes your feet, helps to relieve leg pain, relieve mild ache in the back; helps with cramped legs, heals mild anxiety, arthritis, digestive issues, headaches, hypertension, migraines, breathing problems, symptoms of depression, and symptoms of menopause, among other benefits, all which can prevent you from getting a proper rest.4 To do this inversion, first get your props. You can get a blanket to lay on and a cushion to lay under your hips and a small cushion to lay your head on. Of course, find a wall you can do this pose, then, simply swing your legs up against the wall as you turn to lie flat on your back. Place your hips against the wall or slightly away. Place your arms in any comfortable position. Stay in this position for up to 20 minutes.
5. Crystals that help to encourage restful sleep.
Celestite and Amethyst are crystals that help to encourage restful sleep.
Celestite is recommended to be used when you are having trouble sleeping. This crystal has a calming energy which helps to clear your mind, dispelling negative thoughts that might haunt you throughout the night and infuses your bedroom with calming enhancing vibes. And, when your mind is free of the mental chatter, you can sleep soundly until morning.
Amethyst crystal promotes intuition, relaxation, and peace. This crystal has a relaxing energy that is very useful at the end of a stressful day. You can allow the soothing energy of the Amethyst crystal to calm you down and allow you to have a restful sleep. You can keep this crystal in your bedroom to encourage relaxation before sleep.
Before using your crystals, you can leave in the sunlight or moonlight for four hours to be charged and cleansed. Clear off your nightstand of any clutter and hold your fully charged crystal in your hand while setting an intention by saying “I activate this crystal, I sleep soundly”. You can repeat this about three times. Then you place the crystal on the nightstand and gaze at it, then breathe deeply and drift off to sleep.5
I would love to hear from you if you practiced any of the selfcare routines in the evening and felt rested enough to have a great restorative sleep. You can email me at Kerrinesyogamindset@gmail.com.
I teach a gentle form of Vinyasa and Restorative yoga to persons 50-75 years young. If you are interested to delve into a yoga practice and would like some guidance, please get in touch with me at Kerrinesyogamindset@gmail.com.
