5 Tips on How To Sleep Deeply from Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine
At the beginning of the pandemic Harvard Med’s Division of Sleep Clinic released a paper with their best recommendations for sleep (Yuan, 2020). Let’s explore the 5 Tips on How To Sleep Deeply that they offered.
Firstly, I loved that they leaned into how our daily lifestyle choices impact our circadian rhythms. These choices shape our sense of well being and capacity for sleep.
Secondly, the key message to me in their work was rhythmicity as I had learned in my Ayurvedic studies. Keeping the body in routine helps to pacify the activity of the autonomic nervous system (vata) that creates the neurohormonal pathways that give us a sense of well being day to day.
For example, here are the 5 Tips on How To Sleep Deeply they offered:
Get bright light exposure during the day,
Create a consistent schedule of social interaction at the same time each morning
Eat your meals at the same time each day, especially breakfast.
Work out around the same time each day and avoid being sedentary for long stretches of time
Dim the lights and switch to quiet activities in the evening as it helps tell your body ‘it’s time to sleep’.
Ayurveda teaches us how Nidra (sleep) is one of the three pillars of health, alongside ahara (food) and brahmacharya (how we manage our daily energy). To clarify, I love the techniques that I learned from my studies in Ayurveda for good health.
Daily Routines and Sleep
It always includes starting the day with a steady and health promoting routine.
In fact, I have even told patients in the past that how we wake up the morning actually helps us fall asleep at night.
Without good sleep, we are pushing the river!
Unfortunately, I’ve struggled with sleep since residency – in particular working since working at the Mayo Clinic with post-transplant patients in the ICU.
True for you also?
What is your best sleep tip?
Join me this Sunday, August 22 at 9 AM PST for a webinar where I’m going to share how to shift from #burnout to thriving. I plan to include an Ayurvedic morning routine as well as evidenced based lifestyle routines. Learn more about my program in Ayurveda here and about me here.
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