Last updated on August 21, 2024 by Dr. Subashri Thanigaivel
Self love is now a hot topic these days. When self-love is on-point, you will have a healthy life with minimal worry towards your sleep or body. Contradictory, when you are in love with a significant other you will have trouble sleeping at night.
Well, it all has to do with your hormones in the body.
Happy or sad, any hormone abnormal in your body will leave you awake the entire night or feel exhausted even after hours of sleep.
Hormones play vital roles in regulating the sleep. These hormones are affected by the diet, environment around you and weather too. Few fall asleep at the moment they close their eyes while many can’t because sleeping is associated with hormones, digestive fire and mind.
“Sound sleep is self love you do to yourself”
Dr.Subashri , Chief Ayurveda Officer, LiveRight
It is ignorant to not to respect yourself and your body.
In this blog post you will see Ayurvedic perspective of sleep in daily life and how you can fall asleep in a few minutes.
Summary Of The Blog Post
1. What is a good quality sleep?
2. Ayurveda perspective on sleep
3. How to fall asleep based on your dosha imbalance?
4. WhatsApp Consultation for your sleep problems
What is a good quality sleep?
An individual’s health is measured based on three variables from the physiology
1. Quality of sleep
2. The digestive fire
3. Daily routine speed
These variables are not constant for all. It varies depending upon your body type, age and nature of your lifestyle.The ability of an individual to fall asleep in a matter of minutes, the hours of undisturbed sleep he/she gets and the functioning energy in the daytime are the three quality determinants of sleep.
How To Find Your Sleep Quality?
1. How long does it take to fall asleep once you hit the bed?
2. How long do you sleep at night?
3. Do you take naps or sleep in during the mornings or afternoons?
4. Do you get disturbed upon hearing even light noises or light?
5. Do you feel no energy during your day time?
If you answered yes to the last three questions, you have poor sleep quality irrespective of your 1-2 answers. A healthy individual takes upon 10-20 minutes to fall asleep when they hit the bed. If it is over 20 minutes, then you need to consider revising your sleep patterns. The hours of sleep vary depending on the individual, 6-8 hrs of sleep is considered an appreciable amount of time to rest and recuperate your body.
Ayurvedic Perspective On Sleep
In Ayurveda, sleeping is one among the important actions that determines the immunity of the individual. As mentioned earlier, hormones, digestive fire and mind influences one’s sleep.
Ayurveda coins insomnia as Nidra-naasha. Ayurveda defines insomnia, or the sleep-deprived condition resulting from the accumulation of dirt and impurities in the body brought upon through diet and circumstance around you.
The wisdom that Ayurveda shares about sleep is that it is more essential than having a proper diet. However, sleep is induced only when you have a proper diet. The ancient system of medicine groups sleep based upon an individual prakriti and dosha imbalance. When you don’t have enough sleep, the dosha gets aggravated more, and it takes a stab at the physical and psychological conditions of the human body & mind.
Ayurveda allows you to embrace the natural flow of energy in the world around you and inside you. The morning time will have a fresh flow of energy from the night time. This is also because of the continuous change in the weather condition of the day. All living organisms react to this weather, temperature change based on the principle called “Homeostasis”
Here is a picture of the Ayurvedic Cycle and the time (energy) flow in the day
As you can see the Kapha Time starts at 6:00 AM and that is why Ayurveda encourages you to wake up before 6 AM. If you woke up before 6 AM, then you will rule the day for sure.
And also you can see the evening 6 PM is again Kapha Time, where having your dinner is good. Also preparing for bed from this time is an ideal choice because Kapha is ruled by heavy qualities like water and earth. Eating a light dinner is a wise choice that can balance those heavy elements.
This cycle tells why flowing in the time is crucial and the impact it has on your sleep and night time.
How to fall asleep based on your dosha imbalance?
Sleep is triggered and inhibited by hormones in your body. The diet, words you hear and the lifestyle you follow affects your sleep cycle.
Some days when you hit the bed, you fall asleep in a few moments without even realising it, while the other nights it seems like a war with your mind. Sleep is controlled by your hormones and moods. In layman terms, Ayurveda points that imbalance in dosha is the root cause of sleep deprivation or disorders.
When you have aggravated Vata energy, as soon as you hit the bed, a flood of emotions will rise through your subconscious mind. This keeps the brain to remain active for hours and the sleep-inducing hormones struggle to secrete.
When you have aggravated Pitta energy, your body will be tired enough to sleep, but you will wake up in the middle of a deep sleep and cannot go back to sleep afterwards.
For an elevated Kapha energy, the sleep disorder is a slight difference. You will sleep for long hours but still feel exhausted at day as well.
Before reading further, take a Prakriti Test, to better understand about your prakriti and dosha imbalance.
PRAKRITI QUIZ : FIND YOUR DOSHA IMBALANCE
Once you know what is your dosha, it controls the factors that influences your sleep
A common remedy like, meditate before you sleep or take a hot shower before sleep works for some and for others it doesn’t even make any sense at all. A dominant Vata, can never sleep if their vata energy is elevated. The creative wanderer struggles to turn off their mind. So taking a hot shower or drinking warm milk alone will not help them fall asleep.
In similar to this, let us see how each body type, prakriti can fall asleep based on their hormones, digestive fire and mind.
Kapha Sleep Tips & Night Routines
If you have a Kapha Prakriti or Kapha-Pitta or Kapha-Vata Prakriti, 99% of it is effortless for you to fall asleep. But when your Kapha is aggravated at high levels, sleeping becomes a struggle. Here is how a Kapha Prakriti person sleep variable looks like
1.Digestive Fire – The digestive fire of the Kapha Person is termed as “Mandha Agni”. They have a slow metabolism rate. It is not ideal for them to eat heavy meals at any part of their day. If they have a balanced diet by including pungent, bitter and sour taste food, it helps to increase their digestive fire.
2. Hormones – Kapha people are the sages of the world. They don’t get the adrenaline rush or the nerve wrecking sweat. But when the Kapha Dosha is aggravated or disturbed, they will sleep throughout the day and never be able to maintain their night time routines. The melatonin gets disturbed.
Night Routines
Kapha individuals are slow-moving people, so if you have elevated Kapha, the below night/evening routine is ideal for you to follow to have a good night sleep. By nature aggravated Kapha, makes you procrastinate at the first half of the day with lethargic attitude and rush up to catch everything at the second half of the day. To avoid this, you need to start your morning with a heavy workout to increase your energy levels.
1. High Intensity Work-Out
When you get off from work, it is common for you as a Kapha person to sit in front of your television or mobile phone and slouch on your couch. To avoid this, get into shower every evening and go to the gym. This curbs the screen time and makes you more active during the evening as well.
Perform a high intensity workout where you feel your energy levels are pumped up and it will kick out the inertia of your Kapha imbalance. This will also help you to transit out from your work-mode.
2. Television Free Dinner
Sitting with Television or laptop, binge watching Netflix or spending time on mobile devices are some common characteristics of a Kapha person. They need to avoid these habits during the evening time. While eating dinner, it is good to avoid the TV or electronic devices and focus on the plate and the taste of the food.
3. Ginger Tea After Dinner
The digestive fire is slow for Kapha Dosha people, so to increase your night dinner metabolism, ginger tea (without milk) will speed up the digestion process and it prepares the body for the night sleep with no trouble in the bowel movement.
4. Pranayama Before Bed
Imbalanced Kapha energy will lead to negative thoughts and depression. Depression is one of the big reasons for insomnia and sleep disorders. To mitigate the negative thoughts, doing simple breathing exercises before hitting the bed will ease the melancholy mind.
Food To Avoid
Elevated Kapha leads to sleep disorders and lethargic days where you feel like you have no energy at all. It is because of the imbalance of melatonin hormone and your body is not feeling energized during the day. The following foods should be avoided from your diet if you have high levels of Kapha energy in your body.
1. Frequent intake of desserts, sugar or any sweet based food must be avoided.
2. Carbonated drinks, soda, tetra pack juices must be avoided
3. Any type of alcohol or wine must be avoided
4. Deep fried or shallow fried are not good choice for Kapha people
5. Heavy, oily and cold meals are a big no
6. Red meat is not a good choice for Kapha individuals
Lifestyle changes
Morning & Evening workout is must to pacify your Kapha dosha. The constant feel of not having energy and the need to sleep can be avoided through a high intensive exercise. This needs to be a part of your daily routine forever.
1. Don’t be couch sloth
Sticking with TV or electronic devices makes your Kapha dosha aggravate to a high level. Binge watching movies, shows or playing games will lead to the downside of being a Kapha person. These are all the early signs of heading into a depressive state.
2. Watch What You Eat
Overeating is one of the most factors that increases the likelihood of getting a Kapha Dosha. This leads to obesity and also insomnia. Obesity and insomnia drives each other. It is advised to have a 3/4th of your stomach filled during your meals.
3. Music & Massage
Brisk music is a good kick to curb the elevated Kapha energy. Also the morning massage with a sesame oil also activates your body cells with good circulation. This could make your morning active and dull-free.
Vata Sleep Tips & Night Routines
An individual with dominance of Vata energy will have Vata Dosha– increased amount of air and ether elements in the body. The Vata individuals are creative wanderers of the earth and they display the characteristics of air and ether. They represent air, movement and forced pressure. Ether is space and emptiness.
Active individual, who has full potential to increase their growth in life over a small period. While when their energy becomes aggravated, when Vata energy is increased, there is a chaos individual with a restless mind.
If you have an elevated Vata energy or your prakriti is Vata-Pitta or Vata-Kapha, then you should consider the below routine pattern to develop a good sleep pattern.
1. Digestive Fire – The digestive fire of the Vata Person is termed as “Vishama Agni”. They have an erratic metabolism rate. It is not ideal for them to eat dry, raw or skip meals at any part of their day. If they have a balanced diet by including sweet, salty and spicy food, it helps to regular their digestive fire.
2. Hormones – Vata people wanderers of the world. They are constantly engaged in something and can never stay idle at all. They have good solid focus if their energy is balanced but when aggravated or disturbed, they lose concentration, willpower and determination to finish things. They will feel tired throughout the day and never be able to maintain their night time routines. The melatonin gets disturbed at a pretty high level for a Vata person. They are mostly diagnosed with insomnia conditions and low-levels of melatonin.
Night/Evening Routine
1. Following a routine is very hard for a Vata person. Therefore to make it easy, the routines for balancing the Vata dosha is given with time and step-by-step things.
2. Sticking to a fixed evening routine will make balance out the aggravated Vata energy and calms the mind before hitting the bed.
3. Intake your dinner before 7 PM and please eat a very light dinner.
4. If you are hungry after 7 PM, intake fresh fruits and avoid juices.
5. Turn off all the electronic devices and become screen-free once you have intake your dinner.
6. Write your tomorrow to-do list. This habit lets the Vata mind to calm down and feel good about themself.
7. Apply some oil based moisturizer or herbal oils like Nalpamaradi Thailam, sesame oil or almond oil on your face, joints, fingers and neck. Give a nice gentle massage in circular motions and leave it for 10 minutes. Take a warm shower or wipe them with a wet towel.
8. Mix 1 spoon of Ashwagandha powder in 1 glass of warm milk and drink them.
9. Vata people are advised to have a very soft bed, wear soft and comfy clothes while they get to sleep. A clean sheet, fluffy pillow, and warm blankets will make Vata sleep peacefully
Food To Avoid
1. Frequent intake of raw food, salads, pungent tasting food
2. Carbonated drinks, soda, tetra pack juices must be avoided
3. Deep fried or shallow fried are not good choice for Vata people
4. Dry meals, without oil or spiciness are big no
5. Intaking lot of liquid food during the meal hours should also be avoided
6. Processed or packaged food should not be intaken frequently
7. Skipping breakfast is very bad for Vata Dosha
Lifestyle Changes
1. Align Your Internal Clock
The tough job for aggravated Vata is to calm their mind. The quick witted smarty pants should learn to turn off their mind when it is required to. This happens when they wake up and sleep at the same time every day. Don’t force your body to wake up at 6 AM if you have never woken up early at all. Start by sticking to one specific time and repeat that for a week. Then try moving half an hour early after every week.
2. Meditation At Outdoors
The increased vata energy can be lowered by interacting with nature. Taking a walk, jog, meditation or breathing exercises outdoors in the morning is an excellent way to calm the mind. The morning and evening meditation will help the Vata individual to ease their mind and snap off when they hit the bed.
3. Increase the intake of Water Content
The elevated Vata Dosha will lead to increased emptiness i.e ether, so increasing them with heavy elements like water, oil, moist substances will balance their energy. When the emptiness gets filled, you will not have any more struggle in calming your mind.
4. Mindfulness Is Must
Mindfulness is a way to trick your mind and make it listen to your subconscious. There is a saying “Your soul knows to heal itself, it is the mind which you need to calm”. An increased Vata energy will have so many thoughts running inside the mind and they get stressed and also develop anxiety disorders. Vata people should learn to not to take things into their mind. They should focus on the things they say to themself. More than resting the body, taking breaks in between their works will also rejuvenate their mind.
Pitta Sleep Tips & Night Routines
The prudent pitta people turn into a clingy, angry and shallow person when their controlled Pitta energy overflows. Out of the three dosha, Pitta is the one that represents fire and water. Elevated pitta energy leads to heartburns, skin rashes and ulcer. This digestive disorders can make them insomnia or light sleepers. By nature they are very warm and organized people who can follow a good routine. It is important to watch what and when you eat to keep yourself balanced with Pitta energy.
1. Digestive Fire – The digestive fire of the Pitta Person is termed as “Tikshna Agni”. It is a high level of metabolism rate. The food molecules pass through the digestive tract too soon that it can leave the tissues with undernourishment. High Pitta energy will lead to increased body temperature, inflammation and irritation which affects the sleep cycle.
2. Hormones – Pitta people are like bridges of the world connecting different things with a proper order. They have a good sense of mental stability and focus if their energy is balanced but when aggravated or disturbed, they turn into angry birds. They will feel irritated throughout the day and never be able to maintain their routines. The melatonin gets disturbed at a pretty high level for a Pitta person. They are mostly diagnosed with trouble falling asleep.
Night/Evening Routine
To balance out the high Pitta level of energy, it is more important to keep a tab on when you eat and how you eat them. Although Ayurveda encourages eating a cooked warm meal, it is best to serve the meal to a Pitta person at room temperature.
1. Heavy Evening Meal
It is important to eat three meals a day. To pacify the pitta dosha, a good meal at evening will stop the irregular appetite at late night. Intaking sweet, juicy foods during evening will make the Pitta digestive fire to metabolize slowly and keep your tissues also nourished properly.
2. Mixed Evening Exercise
The physical activity needs to be a balance between intense and mild workouts. Heavy cardio, weightlifting or mild easy stretches will not calm your mind. Exercises like slow jogging, freestyle swimming, aerobics and moderate level of yoga can be more helpful to de-stress your body and prepare your mind for night.
3. Pranayama Is Must
The overactive Pitta mind needs to rest and turning it off can be challenging if you have high levels of PItta. Practicing Sheetali Pranayama & Nadi Shodhana can help your brain to regulate the hormones properly.
4. Moisturize Yourself
Skin issues are very common with aggravated Pitta energy. Applying night creams, serums and essential oils can help protect the radiating texture of Pitta skin. It also tones down the blood circulation to the normal level. Applying night creams or serums on face and gentle massage will calm down your sensory organs and instruct your brain that you are ready to sleep.
5. Firm Mattress & Cool Room
Please use a firm mattress with less blankets, no-fluffy pillows in a cool room temperature. This bed-set induces the aggravated Pitta Dosha to fall asleep irrespective of anywhere they sleep.
Foods To Avoid
1. Avoid spicy food with chillies, hot sauces and peppers.
2. Minimize the salt usage in your food and also eliminate sour tastes too
3. Dried fruits should not be taken in large quantities because they can accelerate digestion and it aggravates Pitta in the body.
4. Too much citrus intake is not good for Pitta people. It increases the acidity to a considerable amount.
5. Avoid eating hot, boiling and straight from oven food.
Lifestyle Changes
1. Biological Clock Is Crucial
Following the same time to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner is a good habit that keeps the hyperactive digestive system of Pitta people under control. Also sleeping and waking up at the same time helps your brain to understand your physiology better and balances the hormones accordingly.
2. Cool and Calm Place
Avoid working in a place where you find yourself hot or with increased body temperature. Air conditioned rooms are ideal for Pitta people. A cool with a little bit dry climate can help Pitta people to balance their mood also.
3. Intake Of Complex Carbohydrates
To stop feeling hungry all the time, it is essential to include a few complex carbohydrates in your diet. This can aid in balancing out the spiking Tikshna Agni in your body. Example : Oats, wheat bran, tubers and multigrains are some of the complex carbohydrates.
WhatsApp Consultation
Sleeping should never be taken for granted. No leader has said to destroy your mental peace to succeed in life. Hustling is cool but it should not happen at the cost of your body or mind.
Falling asleep quickly can take a few months to master and it also depends upon each individual’s unique prakriti. If you have trouble falling asleep means, send a WhatsApp message to 91-782589001. You will be surprised with our Health Care Genie making you to sleep quickly in few minutes.
You can also talk to our Ayurveda doctor to address your sleep problems and regulate them with diet, counselling and therapy sessions.
