Last updated on August 21, 2024 by Dr. Subashri Thanigaivel
Introduction
Once in an Interview, a HR shot a question about bedtime. The candidate replied “I am a hustler, I sleep whenever I get time and skip it with a cup of coffee on other days”
The candidate is rejected for this answer. You may wonder why a hard working candidate like him who is sacrificing sleep to become successful in his life is turned down.
The candidate takes sleep for granted, and it shows he doesn’t have a routine in his life. Despite being a hard worker, it shows he doesn’t recuperate enough to de-stress his body.
All the successful people in the world have a grand lifestyle, i.e. it is healthy enough to keep their mind and body aware. Their lifestyle includes a budgeted day for work, family and themselves.
When a man can design his own day with simple organizational skills, there is no doubt about his success in anything he picks. To develop such skills, you need a mind that is well aware, driven and calm during a stressful scenario. Sleep and diet are indirect variables that control your mind.
Scott Adams quotes that all successful people had systems in their life. From waking up to going to bed, they latched themselves to a solid system that drove them in the success path.
“Systems are nothing but your daily routines, and Ayurveda coins it as Dinacharya”
Sleep & Success
Early birds get the worm. Sound sleep is as important as waking up early in the morning. From Apple CEO Tim Cook to the present startup stars, every accomplished person makes sleep as their priority.
Bill Gates wrote in his blog that, “I knew I wasn’t as sharp when I was operating on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work, and I felt that sleeping a lot was lazy”
Jack Ma, opened up about the importance of sleep in World Economic Forum 2019, ““If I don’t sleep well, the problem will still be there, If I sleep, I have a better chance to fight it.”
Jeff Bezos also joins the club of sleep & success because he said, ″Eight hours of sleep makes a big difference for me, and I try hard to make that a priority”
These top three successful leaders has a family to take care of, an enormous company to run at a global level and yet they know the importance of sleep because that drives them to make better decisions, improve their productivity and think out of the box at stressful scenarios.
Daily Routines For Good Sleep
An outstanding quality of sleep is the one where you sleep with no disturbance to your REM, ability to wake up early and feel energized throughout the day.
Ayurveda customises sleep routines depending upon the Prakriti or Dosha imbalance. Prakriti helps to understand your body-mind constitution in depth. However, few habits are common without the need of knowing Prakriti.
In Dinacharya, going to bed at the same time every day is given high importance as it is the most influential factor in maintaining a good sleep throughout the night. Let us see some simple routines common to all the human beings regarding the good sleep cycle.
Snooze The Work-Life
Hit the snooze button for your work life between 5-6 PM. Turning off the work mode at 5 PM is ideal for you to focus on your personal life and family time. If you don’t have time for family or personal life, you can never de-stress the accumulated work pressure. For bachelors and spinsters, it is good to focus on skincare, personal hygiene and workouts after getting off from work.
Health Benefit – De-stresses your mind
Success Benefit – Develops time-management skill
Bye Bye Electronics
Turn off all the electronic devices that give work to your eyes, like watching TV, playing games or scrolling through social media. The screen-time is a big sleep inhibitor. WHO has submitted a research report in which it addresses the negative side of spending an immense amount of time on laptops and mobiles. When the sun goes down, it is important to signal the brain that it is night. When you are on mobile without thinking about your sleep routine, it makes your brain more active, and it refuses to shut down. Also, it damages your eyesight quickly.
Health Benefit – Improves the secretion of melatonin
Success Benefit – Helps you to stay aware of your surroundings
Early Light Dinner
Eat a light dinner like Idly, Idiyappam, vegetable soups or stew at 7PM.When you eat at 7 Pm or before that it helps in finishing your metabolism. This means there will be no problem with your bowel movement late at night, sticky constipation pain in your stomach at mornings or the continuous visit to the bathroom throughout the night. Also, a light dinner means faster digestion. Eating less than 500 calories for your dinner will put you to an uninterrupted good night sleep.
If you get hungry later, you could munch on fruits or Maida and white sugar free homemade cookies. They aid in triggering serotonin, which aids in sleep. Drinking turmeric milk or Ashwagandha milk also helps in triggering the sleep hormones. Ogestern Lehyam is one more sleep inducer which acts by relaxing the brain muscles and soothing you at a subconscious level.
Health Benefit – Improved bowel movements at mornings
Success Benefit – Aids in forming a habit in building a structured pattern
Control The Brightness
Dim your lights once you are done with dinner. Bright lights induce a serious issue with the night hormone melatonin. Lights can control your nerve pathway between the eye and brain. It has the potential to make you feel sleepy or remain wide awake. Turning down your brightness at home or at room during night will have a good reflection on your drowsy state. This also puts your brain into a soothing scene where it stops overthinking.
Health Benefit – Improves cognitive function of brain
Success Benefit – The improved cognitive capacity drives towards making better life decisions
Listening Helps
Listen to music, podcasts or any other radio shows without headphones plugged into your ears. If you have trouble turning your mind off, listening to something soothing can help you with it. However, listening to something with plugged in earphones will do more harm than good. Instead, listening to something via speaker will be better. Avoid heavy metal music, or energizing pop music. There are plenty of night radio shows where the host puts you to sleep with special meditation music. These can be helpful if you have an overactive brain or thinking capacity
Health Benefit – Rejuvenates your brain and sharpens the ear sensory
Success Benefit – Improves your listening skills to a range
Organize Your Tomorrow
Write a to-do-list for the next day. Group the tasks based on their mode of operation and rank them based on priority. In one of our YouTube lives with Dr.Santhosh Babu, IAS officer who has handled the technology and communications of Tamil Nadu Government, said “Organizing your tomorrow at today will make you more productive”. He also made it more meaningful by adding “When you write a to-do list for distinct tasks, it helps you to rank them based on priority”. This habit might help the active people to calm down. It helps you to feel that control you have in your day.
Health Benefit – Removes the unnecessary stress
Success Benefit – Improves the organizational and productivity skills
Massage For Mind
Enjoy a good massage with oil or moisturizer based on your skin type. This promotes a good blood circulation on your face, helps your body to relax the muscles and instructs your brain that you are ready to sleep. Rubbing an oil, serum or moisturizer across your body regulates the blood flow. When you massage around your cheeks, eyes and foreheads, it leaves you with a calm feel where you might feel like a princess or prince preparing for a tranquil night.
Health Benefit – Excellent blood circulation and skin rejuvenation
Success Benefit – Self-massage increase the confidence level
Shower Your Body
Take a good shower, warm or cold depending upon the weather. However, a light warm shower triggers the melatonin secretion well. Water is the best cleansing agent in the world. Drinking water neutralizes the acidity level in the morning and bathing in water removes the toxins in your body. It also has a positive effect on your mind too.
Health Benefit – Reduced inflammation at internal and external level
Success Benefit – Aids you in cleaning out unproductive habits
Your Bed Your Rules
Pick mattress, pillows and blankets based on your comfy level. It has a big impact on your sleep. When you sleep in an uncomfortable position or bed, you develop frustration and this affects the sleep hormones. Get into the bed where you feel comfy. Change your bed, direction of bed and blankets if you have to. Also if you like sleeping in darkness, have a pitch dark room or else leave a small bed lamp at your side. The temperature also plays an important role in inducing sleep. Not too warm or too cold is the best thing for a good REM sleep.
Health Benefit – It is said to regulate your Dosha imbalance at Ayurveda
Success Benefit – Making minor changes that solves major of your problems
Breathe In Breathe Out
Focus on your breath with eyes closed and in no time you will sleep like a baby. When you focus on how your breath down after closing your eyes, your brain has less chance of over thinking or worrying about the future. This is a trick that you can play on your mind to stop taking over control on you. It also normalizes your inhales and exhales leaving your lungs refreshed.
Health Benefit – Avoids snoring or other sleep disorders
Success Benefit – Improves your concentration capacity
Conclusion
You might still feel pressured if you can’t fall asleep after following these routines. It takes at least 15 days to see the results. Only when you implement them, you will get control of your sleep and also be at your full potential during the day.
If you are facing some serious sleep disorders or intense insomnia, seeking medical guidance is the right thing to do. You can get on your Whatsapp and send a message to 91-782589001 regarding your sleep. Our Health Care Genie will guide you towards healing your sleep problems with help of the vast panel of Ayurveda & Siddha Physicians.
