Secrets to a Great Night’s Sleep
Secrets to a Great Night’s Sleep Many, many people can’t sleep through the night. Some people wake up at 3am and can’t fall back to sleep for hours, some people wake up super early like 5am and once they are up, that’s it! Still others need 1-2 hours just to fall asleep initially and some wake up feeling like they haven’t slept at all, even if it’s been 10 hours! Furthermore, so many think waking up for an hour in the middle of the night is normal? Some need the TV on all night other wise they can’t sleep at all. So, what’s got us so twisted up and restless during what should be the easiest and sweetest part of our lives? The rule of thumb from a Chinese medicine point of view is that adults need 8 hours of sleep. Obviously babies and teens need more and most seniors seem to get less, but as an average adult, we need 8 hours. Some people boast that they only need 4 or 5 hours and they feel great, we think it’s possible that they just forgot what ‘great ‘actually feels like. Sleep is a time where our body relaxes, our muscles recover, we heal, we are reborn every single night. For our health, it’s one of the most important things we do! What Are the Benefits of Getting a Good Night’s Sleep? The benefits of a good night sleep are endless, but here’s the top seven! Boosts your immune system Regulates metabolism Balances emotional wellness Decreases inflammation Reduces the risk of disease Memory and learning Increase of collagen for skin moisture and elasticity What Are Some Tips for a Better Sleep? Here’s 6 areas that could need a little tweaking so you can get that good night’s sleep, every night! Stick to the schedule I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but a bedtime routine is essential. Staying with the same bedtime; give or take 30 min, does wonders for your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is a pattern throughout the day and night and is measured by cortisol. Cortisol is naturally high in the morning and lowest at night. For people with crazy schedules, like working graveyard one week and then swing the next, then days- and yes, I know people with this schedule! Cortisol is usually all over the place, but luckily most of us have more predictability! With a predictable rhythm and pattern in place, the brain gets the signal and responds by releasing those lovely and very effective hormones to help us drift off easier. Tip: If you are curious what your circadian rhythm looks like, we can assess your cortisol through saliva testing, and out of those results, choose some herbal remedies and supplements that can help support the rise and fall of Cortisol at the desired time. Please note, Western MDs do measure Cortisol as well but with a blood test, unfortunately this does not give us enough info about the rhythm, since saliva testing is done at four intervals throughout the day, it’s the best choice. Not Too Hungry , Not Too Thirsty! We all know we shouldn’t drink too much water before bed since that only leads to getting up in the middle of the night to urinate. But we also don’t want to be too hungry or too full. If we are hungry, the brain has a hard time settling. Too full and the liver works overtime during the night, waking us up. And as for caffeine and alcohol, beware! Caffeine actually sticks around up to 10 hours after you’ve consumed it, so if you are having a 3pm pick-me-up that might be the culprit to keeping you up until 1am. (Read more about the bigger picture on caffeine Here) As for alcohol, the initial effects might make you sleepy, but afterwards many patients report waking up between 1am-3am. Makes total sense to us, that is the block of time when the liver organ is working its hardest processing toxins and the day’s stress (each organ in the body gets its own 2 hour window). In addition, women who are approaching menopause reported that alcohol always made sleep horrible and night sweats outrageous. So, beware! Tip: Eat a spoonful of a nut butter before bed, drink a glass of Natural Calm or eat a little bit of a raw potato! Yes, patients have said all these work, some better than others depending on the person. Go caffeine and alcohol free for a month and see what happens! Your Environment Matters! I think we know all the things; blackout shades, eye mask, ear plugs, a mattress that is less than 10 years old, the perfect pillows dependent on if you are a back or a side sleeper and lastly, turn off those screens! All of those are so true and we think the biggie are those screens, including TVs. Screens are noise, distraction and entertainment and it keeps the eyes full and the mind busy. But the biggest reason, blue light powerfully suppresses melatonin which is necessary for sleep. Here’s a short article from Harvard talking about the Dark Side Of Blue Light. They recommend getting off screens for 2-3 hours before bedtime, but let’s be honest, even I love to scroll through Instagram before bed, so I try to get off about an hour before. As for TV, not only does it emit blue light but if you’ve fallen asleep, chances are there is audio playing for hours and possibly all night. It’s just not conducive to sweet dreams or deep sleep. Tip: Not only turn off those screens an hour before bed, but put your phone on airplane mode as well. Most of us have our phones charging on the night table next to us or in the bed, did you know that your phone looks for a cell phone tower to connect to every 30 minutes? And if you’re on WIFI, the Electromagnetic Rays (EMR) are equivalent to standing
Unintentional Meditation: You’re Already Engaged!
Accidental Meditation: You are already doing it! Beginning a new year always brings a desire for change & creating ourselves anew. Exercising, eating well and putting down old habits usually always top the list of New Year’s Resolutions. Beginning a meditation practice is often on those long list of new habits we would love to adopt. It’s typically one of the last practices that we get to due to our busy lifestyles and a very common theme of just not having enough time. Great news! You will be pleased to know that you may already have a strong meditation practice in place. You know that feeling when you are taking a shower, and the warm water pours over your body, and you forget what you were rushing to get ready for? Time disappears for a moment, and when you step out of the shower you snap out of it. Maybe you’ve driven down a long empty road with no traffic, and suddenly you’ve hit the next town. This feeling of time lapsing and your thoughts flowing freely happens all the time: on walks or runs, in the moments before you fall asleep, when you are staring out a bus window, or daydreaming in a waiting room. When accidental meditations happen, the left brain is occupied with a repetitive task that’s familiar enough that it doesn’t require a full engagement. Showering, walking, or figuring out where to put your foot in a yoga class can give your analytical left brain something to do, which frees up the right brain to have a physical, present-moment experience. Even forms of classical meditation, like repeating a mantra over and over in your mind, are essentially techniques for occupying your left brain so that you can slip into a different state. Much love, Amanda Amanda Self wears a variety of hats at Tao To Wellness. From Social Media to Medical Billing, she brings healing energy to all that she touches. Amanda is a Reiki Master, a jeweler and is currently studying Herbalism, both in the classroom and out in the fields.
Meditation isn’t just for Monks… it’s for the LA Lakers too!
Meditation isn’t just for Monks… it’s for the LA Lakers too! Sometimes the road to success can be a mysterious one, who would think that meditation would assist you in being successful or winning the GAME, but it does. Just ask sports psychologist and meditation teacher George Mumford… Interview from Mindful magazine. But, wait a second here, many, many people have the hardest time meditating, so if meditation helps you WIN, then what helps you meditate? Ah grasshopper… Acupuncture… For five years, George Mumford worked with NBA Championship team the Chicago Bulls, during the Michael Jordan years. He’s also been involved with the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s currently a sports psychologist and meditation teacher to many athletes and sports teams. Soren Gordhamer: When you teach mindfulness to the Chicago Bulls or the Los Angeles Lakers, what do you feel that you are offering? George Mumford: The opportunity to be in the moment. In sports, what gets people’s attention is this idea of being in the zone, or playing in the zone. When they are playing their best, they can do no wrong, and no matter what happens they are always a step quicker, a step ahead. That happens when we are in the moment, when we are mindful of what is going on. There’s a lack of self-consciousness, there’s a relaxed concentration, and there’s this sense of effortlessness, of being in the flow. We have that experience in other parts of our life, but we equate it with sports because there are rules and guidelines, and it is a situation where you get immediate feedback. When we are in the moment and absorbed with the activity, we play our best. That happens once and awhile, but it happens more often if we learn how to be more mindful. By mindful, I mean being aware, being engaged with the present moment. Mindfulness is useful because it is through this that we can see what is going on. It means knowing what needs to happen and doing it. Christina “Mei Wen” Martin, L.Ac., Dipl.AC, MTOM, FABORM. christina@berkeley-acupuncture.com
Holiday de-stress meditation techniques!!
Holiday de-stress meditation techniques!! The holidays can definitely increase ones stress level and meditation is a great way to help one stay balanced. A very common statement I hear from my patients is “I can’t meditate, I’m just not good at that.” That insinuates that meditation is about doing something rather than just being. Consider that there is no end result and all that you’re trying to create is awareness of one’s self. There are many different types of meditation…and mind you, you don’t need to be Buddhist to meditate either. I frequently attend other places of worship that lean towards Western religious ideals and they too meditate. There are different ways to meditate. Vipassana meditation, Buddhist contemplation, Hindu Yogas (Hatha, Bhakti, Japa), Christian Rosary practice or Taoist (Tai Chi or Qi Gong). It truly is about whatever works for you personally, whatever will get you closer to self realization, divine guidance, unconditional love, the Universe, God or your own Buddha nature. TAT Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) is a simple and gentle technique developed by an acupuncturist, Tapas Fleming some 13 years ago. It combines the practice of Chinese Medicine and a yogic practice of contemplating the opposites. Tapas discovered this technique while trying to shorten the time necessary to eliminate allergies while using a standard allergy elimination protocol. It works by focusing on a problem, and then the opposite of problem while holding acupuncture points around the face and head. By doing this, the neural pathways damaged by trauma or stressful events are repaired, and the stress response is permanently changed. The change is often felt immediately, and detailed recall of past trauma can be difficult after using this technique. We will be doing the first two steps of a longer protocol, which is helpful in stopping stressful thoughts or emotions, feelings or body sensations on the spot. It’s so strong, that it has been known to help people come out of anaphylactic shock. If you do this technique at home, limit your time in the pose to no more than 20 minutes a day, as the points are powerful. Also, drink plenty of water before and after using TAT. Breathing technique, Vipassana Vipassana means to see things as they really are, it is one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation and in some ways a dying breed. The definition is “This non-sectarian technique aims for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation. Healing, not merely the curing of diseases, but the essential healing of human suffering, is its purpose.” The practice is simply just following your breath and noting the inhale and the exhale. Being present to the sensations and feelings of the breath in your nose, Lungs, abdomen, etc. A great meditation to do eyes open in traffic or on line at the store. Contemplation Meditation In contemplation, one takes an object or principle, and one focuses upon it. Your concentration becomes immersed in the object of contemplation, until you become one with it. Images & trains of ideas & thoughts concerning what you are contemplating, come to your mind, revealing its true nature. Contemplation is a great tool for discovering truth. For example, contemplating Equanimity, Dependant arising or the fact that we all woke up this morning, (a great one for morning meditation). Or at night, simply, what did you do well today? A great meditation in a quiet place when you have some extra time. Mantras, Japa Yoga or Christian Rosary Practice The practice of mantras is quite ancient and is widespread throughout many religions. A mantra could be anything and you don’t need a fancy rosary, mala or beads to do them. It can be a prayer like the Buddhist favorite “Om Mani Padme Hum” or something simple like ‘Love’. I told a patient this morning who was so worried about getting pregnant this month, she should repeat “Anything Can Happen”. This is especially helpful if sitting quietly and emptying your mind is difficult for you. This gives you something to focus on.
