Deep Sleep

50 Natural Sleep-Inducing Techniques

Chronicle Books

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781452111421
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Sleep Medicine

Fifty drug-free ways to ease yourself into sleep. Tired of staring at the ceiling or watching late-night television while the precious hours tick by? For those who twist and turn from dusk to dawn, Deep Sleep: Reference to Go will let you save those night moves for the dance floor. Spend your nights in restful repose with these fifty easy and practical non-sheep-counting techniques and exercises—and wake up rested and refreshed.

Contents

Deep Sleep

A Soothing Nightcap

Breathe Away Stress

Blowing Hot And Cold

A Breath Of Air

The Perfect Bed

Dream Bedding

Musical Colors

Cut Out Caffeine

Early-Bird Suppers

Gift Of Touch

Tossing And Turning

Routines And Rituals

Light Defense

Chemical Alert

Essential Oils

Clear Away Clutter

Sleepy Foods

Soothing Sounds

Dressing For Comfort

Working In Shifts

Feng Shui

Keep A Sleep Journal

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Time For Bed

Fit For Sleep

Bathe Yourself To Sleep

Breathing In Calm

The Power Of Suggestion

A Sleep Mandala

Electrical Disturbances

The Drinkfree Zone

Pressure Points

Earth Energies

Coping With Jet Lag

Restless Legs

Kiss And Make Up!

Helping Children Sleep

Sleeping With A Partner

Unfinished Business

Banish Anxiety

Lower The Lights

Create A Safe Place

Self-Massage

A Peaceful Home

Pre-Sleep Stretches

Eastern Evenings

Gentle Sunrise

Combat Snoring

Mental Stillness

Bedtime Snacks

Copyright

Deep Sleep

The Modern Sleep Challenge

In this fast-paced world, we are often expected to focus our attention on many different tasks at once. Juggling the pressures of our work and home lives means that we have limited time to catch up on our rest. Furthermore, increasingly long days at work mean that we often end up out-of-synch with our natural body clock, perhaps snatching a late supper after working well into the night. Night owls may be forced to behave as larks, and larks to behave as owls. It is not surprising, given the demands placed on our time, that sleep quality suffers as a result.

Many of us experience anxiety and stress, and these too have adverse effects on our sleep. We may find it difficult to wind down after a stressful day, and consequently lie awake for an hour or more, reviewing a list of unresolved problems.

Deep Sleep provides the perfect antidote to such modern ills. It offers ways to relax before bedtime, so that sleep comes naturally. We might go through a specially prepared pre-sleep ritual whose very predictability has a calming effect, or we might prefer to play a CD of ocean sounds, make a milky bedtime drink, take a warm bath with essential oils, or take part in a relaxing mutual massage with our partner. And if we still find ourselves tossing and turning during the night, there are various rescue techniques for bringing sleep our way.

Even if you feel that your sleep quality is perfectly acceptable already, it is worth trying some of the tips suggested in these pages. You may be surprised to discover that your slumbers can become even deeper and more refreshing.

Why Is Sleep So Important?

We spend approximately one third of our lives asleep, which is more time than we spend with our friends and family, or even working. Why is this? Or, to put the question another way, what is sleep’s biological function?

Sleep is a state of suspended awareness. Special mechanisms in the brain filter out the flow of information through our senses. At the same time, brain signals immobilize many of the body’s main muscles. Perhaps surprisingly, the purpose of the shutdown is not energy conservation: the amount of energy saved during eight hours of sleep is roughly equivalent to that of a glass of low-fat milk! It is more likely (though the science of the subject is still far from certain) that sleep provides the body with an opportunity to repair wear and tear, and the brain with a quiet period for reorganizing its day’s worth of data.

What we can be sure of is that evolution would not bother to have made us sleep if it did not greatly benefit our health and wellbeing. And we all know how irritable we can feel when we’re deprived of sleep, or when the quality of our sleep is for some reason diminished. We know by experience that a good night’s sleep leaves us feeling fresher and more energetic the next morning.

A Soothing Nightcap

Milk contains the sleep-promoting chemical tryptophan, so try drinking it at be...