Practical Tips to Maintain a Healthy Sleep-Wake Cycle
Today, stuck in our super-busy routines, most of us are not being able to align ourselves with nature. Sleeping early at a specific time at night and waking up early morning at a certain time daily, is one of the most effective ways to keep ourselves efficient and healthy. The age-old saying ‘Early to bed, early to rise, keeps a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ very aptly states the importance of aligning our sleep-wake cycle with nature.
Sleeping past midnight has negative effects on our heart health and immunity, as well as our mental well-being. Similarly, waking up late has a big impact on our metabolism. Sleeping late and waking up late can cause lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity, lead to hormonal imbalance and elevate our stress levels.
One of the best ways to prevent such health disorders, and lead a healthy, disease-free life, is to align our sleep-wake cycle with nature. This includes getting a sufficient amount of night’s sleep daily, and keeping a fixed time to sleep and wake up daily.
Here are some practical steps for aligning your sleep-wake cycle with nature and adopt the habits of sleeping early in the night and waking up early in the morning, so as to utilize your day in the best way!
Mystic Takeaway!
Before you go to sleep, keep aside everything that you have accumulated, including your body and mind. If you sleep with this awareness every day, one day, you may wake up enlightened.
– Sadhguru
Sadhguru very aptly says, that the cause of most health ailments is the loss of our awareness of how to be in sync with the forces of nature. Ideally, we should be so aligned with nature, that sleep should come naturally to us, and we should be able to wake up without an alarm.
Sadhguru says that eating raw fruits instead of cooked food for dinner can help you wake up early the next morning.
According to Sadhguru, it is good to wake up to a Vairagya chant that resonates with you. He further says that practicing yoga can help you sync with life. If you are conscious, a spark of aliveness will come to you and you will wake up early (hours before sunrise) even from deep sleep.
How to Fix Your Sleep-Wake Cycle?
Optimize Sleep Environment
Your sleeping space should be conducive for sound sleep and for waking up early. For this, you should allow natural light and breeze in the room where you sleep and include some indoor plants in that space.
Mindful Eating Habits
Eat the food that is right for your body, and in the adequate quantities. Let your breakfast be the most powerful meal of the day, by getting a good calorie intake then.
Your dinner should be light. Oily or fat-rich foods should be avoided at night. Have your dinner early and keep it low on calories, so as to facilitate a good and timely sleep.
Moreover, the time for dinner should ideally be before sunset. It is said that eating anything after sunset should be strictly avoided.
One more way that can help you align your biological clock with nature is to keep a gap of 2-3 hours between dinner and bedtime.
Create a Calming Sleeping Space
If you are not being able to fall asleep early, avoid using light-emitting devices like phones and computers at night. Their artificial light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone which helps you feel tired and sleepy after sunset.
Apart from avoiding light, it is equally important to cut down the noise around you while sleeping. A quiet environment helps you get good-quality sleep.
Pre-Sleep Meditation Routine
Carrying out a calming activity like deep breathing, stretching or meditation before bedtime, can help you overcome your sleeping difficulty and also help you sleep better. Here are some good resources for bedtime meditation.
Embrace Mindful Mornings
Avoid using electronic gadgets immediately after waking up. Instead, spend some time with nature, exercise, or practice yoga or meditation in the early morning hours.
You should not eat till sunrise and it is advisable to wait for 3 hours after waking up before consuming tea or coffee.
Optimizing Your Circadian Rhythm
An important practice to follow in order to align your sleep-wake cycle with nature, is to sleep and wake up at the same time daily. Reduce or avoid naps during daytime, so that you will feel sleepy early at night.
A sound and sufficient sleep lets you wake up early and feel fresh throughout the day. Remember that an early bedtime can pave the way for an early waketime.
Being in sync with nature has multiple benefits for your health and well-being. When your biological clock is in tune with nature, your hormones work well, your immunity stays high, your stress levels remain low, your heart, brain and other organs function optimally, and your metabolism is healthy. You are at your best when your lifestyle is synchronized with nature. So reset your body clock to align your sleep-wake cycle with nature and feel more alive.
If you are wondering.. “which is the best sleeping direction?”, this article – best direction to sleep has all the answers you need!