Are You Sleeping?

By Stephanie Wilger

It seems that getting a good night's sleep is a luxury for many adults. Retuning home after a long day, we, as diurnal (active during the day) animals, continue to animate and illuminate our world. We turn on the lights, computer, TV/DVD player. We double our diurnal doings. We are robbing the cradle of sleep due us.

There is a natural response within our bodies of growing tired as the sun sinks down from the blue sky and gives way to the night. We have blue light receptors in our gut, which stimulate our bodies to perform daily functions such as digestion, elimination and regulate bodily circadian rhythms. Eighty to ninety percent of serotonin is produced in our gastrointestinal tract. Serotonin converts to melatonin at night. In the absence of light, melatonin is produced to aid us in falling asleep.

At any age, sleep is the process that allows our endocrine system and hormones to operate properly, and perpetuates the growth and rejuvenation of our immune, nervous, muscular and skeletal systems. It is when we sleep that healing takes place, with emotions processed and digested during dreamtime.

Sunning exercise for production of serotonin/melatonin: Without wearing lens for your eyes, face the sun with eyes closed, outdoors or through an open window. Draw the warmth of the sun and its light through your eyelids to your optic nerves, to your brain, your spine, your nerves, to your internal organs. Flood them with light and warmth. Allow them to glow and shine to one another. Let the calm set in, as you breathe deeply for 3 minutes or more. When you open your eyes and it seems as if you are looking effortlessly through sunglasses, no glare, you have spent enough time doing this exercise.

Organize your daily activities so that in the dark hours you are fixing dinner, eating, then preparing to go to bed as soon after sundown as possible.

Make sure your bedroom is dark enough that you cannot see the outline of your hand one foot from your face. Use a flashlight to get to and from the toilet at night. Ambient light filtering into a room interferes with melatonin production and can cause health problems such as breast cancer (National Geographic Magazine, Wikipedia).

Be ASLEEP by 11 pm so your endocrine system and nervous system can properly operate, build and repair themselves. No reading, you are stimulating your nervous system. If you have mind chatter, thank your brain for its diligent work, and that you now need its cooperation to fall asleep. Keep training your brain that it is time to sleep. Breathe slowly and deeply, fully relaxing into your bed, into dreamtime. Use earplugs to cut down external stimuli.

Sleep more hours in winter as the nights are longer. In the book, Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival by, T.S. Wiley, 9.5 hours of sleep is recommended for optimum health and healing.

Good night and good sleep!

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